The latest monthly mortgage monitor report from Black Knight Financial Services, an analytics firm, found that approximately 6.5 million borrowers could qualify and utilize refinancing.
"By looking at current interest rates on existing 30-year mortgages and applying broad-based underwriting criteria, we found that approximately 6.1 million borrowers make good candidates for traditional refinancing," said Black Knight senior vice president Ben Graboske in a release. "An additional 450,000 meet HARP-eligibility guidelines. For both groups, the potential monthly savings could be substantial."
Black Knight used its own home price index, home affordability data and Census Bureau information to come to this conclusion.
The survey found that 4.96% of U.S. loans were delinquent, a month-over-month change of 3.95%. Mississippi, New Jersey, Louisiana, New York and Maine led the way as states with the highest percentage of noncurrent loans, while Montana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Colorado and North Dakota had the lowest percentage of noncurrent loans.
Black Knight also found that Mississippi, Rhode Island, Louisiana, Alaska and Arkansas had the highest percentage of seriously delinquent loans, meaning that home loan payments had been neglected or disrupted for over 90 days.
