The Federal Housing Administration on Monday revised the November seriously delinquent rate for FHA-insured single family loans down to 8.34%.
The agency originally had reported that 8.7% of its loans were 90-days or more past due. (The information appears in its "FHA Single-Family Outlook" report.) Originally, it had appeared that the seriously delinquent ratio had jumped significantly from 8% in October.
When queried about the hike, FHA officials said the October rate is "artificially low" because two lenders that service 3% of FHA loans did not report on time.
Not counting those lenders, the adjusted rate would be 8.21%.
The FHA officials also pointed out that FHA's serious delinquency rate is usually elevated during the November-January period.
"On a seasonally adjusted basis, the October SD rate is 8.18% and November is 8.34%," FHA said.