Prime Mortgage Delinquencies Double

This may be starting to sound a bit like a broken record, but please, don’t shoot the messenger. I don’t make the news. I just report it.

And while I’d much rather write something positive for a change I also know that  recognizing the negative is just as vital. It is what is—even if I come off as something of a Debbie Downer.

But denial is tens times as dangerous as the truth.

In that regard, Case-Shiller released their monthly look at exisiting home prices today and they were awful yet again. The closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices, continued to post declines in April.

In all, real-estate values in 20 major cities decreased by 18.1 percent for the month from a year earlier. The only good news is that it was the smallest decline in six months.

However, that wasn’t the only bad new on the day because by comparison the Case-Shiller news was kind of tame.

Instead, the worst news of the day came in a Bloomberg story on skyrocketing delinquencies in prime mortgages.

It was written by Margaret Chadbourn entitled: Delinquencies Double on Least-Risky Loans, U.S. Says

“Delinquency rates on the least-risky mortgages more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier as U.S. efforts to help homeowners failed to keep pace with job losses that pushed more borrowers toward foreclosure.

Prime mortgages 60 days or more past due climbed to 2.9 percent of such loans through March 31 from 1.1 percent at the same point in 2008, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said today in a report. First-time foreclosure filings on the loans rose 22 percent from the fourth quarter, the report said.

“I’m very concerned about the rise in delinquent mortgages and foreclosure actions,” Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said in a statement with the report. President Barack Obama’s plan to create “sustainable, payment-reducing modifications is a positive step that should show significant benefits in the coming months,” Dugan said.

Obama’s program, unveiled Feb. 18, aims to help as many as 4 million homeowners by modifying loans and calls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance mortgages for as many as 5 million borrowers who owe more than their houses are worth. Foreclosure filings surpassed 300,000 for a third straight month in May, according to RealtyTrac Inc., and the U.S. economy has shed about 6 million jobs since the recession began in 2007.

“Job losses have mounted and even those with good credit that were able to get a prime mortgage are having a harder time making monthly payments with a loss of income,” said Celia Chen, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Serious delinquencies on prime loans, which account for two-thirds of all U.S. mortgages, rose to 661,914 in the first quarter from 250,986 a year earlier, according to the report. Overall, mortgages 60 days or more past due rose 88 percent from last year, the report said.

Mortgages modified to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes fail within nine months more than half the time, the report said. About 53 percent of mortgages modified in the first quarter of 2008 were 30 or more days delinquent after six months; 63 percent were in default after a year. “

The good news is this is the last of the dominos. After prime mortages there nothing left to fail. Unfortunately, this is the biggest domino of them all.

Someday, this war has got to end.

The downward spiral continues….

Until then, here’s a chart listing the individual declines in the 20-city index. Phoenix takes top honors with a 35% decline. Ouch.

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