Mortgage delinquencies fall as job market improves

The share of U.S. mortgages that are seriously delinquent fell to the lowest in six years as the job market improved, allowing borrowers to stay current on payments while higher home prices made it easier for others to sell.

Mortgages that were more than 90 days behind or in the foreclosure process dropped to 4.8 percent of loans in the second quarter from 5.9 percent a year earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a recent report. That was the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2008, when it was 4.5 percent.

The foreclosure crisis is fading in much of the country as the economy rebounds. Employers in the U.S. added more than 200,000 workers for the sixth straight month in July, but the jobless rate rose to 6.2 percent as growing confidence prompted more Americans to look for work, Labor Department figures show. About 75 percent of seriously delinquent loans were originated in 2007 and earlier, while mortgages from 2011 and later made up only about 6 percent.

Bloomberg News