The recently released survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that Alaska continues to have some of the lowest levels of foreclosures and delinquencies on residential mortgage loans in the United States. Through the third quarter of 2012, Alaska ranked 3rd best in the nation out of 50 states in both foreclosures and delinquencies of all loan types.
The total inventory of foreclosures in process is 1.2% in Alaska, while the country has a much larger lingering foreclosure inventory at 4.1% due to higher rates during the recession and longer resolution times. These rates are nearly the same as the second quarter of 2011, but a small improvement from two years ago when Alaska’s rate was 1.4% and the U.S. foreclosure rate was 4.6%.
Delinquent loans are more than 30 days past due, but not yet in foreclosure. Alaska is third best behind North Dakota and South Dakota in the overall level of delinquent loans. Alaska’s delinquency rate is 4.1%, while the U.S. average is 7.6% for all loan types. This is an improvement for Alaska from 4.8% two years ago. The U.S. delinquency rate has also come down from 9.4% at this time two years ago, to 8.4% last year.
Subprime lending to traditionally non-qualified borrowers was a large contributing factor to the national mortgage problems. The survey covers 94,339 mortgages in Alaska. 6,781 or 7% were considered subprime, compared to 9% nationally. The rate of delinquencies and foreclosures on subprime loans is significantly higher. However, Alaska is in a far better position and again leads the nation as having the lowest level of foreclosures and delinquencies in this important category. Subprime foreclosures in Alaska are at 3.2% while the national average is 12.4%. Alaska’s subprime delinquency rate is 10.4% compared to the national average of 21.1%.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.