Pound Ridge Homes | Fannie and Freddie have a Florida Problem

Despite falling delinquency rates among lenders as a whole, delinquencies increased for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers, especially in Florida. Coincidentally, CoreLogic announced today Florida leads the nation in the size of its foreclosure inventory.

The Federal Housing Finance Administration reported today that the percentage of loans held by Fannie and Freddie missing one or two monthly payments increased in the third quarter and a substantial number of the GSEs’ delinquent borrowers have missed more than one year of mortgage payments. Some 2.08 percent of Fannie and Freddie’s total borrowers were 30-59 days delinquent at the end of the third quarter, compared to 1.99 percent at the end of the second quarter.

Some 3.39 percent of Fannie and Freddie borrowers are seriously delinquent. Approximately 29 percent of borrowers delinquent a year or more are located in Florida.

In fairness, the GSEs are not only lenders to have problems with Florida, which is leading every list for delinquencies and foreclosures. CoreLogic announced today that at the end of November Florida leads the nation among states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes: Florida (10.4 percent), New Jersey (7.3 percent), New York (5.1 percent), Nevada (4.7 percent) and Illinois (4.7 percent).

At the end of the third quarter, the same time period reported by FHFA, all lenders reported a sudden and surprising upswing in delinquencies. :Lender Processing Services’ September Mortgage Monitor reported delinquencies were up 7.7 percent from August, representing the largest monthly increase since 2008.

“September’s increase in the delinquency rate was indeed significant, but the overall trend is still one of improvement,” Blecher said. “Despite the monthly jump, delinquencies are down 30 percent from their January 2010 peak, and our analysis revealed some interesting factors related to the spike. Of course, one month’s data does not indicate a trend. We will be monitoring these factors over the coming months to see how the situation develops.”

Guess where delinquencies were highest? Florida led the nation with 12.7 percent of its mortgages in foreclosure and 20.8 percent-one in five-of its mortgages is delinquent.