These are mortgage loans that are “three monthly payments or more past due or in foreclosure”.
The Fannie Mae serious delinquency rate peaked in February 2010 at 5.59% following the housing bubble and peaked at 3.32% in August 2020 during the pandemic.
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By vintage, for loans made in 2004 or earlier (1% of portfolio), 3.30% are seriously delinquent (down from 3.39% in January).
Mortgages in forbearance are counted as delinquent in this monthly report, but they will not be reported to the credit bureaus.
The pandemic related increase in delinquencies was very different from the increase in delinquencies following the housing bubble. Lending standards had been fairly solid over the previous decade, and most of these homeowners had equity in their homes – and the vast majority of these homeowners have been able to restructure their loans once they were employed.
Freddie Mac reported earlier.