Mortgage delinquencies not slowing

Filed in archive mortgage news on June 3, 2009

I'm waiting for some good news out of the housing-finance industry. Really. I'd like to wake up one morning, open the paper and read this headline: "Foreclosures fall to record lows!"

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be reading that particular headline any time soon, and not just because legitimate newspapers don't use exclamation points in their headlines.

Yesterday, in fact, brought me more bad news. I cover residential real estate and mortgage financing for a living. I'll be honest: It's been a pretty glum beat the last year-and-a-half or so.

Take yesterday: The Associated Press ran with the news that the number of mortgage delinquencies is expected to rise throughout 2009.

This is bad news. It's certainly not unfathomable, though. Just look at how many people are losing their jobs. How many of these newly unemployed can make their mortgage payments when their monthly income is so severely slashed?

And that's the saddest part about covering the mortgage industry these days. I know that until the nation's unemployment rate finally begins to fall again, we'll continue to see the number of housing foreclosures rise. This is depressing, considering that foreclosures are already at record levels.

There is always some hope, though, for homeowners staring at a foreclosure. Call your mortgage lender if you're missing payments or struggling to make them. Your lender is much more likely to want to restructure your loan terms than watch you slowly lose your grip on your home. Remember, losing your home doesn't help your mortgage lender at all. Actually, it doesn't do anything good for anybody.

There's hope for the housing market, too, I suppose. Housing sales are rising. Housing prices seem to be stabilizing instead of plummeting.

But there are still all those foreclosures out there, and all that unemployment. They're combining to hold up a real, strong housing recovery.

I'll still open my paper tomorrow morning. Maybe, just maybe, there'll be a bit of good mortgage-lending news inside it. You never know, right?