As unemployment skyrockets, so do mortgage loan delinquencies
As unemployment skyrockets, so do mortgage loan delinquencies
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to record unemployment, and Americans are struggling to pay their bills. Delinquencies on U.S. home loans surged by 1.6 million last month. That’s the biggest one-month jump in history, according to a report by Black Knight, a mortgage data provider.
About 3.5 million homeowners were past due on their mortgages, and over 200,000 properties were in foreclosure or on track to be repossessed. As of April 30, close to 4 million homeowners were in forbearance plans.
Black Knight’s report says, in an optimistic scenario, the number of forbearances could peak at around 4.5 million in the coming months.
Congress’ CARES Act, passed in March, allows homeowners to suspend their mortgage payments for up to a year. But it doesn’t protect mortgages that aren’t backed by the government, and that’s about half of all home loans in the U.S.
Nevada was one of the states with the biggest delinquency rates. Cities with the largest delinquency increases were Miami, Las Vegas and New York.
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