Foreclosures and delinquencies rise in Q4

Reuters filed this report about the latest mortgage delinquency and foreclosure data from the fourth quarter, a time when things clearly didn't improve for homeowners with mortgages.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said on Friday the combination of loans in foreclosure and one payment in arrears was 15.02 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the highest ever in the survey.
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A sizable number of the loans in the 90-plus day delinquent bucket are in loan modification programs. They are carried as delinquent until borrowers demonstrate they will make the payments agreed to in the plans.

The pattern of mortgage delinquencies now very much follows the pattern of unemployment, which was at 9.7 percent in January, according to the Labor Department.

"Therefore, until the issue of this large segment of long-term unemployed is resolved, many of the longer-term mortgage delinquencies will remain a problem with a strong likelihood of turning into foreclosures down the road," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA chief economist.

Do you think we'll still be talking about this in 2011, 2012, and 2013?

It seems as though we've been talking about the foreclosure crisis for years now. But, then again, maybe that's because we have been talking about it for that long.