"The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) painted a gloomy picture for the housing markets with its release of the OCC Mortgage Metrics Report for the third quarter of 2011. Mortgage delinquencies remain at high levels and foreclosures increased by double digits.
The OCC report covers mortgages serviced by federal savings associations and large national banks which include approximately 62% of all first mortgages with an outstanding principal balance of $5.6 trillion.
Key findings of the report included the following:
1. One out of every eight mortgages (12%) are currently delinquent. Prior to the relaxation of credit standards that occurred during the housing bubble years, the norm for delinquencies on conforming mortgages was only a fraction of 1%.
2. Foreclosures increased by over 21% during the third quarter as various well intentioned but futile mortgage moratoriums came to an end. At the end of the third quarter, 1.3 million mortgage loans were in the foreclosure process. According to Lender Processing Services, the average time for a foreclosure to work its way through the system set a new record of 631 days or almost 2 years. Keep in mind that this is only the time spent in foreclosure. Many lenders do not begin the foreclosure process until the loan has been delinquent for 6 to 12 months or longer."
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