Bloomberg on Mortgage Defaults

from Bloomberg:
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosures on prime mortgages and home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration rose to three-decade highs in the third quarter, driven by the biggest job losses since the Great Depression.
One out of every six FHA mortgages was late by at least one payment and 3.32 percent were in foreclosure, the highest for both since at least 1979, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today. The delinquency rate for prime fixed-rate mortgages, considered home loans with the least risk, rose to 5.8 percent and the foreclosure inventory rose to 1.95 percent, the highest since at least 1972.
Homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages as the U.S. has lost more than 7 million jobs since December 2007, driving the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent in October, the highest since 1983. Declining home prices in most markets also are preventing many owners from selling their properties, said Jay Brinkmann, the Washington-based trade group’s chief economist.
“If you don’t have a job, you can’t pay a mortgage,” Brinkmann said in an interview. “You don’t pay a mortgage with economic output, you pay a mortgage with a paycheck.”
The share of all types of mortgages with one or more payments overdue climbed to a record seasonally adjusted 9.64 percent in the third quarter. The foreclosure inventory increased to 4.47 percent from 4.3 percent. Both were the highest in 37 years of data.