Why Hawaii and Nevada had the largest delinquency spike in December

Hawaii and Nevada experienced the largest annual increase in overall delinquency rates in 2020, exacerbated by millions of Americans losing their jobs during the pandemic.

Black Knight’s December Loan Performance Insights Report revealed that overall delinquency rates rose 2.1% year over year, with 5.8% of mortgages in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure). Hawaii and Nevada posted the biggest gains (both up 4.1%), followed by New York (up 3%), Louisiana and New Jersey (both up 2.8%), Maryland (2.6%), and Mississippi (1.5%).

“Places with large job losses during the last year also experienced big jumps in mortgage delinquencies,” said CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. “By state, Hawaii and Nevada had the largest 12-month spike in delinquency rates, both up 4.1 percentage points. They also had large increases in unemployment rates, up 6.6 percentage points in Hawaii and 5.5 percentage points in Nevada compared with 3.1 percentage points for the US. In Odessa, Texas, unemployment rose by 8.6 percentage points, and delinquencies posted a 9.8 percentage-point jump.”

The number of seriously delinquent mortgages (90 or more days past due) climbed to 3.9% in December, up from 1.2% a year ago. Meanwhile, early-stage delinquencies (30 to 59 days past due) dropped four basis points to 1.4%, and adverse delinquencies (60 to 89 days past due) inched down one basis point to 0.5% year over year. Foreclosure inventory rate or the share of mortgages in some stage of foreclosure also fell from 0.4% in December 2019 to 0.3% in December 2020.