While the mortgage delinquency rate remains low compared to pre-pandemic levels, the number of delinquent loans ticked up in September, according to the ICE Mortgage Monitor report.

The national delinquency rate climbed to 3.29% in September, which is up 12 basis points from August and up 13 basis points from September 2022. This makes it the second and largest annual increase in the last 2.5 years, however, the delinquency rate remains 71 basis points below the pre-pandemic level of September 2019.

In September, serious delinquencies (90+ days past due) increased for the first time in 2023 with 7,000 additional borrowers in that category for 455,000 people in total. However, the rate of serious delinquencies remains 6.7% below September 2019 levels.

Meanwhile, early-stage delinquencies (30 and 60 days past due) continued to increase. In September, 48,800 (+5.1%) additional borrowers were 30-days late on their mortgage payments, while 8,700 (+3%) were 60-days late on their mortgage payments. These rates have been going up for the past four months and six months, respectively.

However, the number of foreclosures keeps falling. In September there were only 214,000 loans in active foreclosure, the lowest point since March 2022. In fact, both foreclosure starts and completions (sales) respectively fell 20.4% and 8%, according to the report.

The five states with the worst mortgage performance were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana and Pennsylvania. At the other end of the spectrum, California, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Colorado were the states which showed the best mortgage performance.