• National real estate market evolves with prevailing economic conditions and shows resilience despite pandemic-related issues, per Black Knight, Inc. report.
• Serious mortgage delinquencies decline to lowest since August 2006, indicating recovery from pandemic uncertainties.
• Florida’s real estate market experiences increased home values, but some metro areas show declining mortgage origination ranking due to housing inventory shortage.

The national real estate market continues to evolve with prevailing economic conditions, showing signs of resilience and change despite ongoing hurdles and lingering pandemic-related issues, according to the latest report from Jacksonville-based analytics firm Black Knight, Inc.

The new report reveals a decline in serious mortgage delinquencies, which refers to borrowers who are 90 or more days past due on their mortgage payments but not yet in active foreclosure. This figure fell to its lowest since August 2006, with 477,000 instances as of June end, a 177,000 reduction from the same period last year. The report marks a significant turnaround from the height of the pandemic, when many homeowners were grappling with financial uncertainty and potentially facing foreclosure.

Early-stage delinquencies, those that are 30 days late, increased slightly by 19,000 or 2.2%, while 60-days late delinquencies ticked up by 5,000 or 1.7%.

Foreclosure starts, which refer to the initiation of the foreclosure process, also saw a slight increase to 28,000 for the month of June. However, this is just 1% above the preceding 12-month average and 38% below the last pre-pandemic June (2019).

Tthe overall number of loans in active foreclosure, or those that have reached the point where the lender is attempting to recover the money through selling the property, shrunk another 5,000 in June and is still down 47,000 or 17% from March 2020.

Florida fell solidly into the middle of the pack nationally for all of those metrics, even as home prices continued to skyrocket, with Miami Dade leading the nation in home value increases.

According to a Black Knight report from April, mortgage rate locks, which are agreements guaranteeing a specific interest rate on a home loan, saw a 43% surge in March compared to February across the nation. This uptick hinted at a strong residential real estate rebound nationwide, suggesting more people were locking in mortgage interest rates and preparing to close on residential real estate.

However, the same report noted mixed news for Florida. While the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro market ranked 9th in the nation for total mortgage origination volume, Tampa-St. Pete-Sarasota and Orlando-Sanford metro areas showed a decline in ranking.

A July 13 report highlighted the unusual phenomenon of home values appreciating in Florida despite higher interest rates and tightening credit availability. One of the primary reasons behind this was a severe shortage in housing inventory, leading to a 51% drop compared to the same months in 2019, fueling a seller’s market and triggering inflation in home prices.