Mortgage Delinquency - Is the glass half empty?

Or is it half full?

Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about the direction of past due mortgage debt in the US, one thing revealed by the Mortgage Bankers Association National Delinquency Survey for the first quarter of 2012 is that there's still a lot of water in that glass.

On the good news side, there were small decreases in the number of loans 30, 60 and even 90 days past due. But the accounts in the foreclosure process went up slightly.

Overall, delinquency remains more than double historical norms with the MBA estimating there were 5.7 million loans 30 days or more past due.

Eventually the industry will work through the backlog of non-performing accounts, while the tighter lending standards that have been the norm since the start of the crisis will help keep the pace of newly delinquent accounts from filling the resulting gap.

In the meantime, servicers will be very busy collecting or modifying the accounts in the middle.

Everybody grab a straw.

Related posts:

1. Mortgage delinquency down slightly, but there is still a lot of work to do
2. Mortgage Collections Stuck in Neutral
3. Mortgage Delinquencies Down Slightly, But Remain Near Historic Highs
4. Mortgage servicers get help with SPOC implementation
5. Banks Report Fewer Accounts Past Due - Why This Is Not Necessarily Good News