WASHINGTON, DC — Rising mortgage delinquencies can be an early warning sign for a housing market, but they do not automatically tell homeowners what their property is worth. New county-level data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau show several places where serious mortgage delinquency climbed sharply over the past year, with some counties more than doubling from their earlier levels.
Serious delinquency means a mortgage is at least 90 days past due, generally after three missed payments. The latest figures also come with an important caution: the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has found that falling home prices and rising delinquencies often move together, while unemployment has an even stronger link to repayment trouble.
Newton and Kanawha post the largest one-year jumps
Newton County, Georgia, and Kanawha County, West Virginia, each saw serious mortgage delinquency rise by 1.4 percentage points. Newton moved from 1.5% to 2.9%, while Kanawha climbed from 0.6% to 2.0%. In both counties, the increase is large enough to stand out in the CFPB’s National Mortgage Database.
Even so, the numbers do not mean every neighborhood will see falling prices. The more immediate risk is that prolonged financial stress can lead to distressed sales or foreclosures, which can add lower-priced comparable properties to the market. That can matter for sellers and appraisers, but actual home values still depend on nearby sales, inventory, and demand.
Florida counties show how price weakness and delinquency can move together
Citrus County, Florida, posted one of the sharpest proportional moves, rising from 0.2% to 1.4%. Hernando County also increased, from 0.9% to 1.9%. The Florida examples are notable because the New York Fed has identified weak home-price conditions in parts of the state, especially along sections of the Gulf Coast…