Weekly Real Estate News
Serious mortgage delinquencies increased in August for the first time after five consecutive monthly declines, but the broader performance picture remains considerably more stable than the headline increase suggests.
Loans at least 90 days past due but not in foreclosure rose by 11,000 to 574,000, according to Intercontinental Exchange’s August 2026 First Look. That inventory is 19% higher than a year earlier.
Yet serious delinquencies represented 1.04% of active mortgages, almost exactly matching the 1.03% average for August during 2017 through 2019. The result is a housing-credit picture with pockets of deterioration but little evidence, at least in the August data, of a broad mortgage-performance break.
Calendar effects pushed the headline delinquency rate higher
The national delinquency rate rose 14 basis points in August to 3.53%. ICE said the increase largely reflected calendar effects following the prior month’s calendar-driven decline. On a year-over-year basis, the delinquency rate is up 10 basis points, but it remains 35 basis points below August 2019 and below every pre-pandemic August in ICE’s historical series.
Early-stage performance also offers an important counterweight to the rise in serious delinquencies. The number of loans 30 or 60 days past due increased during August but remained 21,000 below the year-earlier level.
The change follows a stronger July. ICE reported last month that serious delinquencies had declined for a fifth consecutive month and that 102,000 borrowers became at least 90 days delinquent in July, down 4% from a year earlier. July cures from serious delinquency reached 64,100, the strongest level since October 2025.
Foreclosure inventory remains elevated from a year ago
Foreclosure activity presents a similarly mixed picture. Starts declined 6% from July but were still 29% higher than a year earlier. Completed foreclosure sales fell 2% for the month and were running at just 57% of the August 2019 pace, despite being 12% higher year over year.
The pre-sale foreclosure inventory rate held at 0.54%, matching its highest level since February 2020. The number of loans in active foreclosure increased by only 2,000 during August — the smallest monthly increase since November 2025 — but the inventory is up 89,000, or 41%, from a year ago.
Those figures matter because they show two trends occurring at once: foreclosure inventories have rebuilt substantially from unusually low levels, while completed foreclosures remain well below the pace recorded before the pandemic.
Higher rates continue to suppress prepayments
Borrower prepayment activity also slowed. ICE’s single-month mortality measure fell 11 basis points to 0.64%, its lowest level in 17 months and its fifth consecutive monthly decline. Loans originated from 2023 through 2025 led the slowdown, with prepayment speeds for those vintages falling to 0.91% from a March peak of 2.32%.
“While overall performance remains sound, the market isn’t moving uniformly,” Bob Hart, president of Mortgage Technology at ICE, said in the release.
For servicers and lenders, that distinction is increasingly important. August did not produce a broad deterioration in mortgage performance, but the renewed increase in serious delinquencies and the year-over-year growth in foreclosure inventory remain areas to watch. ICE said a more detailed review will follow in its monthly Mortgage Monitor.
