BEND — A report released on Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Washington D.C.-based organization representing the real estate finance industry by promoting fair and ethical lending practices through educational programs and a variety of publications, finds that Oregon had the sixth lowest rate of delinquent loans and the sixth lowest foreclosure rate in the nation during first quarter 2008.
Oregonians have about 635,000 outstanding mortgages, according to the report, and about 3 percent of those loans (19,000) are 30 days or more past due. About 6,000 Oregon loans, just less than 1 percent of all advances, are in some state of foreclosure.
The rate of delinquent mortgages in Oregon reached it lowest point in 1982 at 6.2 percent, which remains the highest recorded rate in 29 years. During the dot-com and telecom implosion of the early 2000s, the delinquency rate reached 3.7 percent.
State foreclosures were 2.2 percent in 1985, the highest on record, compared to 1.3 percent in 2002 just after the technology sector bust.
People holding adjustable rate, subprime mortgages, which are typically awarded to people with low credit scores or negative credit histories, remain worse off today than other borrowers. The MBA report finds that of the 32,000 subprime adjustable rate mortgages outstanding in Oregon, about 14.5 percent of them are delinquent.
A summary of the report is available online at: http://www.mortgagebankers.org/NewsandMedia/PressCenter/62936.htm
