Register Real Estate Advisors

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Texas’ mortgage delinquency rate in fourth quarter 2011 was about a third of a percentage point higher than in the previous quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported yesterday. During the last three months of 2011, more than 276,000 Texas homeowners (9.07 percent) had missed a mortgage payment. Nationally, the rate was 7.58 percent. According to the mortgage bankers, Texas now has the 14th-worst mortgage delinquency rate among the states. One bright side: Texas’ fourth quarter delinquency rate was less than it was at the end of 2010.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Mortgage Bankers Association, Real Estate Center) – The Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest mortgage delinquency survey indicate Texas is faring better than the nation in actual foreclosures.

“Texas’ seriously delinquent loans stood at 5.2 percent versus 8.7 percent of loans nationally,” said Real Estate Center Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines.

 Loans considered “seriously delinquent” are 90 or more days past due or in the process of foreclosure.

 Foreclosure was started on 0.85 percent of all loans in Texas during third quarter 2010, Gaines said. Nationally, that number was 1.34 percent.

 The percentage of loans in foreclosure in Texas at the end of the quarter was 1.8 percent, compared with 4.4 percent nationally.

“Texas delinquent loans have picked up, but third quarter 2010 total delinquencies were down nearly 2 percent from the previous year,” Gaines said. “Both the United States and Texas are running at around 9.5 percent delinquency on all loans.”

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – A little over a week after JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced plans to help keep at-risk borrowers in their homes, another major bank is stepping up its efforts to help struggling homeowners.

Citigroup Inc. announced yesterday that it will not initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower if it is the borrower’s principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citigroup, and the homeowner has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.

Over the next six months, Citigroup will reach out to 500,000 homeowners deemed as potentially needing assistance to keep up with their payments. This represents about one-third of all the mortgages that Citigroup owns.

Citigroup plans to devote a team of 600 salespeople to assist the targeted borrowers by adjusting their rates, reducing principal, or increasing the term of the loan.

More than four million American homeowners with a mortgage were at least one payment behind on their loans at the end of June, and 500,000 had started the foreclosure process, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.