WASHINGTON—Performance of first-lien mortgages improved during the first quarter of 2017 compared with a year earlier, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) quarterly report on mortgages.
The OCC Mortgage Metrics Report, First Quarter 2017, showed 95.6 percent of mortgages included in the report were current and performing at the end of the quarter, compared with 94.9 percent a year earlier.
The report also showed that foreclosure activity has increased from the previous quarter. This is the first quarter-over-quarter increase in two years. Reporting servicers initiated 47,546 new foreclosures during the first quarter of 2017, a 4.5 percent increase from the previous quarter but a decrease of 19.3 percent from a year earlier. Servicers implemented 35,137 mortgage modifications in the first quarter of 2017. Eighty-eight percent of the modifications reduced borrowers’ monthly payments.
The first-lien mortgages included in the OCC’s quarterly report comprise 35 percent of all residential mortgages outstanding in the United States or approximately 19.5 million loans totaling $3.42 trillion in principal balances. This report provides information on mortgage performance through March 31, 2017, and it can be downloaded from the OCC’s website, www.occ.gov.