Mortgage delinquencies down across U.S., up in Bradenton-Sarasota. Here’s why.

It’s now a little more than four months since Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm and left a path of destruction up and down the state.

We continue to get a better feel for the storms long-term effects.

According to real estate researcher CoreLogic’s latest monthly loan performance insights report, 6.3 percent of mortgages in the Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port region were at least 30 days delinquent in October 2017, up from 4.9 percent in September and 4.2 percent a year earlier.

In August, before Irma made landfall in the Keys, 3.4 percent of homeowners in the Manatee-Sarasota region were 30 or more days late with their payments.

Significant increases also were seen across the state, where 9.7 percent of mortgages were delinquent in October, up from 7.5 percent in September and 6.4 percent year-over-year.

“Some Florida markets continue to see increases in early-stage delinquency transition rates in October, reaching 5 percent, on average, in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Naples and Cape Coral,” Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic, said in the report. “While the national impact is waning, the local impact remains.”

Across the country, 5.1 percent of homeowners were at least 30 days delinquent, down from 5.2 percent a year earlier.

“The U.S. rate as a whole continues a downward trend,” Nothaft said. “But there are a couple of places that buck that trend. One is Texas and another one is Florida — both states that were hit by hurricanes last year.”

Despite Irma’s impact locally and across the state in September, the number of homes in foreclosure in the Bradenton-Sarasota area came in at less than 1 percent for the eighth consecutive month, thanks to housing prices that continue to climb and historically low unemployment rates. Only 0.5 percent of area homeowners went into foreclosure in October, down from 1.1 percent a year ago and 0.6 percent a month earlier.

Across Florida it was 0.8 percent for the second consecutive month, down from 1.3 percent in October 2016.

“While the national impact of the recent hurricanes will soon fade, the human impact will remain for years,” said Frank Martell, the president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The reconstruction of the housing stock and infrastructure impacted by the storms should provide a small stimulus to local economies.

“This rebuilding will occur against a backdrop of wage growth, consumer confidence and spending in the national economy which should continue to provide a solid foundation for real estate demand in the storm-impacted areas and beyond.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2018 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Mortgage delinquencies down across U.S., up in Bradenton-Sarasota. Here’s why.."