Real Estate: Some New Numbers

The U.S. housing market peaked during the fourth quarter of 2005. Eighteen months later, in the second quarter of 2007, metro Albuquerque mortgage delinquencies of 30 days or more were 2.64%, a drop of 0.09 percentage points. Just 14 markets around the country showed a greater improvement. Nationally, as of the second quarter of 2007, an average of 3.15% of mortgages were delinquent, an increase of 1.12 percentage points.

Overall, 2.7% of New Mexicans' mortgages were delinquent during the third quarter of 2007. For first mortgages, the delinquency rate was 2.75%; for home equity loans, 1.07%; and, for closed end second mortgages, 2.71%.

There were 22,782 high rate mortgage loans made in New Mexico during 2006. The value of the loans was $2,702 million. The high rate loans were 26.2% of mortgage loans during 2006 and 21.6% of the loan total. New Mexico's percentage of high rate loans ranked 25th nationally. The loan total was 27th. 

Equifax and Moody's Economy.com produced the report with help from realtors. The report appeared yesterday on wsj.com.