10 Counties Where Mortgage Delinquencies Jumped Most—And What It Does to Home Values There

Serious mortgage delinquency rates have risen sharply in several U.S. counties, but that doesn’t automatically mean neighboring home values are headed lower. Homeowners should treat rising delinquency as one housing-market warning sign and watch it alongside local inventory, recent comparable sales, employment conditions, price reductions, and foreclosure activity before drawing conclusions about their property’s value. ZikG/Shutterstock

A few missed mortgage payments on one street don’t determine what every house in the neighborhood is worth, but a rising concentration of financially stressed homeowners can become an important warning sign for a local housing market. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines serious mortgage delinquency as mortgages at least 90 days past due, generally meaning borrowers have missed three or more payments. County-level data reveal some striking increases, including communities where the serious delinquency rate more than doubled within a year.

At the same time, Federal Reserve Bank of New York researchers have found that areas experiencing falling home prices tend to experience rising mortgage delinquencies, although unemployment has an even stronger relationship with repayment problems. Here are 10 counties where the year-over-year jump stood out and what homeowners should understand before assuming delinquency automatically means their home’s value is about to collapse.