Some encouraging news was released earlier this week. We get this from the Washington Post story on the subject:
Borrowers fell behind on mortgages at a slightly slower rate late last year, but the overall number of homeowners in financial distress remained at record levels, according to industry data released Friday.
A survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association found a surprising decline in the number of borrowers who had missed just one mortgage payment, the initial stage of delinquency. Mortgage holders who were 30 days delinquent fell to 3.6 percent of all borrowers in the fourth quarter, down from 3.8 percent in the third quarter and 3.85 percent in the corresponding period in 2008. This was the first quarter-over-quarter decline in that category since 2004.
The improvement was remarkable because delinquencies usually rise during the last three months of the year as homeowners divert cash to cover higher heating bills and holiday expenses, said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the industry group. If seasonal patterns hold, the rate at which loans go bad will decline again during the first quarter, he said.
The data are a sign that the end of the foreclosure crisis may be in sight, Brinkmann said. “It also gives us growing confidence the size of the problem now is about as bad as it will get,” he said.