Mortgage Delinquencies Stabilize

The share of households delinquent on their mortgage payments has declined to 7.99% in Q3 from 8.44% in Q2, the lowest level since the end of 2008. However, another 4.4% of borrowers were in some stage of foreclosure, representing more than two million loans, unchanged from the second quarter and the year-earlier period. The figures remain near their highest levels of the crisis. The drop in delinquencies implies that the housing market is not getting any worse, but it does mean that the markets still have an enormous backlog of bank-owned foreclosures to absorb in coming years which is likely to keep pressure on prices for at least another year.
Wall Street Journal    November 18, 2011