Fitch Ratings study finds California has best, worst areas for mortgage performance
By APWednesday, May 12, 2010
Fitch finds Calif. at both extremes in mortgages
NEW YORK — California has the best-performing U.S. region in mortgage performance as well as some of the worst, according to a study by Fitch Ratings.
Results of the ratings agency’s study of all securitized non-agency California mortgage loans were released Wednesday.
Among the findings, it said the Bay Area region of San Francisco, San Mateo and Redwood City has a 60-day mortgage delinquency rate of just 4 percent. That was No. 1 among the 382 metropolitan statistical areas tracked by Fitch.
Recent price trends have helped. While California home prices are under stress and further declines are likely, San Francisco home prices have increased by 12 percent over the past year.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (Riverside) region, at 367th among all U.S. metro areas with a 60-day delinquency rate of 23 percent. Ninety percent of Riverside mortgages are now “underwater,” Fitch said, and nearly 60 percent of borrowers owe more than 150 percent of the value of their homes.
Fitch said California mortgage trends are important for both new and existing securities in the rest of the nation, since the state has about 40 percent of overall mortgage origination volume.
