Mortgage bankers report 14 percent delinquency rate

Nearly one in seven U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgages or were in foreclosure from January through March, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

That 14 percent delinquency rate was lower than the preceding quarter's 15 percent - the highest since the group began electronic records in 1979.

Still, roughly one in 10 borrowers nationwide, a record high, missed at least one payment in the first quarter of 2010.

Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, said, "If mortgage delinquencies are not yet clearly improving, it also appears they are not getting worse. However, a bad situation that is not getting worse is still bad."

The survey covers 44 million mortgages on residential buildings with one to four units.

In New York State, which has not been hit as hard as states such as Florida and Nevada, the rate of loans with at least one payment overdue was 8.9 percent.

The total percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the first quarter reached a record 4.63 percent, up from 4.58 percent in the preceding quarter. For New York the percentage was 4.29.

Nationwide, 3.5 percent of borrowers were currently one month late. That's up from 3.3 percent in the preceding quarter but down from 3.8 percent a year ago. In New York, 2.9 percent of borrowers were one month late.