ICE says U.S. mortgage delinquencies hold steady in April as cure activity rebounds

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US mortgage delinquencies April

Highlights

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate remains flat at 3.35% in April, 45 basis points below January 2020 but 13 basis points higher than a year ago.
Serious delinquencies fall seasonally for a second month yet remain 21% higher year over year, while cure activity rebounds to over 62,000 cures monthly in March and April.
Foreclosure starts reach 37,000 in April, the highest since the pre-pandemic era, with active foreclosure inventory rising to 276,000, up 32% year over year.

April mortgage trends and credit performance

As reported by Intercontinental Exchange, the national mortgage delinquency rate is unchanged in April at 3.35%, a level that remains 45 basis points below the January 2020 pre-pandemic benchmark but 13 basis points higher than a year earlier. ICE says the annual increase in past-due loans continues to be concentrated in seriously delinquent mortgages, while early-stage delinquencies remain below last year's levels.

Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at ICE, says mortgage performance remains broadly stable from March to April. He says cure activity rebounds over the past two months, but remains below year-ago levels, making it an area to watch in the months ahead.

Serious delinquencies, defined as loans 90 or more days past due but not in foreclosure, decline seasonally in April for the second consecutive month. Even so, they are still 21% higher than a year ago, or by about 101,000 loans, while early-stage delinquencies for loans 30 or 60 days past due are down by 5,000 from last year.

Foreclosure pipeline and housing finance impact

ICE says cure activity strengthens in March and April after sharp declines from November through February, with more than 62,000 borrowers curing seriously delinquent loans in each month. That compares with an average of 42,000 cures during the preceding four months, pointing to some improvement in distressed loan resolution.

Foreclosure activity also continues to normalize. April records 37,000 foreclosure starts, the highest April count since the pre-pandemic era, and 7,900 foreclosure sales, up 22% from a year earlier, though both measures remain below pre-pandemic norms.

The number of loans in active foreclosure rises by 3,000 in April to 276,000, up 32% from a year ago, while the foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate stands at 0.50%. Prepayment activity slows by 13% as rates increase, but ICE says it remains stronger than at the same time last year, with the monthly prepayment rate at 0.92% and 1.848 million properties at least 30 days past due as of April 30, 2026.

U.S. bank supervisors’ restructuring of oversight was the focus of our earlier article, detailing how regulators are shifting exam priorities toward material financial risks and raising thresholds for formal findings. We noted changes to MRAs, CAMELS ratings, and appeals processes, alongside reduced emphasis on reputational risk and fewer horizontal reviews—moves that could reshape how emerging stresses are identified and managed across the banking system.

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