ICE First Look at Mortgage Performance: Delinquencies Hold Steady in April
Industry Update
May 26, 2026
Source: ICE Mortgage Technology
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, today released the April 2026 ICE First Look at mortgage delinquency, foreclosure and prepayment trends. “Mortgage performance remained broadly stable from March to April, with the overall share of past-due loans unchanged and below pre-pandemic levels,” said Andy Walden, Head of Mortgage and Housing Market Research at ICE. “At the same time, the annual increase in past due loans continues to be concentrated in later-stage delinquencies, while early-stage delinquencies remain below last year’s levels, suggesting that most homeowners continue to stay on track. Cure activity has also rebounded over the past two months, though it remains below year-ago levels, making it important to monitor in the months ahead.”
Key takeaways
The overall delinquency rate held steady in April: The national delinquency rate was unchanged in April at 3.35%. Overall, delinquency levels remain 45 basis points (bps) below the January 2020 pre-pandemic benchmark but are up by 13 bps from the same time last year. The uptick was driven by a rise in seriously delinquent (90-plus days past due, but not in foreclosure) loans.
Late-stage delinquencies declined in April but are up from last year’s levels: Serious delinquencies declined seasonally in April for the second month in a row but are 21% (101,000) higher than year-ago levels. Early-stage delinquencies (loans that are 30- or 60-days past due) are down 5,000 from last year’s levels.
Cure activity continued to rebound: After cure activity fell sharply November through February, it rebounded in March and April with more than 62,000 borrowers curing seriously delinquent loans in each of those months. This is up from an average of 42,000 cures during the four preceding months. Despite the improvement, cures from serious delinquency remain 20% below last year’s levels.
Foreclosure starts and sales continued to normalize: April saw 37,000 foreclosure starts, the highest April count since the pre-pandemic era, and 7,900 foreclosure sales, up 22% annually. Despite the uptick, both starts and sales remain below their pre-pandemic norms, reflecting the normalization of foreclosure volumes after historically low activity.
Foreclosure inventory rose: The number of loans in active foreclosure rose by 3,000 in April to 276,000, up 32% from a year ago and above the 271,000 March 2020 pre-pandemic count for a second consecutive month. The 0.50% foreclosure rate is modestly below the March 2020 benchmark of 0.53%.
Prepayments slowed from March but are up on an annual basis: Mortgage prepayments, measured as the single month mortality (SMM) rate, fell 13% as rates moved higher, though activity remained significantly stronger than the same time last year.
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