Mortgage Defaults Plummet, For Now

The number of homes entering the foreclosure process declined steeply in September — but the drop is likely temporary.

The blue line on the accompanying graph represents how many Notices of Default, which are the nastygrams sent to delinquent borrowers, were delivered in September. The orange line tracks Notices of Trustee Sale, which inform said delinquent borrowers that their homes are about to be repossessed.

The graph makes it pretty clear that NODs dropped like a rock last month. We haven’t seen a number of default notices this low since February 2007 — a breezier time, when it would have seemed laughable to suggest that mainstream media outlets would be publishing stock photos of Depression-era breadlines a year and a half down the road.

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