FHA Mortgage Delinquency Rate

13.64% of FHA mortgages were behind on their payments in August 2026, up from 12.51% a year earlier. That counts loans already in foreclosure or bankruptcy. 6.42% were seriously behind: 90 days or more late, or in foreclosure or bankruptcy, up from 4.44%.

Since July 2017, the share behind has ranged from 9.64% in May 2019 to 17.63% in August 2020, early in the pandemic.

HUD counts every active FHA-insured single-family loan each month. Its figures aren’t seasonally adjusted, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier.

Who FHA Borrowers Are

FHA mortgages serve many borrowers conventional lenders often decline: first-time buyers, lower-income households, borrowers with credit scores as low as 580, and those who can only afford the 3.5% minimum down payment.

From Delinquency to Foreclosure: The Pipeline

A borrower who misses a payment enters 30-day delinquency. If they cannot catch up, they progress to 60-day, then 90+ day (serious delinquency). At 120 days the servicer is first allowed to start foreclosure — under federal rules that is the earliest the first filing can be made, not a point at which help arrives on its own. A servicer's duty to review you for options begins when you apply for it. If no workout is agreed, the loan can go to foreclosure; how long that takes depends on the state. HUD's rate counts loans at every stage of that path, from one payment behind through foreclosure.

Why FHA Delinquency Matters for the National Picture

FHA loans are a minority of the outstanding mortgage market by count but account for a disproportionate share of delinquencies. The Federal Reserve bank-booked single-family mortgage series is far lower, underscoring how much the headline mortgage picture depends on which borrowers and lenders are in view. The American Distress Index doesn't score FHA delinquency. We show it as context because it shows the FHA segment on its own rather than folded into a blended rate.

Data Sources and Methodology

The rate comes from HUD's monthly FHA Single-Family Loan Performance Trends reports: the All Past Due rate for all active loans in Table 3. It is not seasonally adjusted and covers active FHA single-family forward loans at least 30 days past due, including loans in foreclosure and bankruptcy. The seriously behind rate shown beside it (90 or more days past due, in foreclosure or in bankruptcy) comes from Table 1 of the same reports and is part of the headline rate, never added to it. Each month is taken from its own report, as printed. The stored series starts in July 2017, the first month HUD published in this report format.

There's no county figure for this measure, so this list uses the delinquency part of our County Distress Index.