The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have hit a plateau for the moment, the civil unrest in our major cities has been reduced to a dull roar, and millions of Americans that originally lost their jobs have now gone back to work.  If we are going to get some glimmers of hope for the economy, this is when we should see them, because the environment does not look promising once the summer ends.  Unfortunately, the numbers that we keep getting just continue to directly contradict the narrative that any sort of a "recovery" is taking place.  In fact, the Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting that the delinquency rate on residential mortgages shot up a whopping 386 basis points last quarter…

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.22 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.

The delinquency rate increased 386 basis points from the first quarter of 2020 and was up 369 basis points from one year ago.