MSNBC - Foreclosure crisis only about halfway over

If the U.S. foreclosure crisis were a baseball game, we’d probably be in the bottom of the fourth inning.

That’s roughly the message from the latest data on home foreclosures and delinquencies released by an industry association Thursday.

The pace of new home foreclosures edged up again in the third quarter and the number of borrowers falling behind on their payments eased a bit, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The good news was that the rate of borrowers who have fallen three or more months behind on their payments has dropped to about 3.5 percent of all mortgages. That’s down from a peak of 5 percent in late 2009. But it’s still three and a half times the “normal” rate of about 1 percent that prevailed before the mortgage meltdown hit in late 2007.

“If you look at the pace of improvement I think we’re three to four years away from the typical pattern of seriously delinquent loans," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's vice president of research and economics.

MSNBC - Foreclosure crisis only about halfway over