Black Knight Financial Services said today that both delinquencies and foreclosure starts were up slightly in June. The information was part of the company's “first look” preview of data from its Mortgage Monitor report that will be published in early August.

The nation's delinquency rate, that is the percentage of mortgages that were 30 or more days past due but not in foreclosure, was 5.70 percent, an increase of 1.55 percent compared to May but 14.59 percent below the rate in June 2013. The percentages reflect an increase of 44,000 delinquent mortgages since May to a total of 2,88 million, 445,000 fewer delinquent mortgages than reported a year earlier. Of those delinquencies, 1.16 million are of 90 or more days duration but not yet in foreclosure, down 14,000 from May and 190,000 from a year earlier.

Foreclosures were initiated on 88,000 mortgages in June, an increase of 2.34 percent. It was the second consecutive month starts were up but they still remain 19 percent lower than at the same time in 2013.

There was positive news in the report as well. The foreclosure inventory, homes in the process of foreclosure, hit the lowest level since May 2008. The percentage of homes with a mortgage in the inventory stood at 1.88 percent at the end of the month, a decline of 1.50 percent from May and 35.65 percent lower than in June 2013. There are 951,000 homes in the process of foreclosure, 15,000 fewer than in May and just over a half-million fewer than a year earlier.

Non-current loans, that is those 30 days past due or in foreclosure, totaled 3.83 million at the end of June. This was up 29,000 from May but 951,000 fewer than the previous June.

Mississippi had the largest percentage of non-current loans in June with a rate of 14.05 percent. This was 8.88 percent decline from last June and well below the state's peak non-current rate of 22.85 percent reached in October 2005. New Jersey had the second highest non-current rate at 12.61 percent followed by Florida (11.18), New York (10.93 percent) and Louisiana (10.86 percent.)

The loan prepayment rate, historically a good indicator of refinancing activity, increased 5.87 percent in June although the .95 percent rate remained 46.74 percent lower than the level in June 2014. The monthly number was up for the fourth consecutive month.

Black Knight's data is derived from its loan-level database representing approximately two-thirds of the overall market.