For the first time in years, a guy who quantifies the foreclosure crisis got to report some good news.
Kyle Lundstedt's colleagues at LPS Applied Analytics call him Dr. Doom, as he calculates all the numbers for the monthly Mortgage Monitor Report.
But this month he got to report a drop in mortgage delinquencies, down more than 11 percent month-over month, to the lowest level since 2008.
"We're starting to see that there are a lot of folks who are still hanging in there," says Lundstedt. "The population is a better credit quality population."
The subprimes, Alt-A's, the bad lending of the housing boom, have largely moved through the system already, not to mention that big banks and servicers are getting far more aggressive with loan modifications. One quarter of the loans that were more than 90 days delinquent last year are now current. That's not to say they will all stay current, but that's a good sign.
Unfortunately, that's all Dr. Doom could muster on the bright side: "It's progress; it's not game-changing."