Also, mortgage delinquency rates also portend a more stable housing market than many think.

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Home prices there have been plunging for years, and the mortgage delinquency rate is currently in double digits.

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According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the delinquency rate was 22% in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with only 5% for prime loans.

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Barclays, which sells residential subprime mortgage securitizations (RMBS), was misrepresenting the historical delinquency rates for three subprime RMBS it underwrote and sold to investors from March 2007 through December 2010, Finra says.

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However, with 30-year mortgage rates hitting a low of 3.53% and delinquency rates showing signs of improvement, the housing industry in the U.S. seems to be on a gradual road to recovery.

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Among those underwater, delinquency (measured as a borrower who is 90 days or more past due on a mortgage payment) is most common in the oldest and middle age brackets with 10.6% of underwater borrowers over the age of 85 delinquent on their mortgage payments and similar percentages of borrowers in both the 40 to 44 and 45 to 49 age brackets delinquent on their mortgages.

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