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ICE First Look at Mortgage Performance: Prepayments Rise on Recent Refinance Activity and Serious Delinquencies Increase as Cure Rates Slow
ATLANTA & NEW YORK, March 25, 2026--Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world's leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, today released the February 2026 ICE First Look at mortgage delinquency, foreclosure and prepayment trends.
About this update from Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
[{"type":"image","alt":"","displaySize":"","headline":null,"caption":"","credit":null,"className":"","disableSlideshowImg":false,"size":{"original":{"width":447,"height":439,"url":"https://media.zenfs.com/en/business-wire.com/f36dcfe621816b616baff7466e690cc9"},"resized":{"url":"https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/6k9bNdZTmJdxBZJv1aYX2w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTY5Mg--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/business-wire.com/f36dcfe621816b616baff7466e690cc9","width":447,"height":439}},"lazy":false},{"type":"text","content":"ATLANTA & NEW YORK, March 25, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world's leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, today released the February 2026 ICE First Look at mortgage delinquency, foreclosure and prepayment trends.","length":323,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""February saw a clear rebound in prepayment activity, with speeds rising 14% month over month and 80% year over year as the wave of refinances triggered by lower rates in January reached closing," said Andy Walden, Head of Mortgage and Housing Market Research at ICE. "Delinquencies also edged higher, driven by seasonal increases in early-stage delinquencies and a notable rise in seriously past-due loans, though overall delinquency rates remain below pre-pandemic levels. These dynamics bear watching in the coming months, as default activity continues to trend off recent record lows."","length":609,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Key takeaways from this month’s findings include:","length":49,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"list","items":[{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Prepayments rebounded: The single-month mortality (SMM) rate, a measure of prepayment speed, increased by 10 basis points (bps) in February to 0.82% and was up 80% from the same time last year. The uptick follows a refinance wave driven by January rate drops.","length":259,"tagName":"p","attribs":{}}]}],"tagName":"ul","bulletedList":true,"length":259,"olType":false},{"type":"list","items":[{"val":[{"type":"text","content":"Delinquencies edged up in February: The national delinquency rate rose by 7 bps in February to 3.72%, driven by a 4% seasonal rise in early (30-day) delinquencies and a 3% rise in seriously delinquent (90-plus day) loans. The rate is up 20 bps from the same time la...