Remember back then when I was fuming over the poor quality of journalism not reporting in time the true shape of the real estate market? Well, now we are full swing the other way. Anything to grab headlines.

In the last few months, unless you’ve been living under a rock, the mortgage industry has been vilified. Obviously, there is a lot of truth in it. All the finger pointing centered on rinsing foreclosures. To be honest, it is still a very small percentage, at least here in California with 1.9% last I checked. Bur the rate of U.S. home loans entering the foreclosure process last quarter was the highest it’s been in the history of the survey, which dates to 1953.

Some states are ht harder like Ohio where 5.2% of all home loans are now either three months past due or somewhere in the process of foreclosure. One survey examined 44 million prime loans that are 30 days past due or more constitute just 2.6% of all loans nationwide. In other words, among mortgages made to borrowers with good credit at application, 97.4% are continuing to be paid on time.

Sub-prime mortgage home owners are performing rather well with only 14.5% nationwide now behind payments by at least 30 days. However, 85.5% of sub-prime borrowers are still paying on time every month. In California only 12.6% of sub-prime homeowners are late, and 8.4% are 90 days or more delinquent or already facing foreclosure.

The hardest hits are obviously the adjustable-rate loans. On a more positive note, in 34 states, the rate of new foreclosures decreased.

So again, we can never be too careful to take the news with a grain of salt. Anything sensational should warn us the news media needs readership. Those who really need to know should always look at the local government numbers found on their respective sites. And this brings me to think I’m going to slow down on real estate related news because there really isn’t much new out there.