Mortgage Delinquencies High, Home Prices Slow to Rise [AUDIO]

New Jersey's housing industry is still struggling in several key areas. We are dragging our feet in terms of home price increases, and mortgage delinquencies are still too high.

According to Patrick O'Keefe, economic analyst at CohnReznick in Roseland, Garden State home prices are rising but the increase began later than most other areas. O'Keefe said mortgage delinquencies, defined as one payment or more behind, are the highest in the nation.

"We have overtaken Florida in terms of the proportion of mortgages here in New Jersey that are either seriously behind, or are already in the foreclosure process," O'Keefe said.

He also said home prices have risen for five consecutive quarters in New Jersey, but that the economic recovery in New Jersey has been moving at a slower pace than many other parts of the country in terms of jobs and growth. That is reflected in the slow bounce back of the housing market.

O'Keefe said, in the 16 years before the housing meltdown of 2006, the rise in New Jersey's home prices bested the nation's by more than 25 percent. But when that downturn hit, home prices here fell by roughly the same rate as the previous appreciation.

Charts explaining all of O'Keefe's findings can be viewed by clicking here.