According to an article in The Des Moines Register:

Iowa’s fourth-quarter foreclosure rate rose to 2.92 percent from 2.79 percent a year earlier, a national report showed.

But the rate of delinquent loans in Iowa has been dropping steadily, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in its quarterly national survey. Of 354,738 home loans in Iowa, about 6 percent were past due, more than a full percentage point drop from a year earlier.

The number of home loans more than 90 days past due dropped almost a full percentage point as the most at-risk mortgages passed into foreclosure in the last three months of 2010.

The improved outlook is reflected across the country, according to the survey.

Total delinquencies, not including loans in foreclosure, are now at their lowest level nationally since the end of 2008. Mortgages only one payment past due are now at their lowest level since the end of 2007, the beginning of the recession.

“Perhaps most importantly, loans three payments or more past due have fallen from an all-time high delinquency rate of 5.02 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2010 to 3.63 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010,” said Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s chief economist. “While delinquency and foreclosure rates are still well above historical norms, we have clearly turned the corner.”