Approximately 94.8% of first-lien mortgages were current and performing as of Sept. 30, steady from year-ago levels. And the number of new foreclosures initiated during the third quarter dropped by 28.5% to 34,266 over the same period.

The figures are from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's quarterly mortgage metrics report, which uses loan data collected from Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and HSBC's U.S. operations. Those seven banks' approximately 18.4 million first-lien loans made up $3.32 trillion in unpaid principal balances, or 33% of all residential mortgages, as of Sept. 30.

The data also showed that, for the five consecutive quarters through the one ended Sept. 30, 2017, subprime loans made up 3% of total mortgages. In the third quarter, 455 loans were categorized subprime and 16,622 as prime. In the prior quarter, there were 515 subprime loans and 17,027 prime loans.