According to the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) National Delinquency Survey, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on US residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 8.4% of all loans outstanding as of the end of the second quarter of 2011.

The non-seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased 0.32% to 8.11% in the second quarter, from 7.79% in Q1.

The percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started during the second quarter was 0.96%, down 0.15% from a year earlier. However, the percentage of loans that were going through the foreclosure process at the end of the second quarter was 4.43%, representing 1 in 22 mortgage holders.

Meanwhile, a new report by Trulia.com has found that due to h istorically low mortgage rates, an oversaturated housing market and a struggling economy, now is a better time to buy a home than rent in 74% of the country’s largest cities.

The research index is based on two-bedroom apartments, townhouses and condos in 50 US cities. Nowhere is buying better than in the hardest hit regional markets of Las Vegas and Detroit, (where rental yields are the highest compared to mortgage costs).