A new report from Black Knight Financial Services says that mortgage delinquency rates slipped in March to levels not seen since before the real estate crash. Foreclosure rates declined to levels not seen since October 2008.

According to Black Knight’s data and analytics division, the total U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 5.5 percent in March, down 7.6 percent from February 2014 and down 16.3 compared with March 2013.

The total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate was 2.1 percent, down 4.2 percent from February and down more than one third, 36.7 percent, from March 2013.

Total U.S. foreclosure starts during the month were 88,100, down 4.2 percent from February and down 27.2 percent from March 2013.

The number of properties that were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure was 2.77 million, down 221,000 from February and down by 538,000 compared with March 2013.

The number of properties that were 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, was 1.2 million, down 43,000 from February and down 267,000 from March 2013.

The top five states with the highest number of delinquent loans were Mississippi (13.4 percent), New Jersey (12.9 percent), Florida (12.1 percent), New York (11.1 percent) and Maine (10.6 percent).

Massachusetts was one of the top five states for the highest number of seriously delinquent loans, with 3.5 percent of Bay State loans more than 90 days delinquent, below Mississippi (5.3 percent), Nevada (4.1 percent), Rhode Island (3.8 percent) and Alabama (3.6 percent).