National Mortgage Loan Delinquency Rates Improve in First Quarter

May 18, 2011 (Brian Michael)

The national mortgage delinquency rate decreased to 6.19 percent in the first quarter of 2011 according to credit giant TransUnion. Loans in which borrowers were 60 days or more past due declined for the fifth consecutive quarter and TransUnion predicts that delinquencies are expected remain flat or slow in their decline despite the continuing decline in housing prices.

"Decreasing home prices can be risky because they exert upward pressure on mortgage delinquency rates. The fact that mortgage delinquency continues to decline despite this situation demonstrates that today's borrowers are less risky," said Tim Martin, group vice president of the U.S. Housing Market in TransUnion's financial services business unit. "While many homeowners still face pressure to make ends meet, they have lived in their homes for a long time and have diligently been paying their mortgage each month. These are borrowers that have roots in their residential neighborhoods and may already have substantial equity invested."

TransUnion also reported that its 90-day Real Estate Inquiry Index dropped to its second lowest value of 26.04 in the first quarter of 2011. The index was created in 2000 and measures the demand for real estate credit.

"Until consumer confidence improves, and housing prices stabilize, demand for real estate credit will continue to remain sluggish," said Martin.

The mortgage delinquency rate decreased 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 in comparison to the fourth quarter of 2010 and is down almost 8.6 percent from the year before and as a sign of growing improvement, sixty-eight percent of metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the U.S. experienced a decline in mortgage delinquency rates in the first quarter compared to only 44 percent last quarter.

The states with the highest mortgage delinquency rates in the first quarter were Florida (14.37%) and Nevada (14.19%), while the states with the lowest mortgage delinquency rates were North Dakota (1.54 %) and South Dakota (2.53%).

Tags: TransUnion, mortgage delinquency rate, housing price decline, real estate credit, consumer confidence

Source:
TransUnion