It’s been five months since serious delinquency has increased on first mortgages, while the second mortgage rate hasn’t worsened in three months.
The rate of 90-day delinquency on residential first mortgages was lower in April, tumbling 10 basis points from March to 1.31 percent.
Past-due payments have improved every month since December 2012, when the 90-day rate was 1.68 percent.
The performance metrics were outlined in the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices.
The improvement from April 2012 was even more dramatic, with the 90-day rate plummeting 45 BPS from 1.76 percent.
The report indicated that second mortgage delinquency was 0.62 percent as of the end of last month, improving from 0.69 percent as of March 31.
It was the second month in a row that the 90-day rate fell on junior liens.
Second mortgages had a delinquency rate of 0.93 percent as of April 31, 2012.
Last month’s composite delinquency rate, which additionally reflects past-due payments on auto loans and bank cards, was 1.42 percent — a post-recession low.
“Continued improvements in the economy and declining consumer debt are resulting in lower consumer default rates for mortgages and automobiles,” S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee David M. Blitzer stated in the report.
The composite rate was 1.50 percent a month earlier and 1.86 percent a year earlier.
With a 2.21 percent composite delinquency rate, Miami had the worst level of 90-day delinquency among the five-biggest metropolitan statistical areas. The good news for the south Florida town was that delinquency tumbled 72 BPS from March.
Dallas’ 1.00 percent rate was the lowest delinquency level among the five-biggest MSAs.
