Although the nation’s quarterly book of first mortgages outstanding expanded, contraction continued for home-equity products.
The median credit score on first mortgages that were originated during the first-three months of this year worked out to 749.
On just home-equity lines of credit closed in the first quarter, the median score was much higher as of the same period at 788.
The statistics were included in the April 2016 National Consumer Credit Trends Report from Equifax based on data maintained on more than 220 million consumers.
The high Equifax Risk Scores are an indication that lending
standards remain exceedingly tight.
First mortgages outstanding totaled 50.2 million loans for $8.37 trillion as of March 31, 2016.
The number of first mortgages was up less than 1 percent, while the balance of those loans increased nearly 3 percent.
As of the end of March 2016, there were 4.5 million home-equity loans outstanding for $130.4 billion.
The total was down nearly 2 percent from a year earlier based on the number of loans and more than 4 percent based on the loan balances.
But despite the decline, the number of HELs was off far less than the nearly 11 percent drop between March 2014 and March 2015.
HELOCs outstanding numbered 11.0 million as of the most-recent date, down more than 3 percent on a year-over-year basis. The balance of outstanding HELOCs fell nearly 4 percent to $489.9 billion.
Equifax noted that the utilization rate was less than 50 percent — the lowest it’s been since 2008.
Delinquency of at least 90 days on first mortgages was 1.65 percent as of March 31, 2016. Severe delinquency declined from 2.35 percent as of the same date last year.
The 90-day rate on first-mortgages has not been this low since September 2007.
On HELs, the 90-day rate was 1.59 percent, tumbling from 1.98 percent as of the end of the first quarter in 2015.
HELOC
delinquency fell to 1.33 percent as of the close of the first quarter this year from 1.47 percent at the same point in 2015.
Combined write-offs on first mortgages, HELOCs and HELs during the first-quarter 2016 totaled $9.5 billion. That was 23 percent lower than a year earlier and the lowest level for any first quarter in nine years.
“Homeowners are in the best financial shape they’ve been in since well before the start of the Great Recession,” Equifax Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in the report. “Total mortgage debt is down over $1 trillion, owner’s equity is up to $12.5 trillion, nearly double the amount held in 2011, and low inventories of homes for sale are driving prices up at a modest pace.”
