The last time the rate of past-due payments on home loans was this low, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was still in business.
Sixty-day delinquency on residential loans closed out the first quarter of this year at 2.95 percent, according to TransUnion.
Turns out that the latest level of late payments was the lowest since the third-quarter 2007, when it was 2.61 percent.
The rate was 3.29 percent in the fourth-quarter 2014 — the 13th consecutive quarter-over-quarter improvement.
Delinquency stood at
3.59 percent in the first quarter of last year.
“It’s taken more than seven years, but the mortgage delinquency rate has reached pre-recession levels. Joe Mellman, vice president and head of TransUnion’s mortgage group, said in the announcement. “We continue to see a steady decline in the mortgage delinquency rate, primarily driven by strong performance by newer vintage loans.”
Subprime U.S. delinquency came in at 27.23 for the first-quarter 2015, better than a year earlier, when the rate was 29.76 percent.
“It’s also encouraging to see continued delinquency rate declines for the subprime and near-prime risk groups,” Mellman added.
Despite its towering level, subprime delinquency has been reduced from a peak of 40.48 percent in the first-quarter 2010.
Among large states, California’s 2.00 percent mortgage delinquency rate was lowest, while 5.15 percent in Florida was highest.
The average U.S. loan mortgage amount was $187,175, barely more than the $186,836 average as of a year earlier.
Loan amounts were up 4.9 percent to $140,564 in North Dakota, the biggest year-over-year gain of any state.
In Texas, amounts increased 2.8 percent to $146,471, and Louisiana loans averaged $134,682, up 2.3 percent from the first-quarter 2014.
Average loans were $171,696 in Illinois, down 0.7 percent from the same period a year prior — the biggest decline.
