1st Mtg, HEL and HELOC Serious Delinquency Down

As of May 31, there were 49.9 million first mortgages that were outstanding for an aggregate principal balance of $8.3272 trillion.

The nation’s book of first mortgages was trimmed from 50.2 million loans outstanding for a total of $8.3736 trillion a month earlier.

But outstandings grew from 49.5 million loans for $8.0884 trillion a year earlier.

Equifax provided the statistics in its US National Consumer Credit Trends Report: Portfolio.

“First mortgage balances outstanding peaked at $9.16 trillion in October 2008, and fell to a low of $7.82 trillion in June 2013,” the report stated.

Delinquency of at least 90 days on first mortgages, based on loan balances, came in at 1.49 percent — the lowest rate since September 2007.

Serious first-mortgage delinquency was substantially lower than 1.57 percent as of the end of April and 2.10 percent as of May 31, 2015.

Equifax reported that 4.5 million home-equity loans were outstanding
for $132.1 billion as of May 31, 2016.

Three months earlier, the total was 4.4 million HELs for $129.2 billion, while a year earlier it was 4.5 million loans for $134.7 billion.

“Home-equity loan balances and accounts outstanding have been steadily declining since the start of 2008,” Equifax said.

Ninety-day HEL delinquency dropped to 1.47 percent from 1.54 percent as of the end of April and 1.83 percent at the end of May 2015.

Equifax reported that there were 11.0 million home-equity lines of credit outstanding for $488.2 billion as of the end of May 2016.

The total was 31 percent lower than the May 2009 peak.

HELOCs increased from 11.0 million lines for $487.4 billion the prior month but have been reduced from 11.3 million lines for $503.9 billion a year prior.

HELOC credit limits dipped to $984 billion in May 2016 from $990 billion at the same point last year.

“Utilization rates continue to trend down, sitting at 49.6 percent in May 2016, comparable to the previous month,” the report said.