Mortgage Delinquencies Below 4% For First Time in 6 Years

For the first time in six years the mortgagerndelinquency rate has dropped below 4 percent TransUnion said on Wednesday.  Nationally, 3.85 percent of mortgages werernpast due for 60 days or more in the fourth quarter of 2013, a 5.9 percentrndecline from 4.09 percent in the third quarter. rnThe fourth quarter rate was down more than 24 percent from the rate onernyear earlier of 5.08 percent and it was eighth consecutive quarter the rate hadrndeclined on a year-over-year basis.</p

Every state and the District of Columbia saw anrnannual decrease in its delinquency rate in the fourth quarter.  In all but two, New Jersey and New York wherernrates fell by 9.7 and 8.5 percent respectively, those declines were in doublerndigits.  The largest percentage drops werernin Arizona where the delinquency rate fell from 5.11 percent to 3.14 percentrn(-38.6 percent) and California from 4.92 percent to 3.06 percent (-37.8rnpercent).  Nevada delinquencies remain wellrnabove the national average but the state posted the third largest annual netrnchange, -34.7 percent, as its rate fell from 9.98 percent to 6.52 percent. </p

“It’s encouraging to see thernmortgage delinquency rate drop for two consecutive years, but at the same time,rnmortgage delinquencies continue to be twice as high as levels observed prior tornthe housing bubble,” said Steve Chaouki, head of financial services forrnTransUnion. “The housing market also still shows some volatility,rnwith both housing prices and originations dropping in the latter part of 2013rnafter experiencing improvements in the first part of the year.” </p

The number of active mortgage</baccounts in TransUnion's data base continued to shrink in 2013, from a recordedrn53.85 million mortgage accounts in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 52.84 million accountsrnat the end of 2013.  There are more thanrn10 million fewer accounts than in the fourth quarter of 2008 – 62.85 million.</p