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The share of mortgage borrowers in the United States 60 or more days behind on their monthly payments dropped to 6.19 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2011, according to data released Monday by the credit bureau ""TransUnion"":http://www.transunion.com.
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That's down from 6.41 percent at the end of 2010 and marks the fifth consecutive quarter that TransUnion has reported an improvement in the national delinquency rate.
The Chicago-based credit reporting agency says as home prices declined further during the first quarter of 2011, mortgage delinquencies were expected to remain flat or slow in their decline.
However, TransUnion’s report shows a marked acceleration in the pace of decline, with the national delinquency rate falling 3.4 percent between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, compared to a mere 0.5 percent drop recorded between the third and fourth quarters of last year.
""Decreasing home prices can be risky because they exert upward pressure on mortgage delinquency rates,†said Tim Martin, U.S. housing market group vice president for TransUnion. “The fact that mortgage delinquency continues to decline despite this situation demonstrates that today's borrowers are less risky.""
According to TransUnion’s analysis, year over year, mortgage borrower delinquency at the national level is down approximately 8.6 percent from the first quarter 2010.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Mortgage delinquency rates during the first three months of this year were highest in Florida (14.37 percent) and Nevada (14.19 percent), while the lowest delinquency rates continued to be concentrated in the Midwest: North Dakota (1.54 percent), South Dakota (2.53 percent), and Nebraska (2.60 percent).
Although South Dakota claims the second lowest delinquency rate in the country, TransUnion said it posted the largest increase in delinquencies from the previous quarter, up 14 percent.
Next in line was Maine with an 8.2 percent jump in its delinquency rate, followed by New Jersey which saw delinquencies rise by 2 percent during the first quarter.
On a more granular level, 68 percent of metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the U.S. experienced a decline in mortgage delinquency rates compared to only 44 percent last quarter.
TransUnion forecasts that mortgage borrower delinquency rates will continue to drift downward for the remainder of 2011, as improving economic conditions and tighter lending standards offset the impact of falling home prices.
The agency’s 90-day Real Estate Inquiry Index, which measures the demand for real estate credit, also continued its decline during the first quarter, dropping to the second lowest value since the index was benchmarked in 2000.
""Until consumer confidence improves, and housing prices stabilize, demand for real estate credit will continue to remain sluggish,"" Martin said.
TransUnion also reported that the average mortgage debt per borrower in the U.S. was $190,115 during the first quarter, up 0.6 percent from the previous quarter's $189,046.
The area with the highest average mortgage debt per borrower continued to be the District of Columbia at $375,579, followed by California at $338,792 and Hawaii at $313,770. The lowest remained in West Virginia at $99,640.
