Quarterly mortgage delinquency continued to improve, with loans to the youngest segment of the population performing the best.
Borrowers who were at least two months behind on their mortgage payments accounted for 3.46 percent of all residential borrowers as of the second quarter.
The 60-day delinquency rate tumbled 15 basis points from the three months ended March 31.
The improvement in home loan performance was even more significant compared to the second quarter of last year, when the 60-day rate was 4.32 percent.
TransUnion delivered the delinquency data.
“Overall, the improvements in the mortgage delinquency rate can be attributed to a number of factors,” TransUnion Head of Financial Services Steve Chaouki said in the report. “These include the clearing of severely delinquent accounts through foreclosure as well as a lower rate of new delinquencies from post-recession vintages, which generally are of significantly higher credit quality and have experienced much better performance than mortgages originated before the recession.”
The report broke out second-quarter delinquency by age group, and it was the under-30 category who performed the best based on a 2.34 percent 60-day rate. However, the group accounted for just 4.16 percent of all accounts outstanding.
In contrast, borrowers who were between 40 and 49 years old had a 4.43 percent delinquency rate — the highest of all categories. This group accounted for a quarter of all mortgages.
Chaouki noted that while delinquency has declined across all age groups, the superior performance among younger borrowers reflects overall better performance on post-recession vintages.
“It is encouraging to see younger borrowers perform well, since their generation was significantly impacted by the recession and their loans are among the newest,” he added.
First-quarter delinquency among all age groups fell to 5.54 percent in Nevada from 8.26 percent in the same period last year — the biggest improvement of any state. California’s decline was next, falling to 2.61 percent from 3.88 percent, then Arizona, where 60-day delinquency declined to 2.65 percent from 3.90 percent.
The information management service provider said that first-quarter 2014 mortgage originations plunged to 1.1 million loans from 2.2 million during the first three months of last year.
The severe decline was attributed to diminished refinance activity harsh weather conditions.
Nonprime share of originations, however, climbed to 7.8 percent from 5.0 percent in the first-quarter 2013. Borrowers with a VantageScore of less than 700 are considered nonprime.
TransUnion reported that 52.8 million mortgages were outstanding during the second-quarter 2014, fewer than the 53.47 million three months earlier but more than the 52.4 million a year earlier.
Still, loan count remains depressed compared to the 63.4 million outstanding mortgages as of the second-quarter 2008 — just prior to the depths of the financial crisis.
