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| Rising unemployment is driving consumer loan delinquency higher.
During the first quarter, 30-day home-equity loan delinquency was 3.52 percent, the American Bankers Association reported today in its Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin. HEL delinquency climbed from 3.03 percent in the fourth quarter and just 2.34 percent a year earlier. Late payments on home-equity lines-of-credit increased to 1.89 percent from the prior quarter’s 1.46 percent and the prior year’s 1.10 percent. The trade group said home-equity delinquencies “hit record highs.” Mounting job losses drove the deterioration, ABA Chief Economist James Chessen said in the statement. And he doesn’t see any improvement in the foreseeable future. Chessen noted that the loss of home-equity has borrowers using bank cards to bridge a temporary income gap. On property improvement loans, first-quarter delinquency fell to 1.46 percent from 1.75 percent in the fourth quarter. Mobile home late payments jumped, however, to 3.70 percent from 2.96 percent. |
