Mortgage Delinquency Rate to Stay High in 2013; Credit Card Delinquencies to Remain Low: TransUnion

TransUnion released its annual forecasts today on two primary consumer credit variables – mortgage and credit card delinquency rates. The national mortgage loan delinquency rate (the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days past due) is projected to decline to 5.06% by the end of 2013 from an estimated 5.32% at the conclusion of 2012.  TransUnion forecasts mortgage delinquencies, a statistic generally considered to be a precursor to foreclosure, will decline in 34 states and the District of Columbia with only 13 states experiencing increases.

“As house prices and unemployment slowly improve, TransUnion’s forecast indicates that the national mortgage delinquency rate will gradually drop throughout 2013,” said Tim Martin, group vice president of U.S. housing in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “While we are encouraged by the direction of the forecast, we would have hoped for a projection that called for a more substantive drop in delinquencies.  If the pace of improvement does not pick up, it will take a very long time to get back to ‘normal’ delinquency rates.”

The mortgage delinquency rate peaked in Q4 2009 at 6.89% after rising 12 consecutive quarters from its 1.94% mark in Q4 2006. The 255% increase in those three years was unprecedented in its extreme rise.  Nearly three years after the peak in mortgage delinquency rates, as of Q3 2012 (the latest actual data available) mortgage delinquencies have only dropped 21% to 5.41%. If the TransUnion forecast holds true for 2013, the rate would have only dropped about 27% in four years and still well above the “normal” delinquency rate range of 1 1Ž2 to 2%.

“The slow improvement pace we are experiencing right now seems to be less about new borrowers not being able to make their payments and more about existing borrowers who have been delinquent for a very long time,” said Martin. “For example, our analysis shows the delinquency rate would fall to around 2.5%, or pretty much normal, if we simply took borrowers who haven’t made a mortgage payment in over a year out of the calculation.  By comparison, pre-recession, it was unusual for a borrower to go more than 6 months without either being able to cure their situation or go through the foreclosure process.”

Credit Cards

Credit card delinquency rates (the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their credit cards) are expected to remain relatively low throughout 2013, increasing slightly from 0.83% in Q4 2012 to 0.87% in Q4 2013.  Between 2000 and 2011, the credit card delinquency rate has averaged 1.24% during the fourth quarter.  In the 51 quarters since Q1 2000, the credit card delinquency rate has only been below the 0.90% threshold 10 times.

“The credit card delinquency rate continued to remain low in 2012 after reaching its lowest level since 1994 in the second quarter of 2011,” said Steve Chaouki, group vice president in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “We expect much of the same in 2013 as consumers have come to rely on their credit cards for liquidity with continued high unemployment rates and a stagnant economy.

“It should be noted that we have seen credit card delinquencies drift somewhat higher in the last year.  Some of this can be attributed to the fact that credit card delinquencies were so low, that at some point they were bound  to increase.  A more significant factor may be that credit card originations have been increasing in the last few years, and with that increase we have seen non-prime borrowers receive not only more credit cards, but also comprise a larger share of new credit cards.”

The latest credit card origination data from TransUnion points to this increase in non-prime credit card borrowers.  The share of non-prime, higher-risk originations (with a VantageScore® credit score lower than 700 on a scale of 501-990) was 29.55% in the second quarter of 2012, slightly higher than one year ago (29.28% in Q2 2011), and much higher than the 23.86% observed in Q2 2010.

Credit card debt per borrower, which has been relatively low since 2010, is expected torise in the next year from its current $4,996 level (as of Q3 2012) to $5,050 in Q4 2012 and $5,446 at the end of 2013.  This would be the highest credit card debt level since 2009.  Average credit card debt per borrower peaked at $5,776 in Q1 2009.

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia are projected to see credit card delinquency increases in 2013 with only six experiencing declines.  States expected to see the largest credit card delinquency increases in 2013 include Ohio (11.84%), Missouri (8.33%) and North Dakota 7.50%). However, all of these states still remain below their historic averages. The largest declines in 2013 are expected in Rhode Island (-7.59%), Montana (-5.88%) and Georgia (-5.21%).

TransUnion’s forecasts are based on various economic assumptions, such as gross state product, consumer sentiment, unemployment rates and real estate values. The forecasts would change if there are unanticipated shocks to the global economy affecting recovery in the housing market, or if home prices unexpectedly continue to fall. The most current mortgage and credit card delinquency data for the nation and every state can be found at www.transunion.com/trenddata.