Mortgage delinquency rate at 3-year low

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The percentage of U.S. homeowners behind on their mortgage payments dropped in the first three months of this year to the lowest level since 2009, according to a new report.

Some 5.78 percent of the nation's mortgage holders were behind on their payments by 60 days or more in the January-to-March quarter, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Wednesday.

That's down from 6.19 percent in the same period last year, and below the 6.01 percent delinquency rate for the last three months of 2011.

The decline in the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate follows two quarters of increases. But barring any shocks to the U.S. economy, the rate is expected to continue easing, said Tim Martin, group vice president of U.S. Housing for TransUnion.

"We had a couple quarters where it ticked up, so it's nice to see it come back down," Martin said.

TransUnion's analysis is derived from a sample of 10 percent of U.S. mortgage holders.

Before the housing bust, mortgage delinquencies were running at less than 2 percent nationally. It took about three years after the housing market crashed for the delinquency rate on mortgages to climb to a peak of nearly 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. The rate has been trending down since then.

Seasonal patterns -- such as homeowners skipping payments to spend money elsewhere in the past three months of the year -- were likely a factor in the uptick last fall.

Still, the national delinquency rate remains well above its historical range, an indication many homeowners are still struggling five years after the housing downturn.

"It's coming down a lot more slowly than it went back up," Martin said.