By Brian O’Connell | MainStreet
Good news on housing and the economy: Mortgage delinquencies are down.
Data from credit rating giant TransUnion shows the national mortgage delinquency rate dropped to 2.95% in the first quarter of 2015 — the first time that figure has sunk below the 3% market since the third quarter of 2007, right before the Great Recession hammered us.
It’s the 13th consecutive quarterly drop in delinquency rate. Year-to-year, the delinquency rate is down nearly 18% from the first quarter of last year. It’s also way down from the market high of 6.94% in 2010.
There’s something to cheer about even in the much maligned subprime mortgage loan market. TransUnion reports that the delinquency rate for subprime consumers fell to 27.23% in the year’s first quarter, down nearly 9% from 29.76% in early 2014. (If that sounds big, remember that the rate was a whopping 40.48% in the first quarter of 2010.)
