Las Vegans mostly paying mortgages on time, report finds

Las Vegas’ mortgage delinquency rate dropped in the past year and is lower than the national average, a new report shows.

Payments were at least 30 days late on 3.9 percent of home loans in the Las Vegas area in June, down from 4.5 percent in the same month last year, according to housing tracker CoreLogic.

Nationally, 4.3 percent of home loans were at least 30 days delinquent in June, down from 4.6 percent a year earlier.

Las Vegas has a higher rate of seriously late borrowers than the country at large, but that has tumbled as Southern Nevada continues to shake off its problems from the recession.

“We’re no longer No. 1 in the country in all these bad things,” said Professor Stephen Miller, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

Locally, 1.9 percent of home loans were at least 90 days delinquent in June, down from 2.5 percent a year earlier. Nationally, the “serious delinquency” rate was 1.7 percent, down from 1.9 percent, according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic.

Las Vegas was ground zero for the housing boom and bust. During the recession, job losses soared as borrowers throughout the valley fell behind on their mortgages and lost their homes to lenders. At its worst, 25 percent of local borrowers were at least a month behind on their payments, versus a peak of 12 percent nationally, according to CoreLogic data.

Southern Nevada home prices have been rising at one of the fastest rates in the country this past year, but Miller agreed that an improved job market has a bigger impact on borrowers’ ability to keep up with their payments than rising property values.

Las Vegas’ unemployment rate, 4.7 percent as of July, is still higher than the national average of 4.1 percent. But it’s dropped sharply since hovering at 14 percent in 2010, federal data show.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.