Nevada’s mortgage delinquency rate double the U.S. average
Nevada’s 60-day mortgage delinquency rate remains more than double the national average, though it’s expected to drop to 11.09 percent at the end of 2012, down from 12.66 percent this year, an executive for Chicago-based TransUnion said Wednesday.
The national rate has been declining since mid-2009, and Nevada is following that trend, said Steve Chaouki, vice president of TransUnion’s financial services unit.
Will it ever return to normal levels, which is around the 1.5 percent to 2 percent delinquency last seen in Nevada at the end of 2007?
“Ever’s a long time,” Chaouki said. “Not until foreclosures get better. The housing market itself has to stabilize and people have to work through their end of the situation.”
The mortgage loan delinquency rate peaked in Nevada at 16.19 percent and in Las Vegas at 18.89 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009,
TransUnion reported. The U.S. rate then also topped out at 6.89 percent.
“It spiked in Nevada, and Las Vegas is the worst area in the state,” Chaouki said. “We expect things to improve over the next year, but just moderate improvement, nowhere near where you need to be.”
TransUnion forecasts national mortgage delinquencies, a statistic generally considered to be a precursor to foreclosure, will rise in the first quarter and then tail off for the remaining three quarters of 2012, hitting 5 percent by the end of the year.
Credit card delinquency rates, or the ratio of bank card borrowers who are 90 days or more delinquent on their payment, are also expected to decrease in Nevada, from 0.99 percent to 0.84 percent in fourth-quarter 2012.
Nevada is still above the national average of 0.7 percent delinquency, Chaouki said.
Between the recession’s end in the second quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of this year, the national credit card delinquency rate dropped by nearly 40 percent. It fell by 56 percent in Las Vegas over that time period, TransUnion found.
People are paying down credit card debt, Chaouki said. Banks also have tightened credit for all but “superprime” borrowers and written off those who were 90 days delinquent, he said.
Nevada credit card holders cut their debt from the most recent peak of $6,700 per person in first-quarter 2009 to $4,770 in the third quarter, which is about the national average.
In today’s uncertain economy, consumers have found that credit cards are among their most valued assets because of the flexibility they provide, Chaouki said. As such, they’ve made a concerted effort to make payments on time and maintain relatively low balances, he said.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.