In September, mortgage delinquencies rose compared to the month before and September 2024, new industry data shows.
The most notable jump came in late-stage delinquencies, 90-119 days past due, which hit the highest level since January 2020 and saw the largest year-over-year increase among all credit products from 0.16% to 0.18%, according to the latest edition of CreditGauge by VantageScore.
Mortgage delinquencies with 30-59 days past due rose 12.7% compared to the same period last year, while those with 60-89 days past due climbed 10.9%, marking the largest relative increase among all credit products year over year.
"This signals that payment pressure is building in the mortgage space," said Atif Mirza, senior vice president and head of credit insights at VantageScore, on CreditGauge Live Monday. "Consumers are facing high burdens [and] interest rate fatigue, ... the reality is earnings are not going up, and that's squeezing the borrowers."
The average mortgage balance increased by $793 month-over-month and $7,327 year-over-year to $270,300 in September, indicating that high mortgage rates and home prices led to larger loan amounts for homebuyers, the report said. The balance-to-loan ratio edged down slightly to 79.58% compared to the prior month as well.
Mortgage originations slowed down across most age groups last month, led by Gen Z dropping from 1.57% to 1.42%, while activity remained relatively stable across other generations. Year over year, originations rose across every generation, led by Gen Z's 0.06 percentage-point jump.
Originations declined across all products in September
