First Mortgage, Home Equity Delinquency Rates Decline in June

The seriously delinquent rate on first-mortgage loans declined 156 basis points in June on a year-over-year basis, according to Equifax's latest National Consumer Credit Trends Report.

The percentage of first-mortgage loans 90 days late or more or in foreclosure is 4.14%, down from 5.7% one year prior.

For home equity revolving loans the delinquency rate decreased to 1.75% from 2.3%, and for home equity installment loans it fell to 3.31% from 4.16% to 3.31%.

"The turnaround in home price trends over the past year is having a substantial impact on mortgage delinquency rates. As more and more homeowners find themselves back in positive equity, the incentive to default is strongly tempered," said Equifax chief economist Amy Crews Cutts.

When it comes to home equity revolving loans, Equifax found the total balance of new credit opened between January and April increased more than 17% compared to the same time period in 2012, to $28.4 billion from $24.1 billion and the total number of new loans was more than 11% higher, at 297,600 compared with 266,600.