Credit reporting agency TransUnion yesterday said that the percentage of mortgage holders at least two months behind on their payments fell in the fourth quarter to 5.19 percent from 6.01 percent a year earlier, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The rate has not been that low since December 2008, a time when home prices were sliding, the U.S. economy was in recession and many adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) taken out by homebuyers with less-than-perfect credit were in the process of resetting to a higher rate. Those ARM resets triggered higher payments that many borrowers couldn't afford, sending late payment rates higher into 2009. In addition, the national unemployment rate was on an upward trajectory in 2008 that would extend well into the following year. Those are some of the reasons the mortgage delinquency rate didn't hit its peak of nearly 7 percent until the fourth quarter of 2009, according to TransUnion. The agency said that the rate has been trending down since the fourth quarter of 2009, aided by a rebound in home sales and rising home prices.
