Troubled Home Loans Rise for Ninth Quarter

Washington, DC, June 2, 2009--Credit-reporting firm TransUnion.com said the number of mortgage holders at least two months behind on their payments rose for the ninth quarter in a row to 5.22%.

The first-quarter national average is 14% higher than the fourth-quarter average and is up 62% from a year earlier, when the average was 3.23%.

TransUnion.com senior consultant Keith Carson called the sequential increase "troubling." The current downturn's quarterly delinquency-growth rate is nearly double that seen during 2001's recession.

However, the quarterly growth rate fell from the prior quarter for the first time since the current recession began in December 2007.

The ongoing rise in delinquencies has been a key factor in the housing bubble's deflation, with falling housing prices -- coupled with constrained financing markets and increased unemployment -- further pressuring people's ability or desire to keep current on their loans.