Total mortgage balances were up 3.2% during the third quarter while total mortgage origination plummeted by 36.5%, according to new data from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU).
After recording a slight decline in the second quarter, mortgage balances increased to $11.8 trillion in the third quarter. At the same time, mortgage originations fell from 1.9 million in the second quarter to 1.2 million the third quarter, comparable to volumes last seen in the second quarter of 2014.
Tappable homeowner equity inched up by 1% year-over-year to $19.7 trillion, while HELOC originations were down 28% from last year’s high volumes, and home equity loan originations fell 3% from one year earlier. And mortgage account-level delinquencies were up 15% year-over-year, the sixth consecutive quarter of increases.
“Following a period of historically low account delinquencies, delinquencies have seen six consecutive quarters of year-over-year increases – inching them closer to pre-pandemic levels,” said Joe Mellman, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion. “Delinquencies increased across all stages (early, mid and late) and all loan types. Vintage performance, which reflects the performance of an account in different periods after the loan was granted, shows deterioration in more recent originations. New mortgage vintages are performing worse than vintages of the past four years. In the midst of increasing non-mortgage debt and rising delinquencies across the board, the record levels of equity available to homeowners will remain a viable solution to ease debt pressures.”
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