Following the drastic increase directly after the COVID-19 pandemic, the delinquency rate started to gradually decline, falling to 3.37 percent in the second quarter of 2023. In the four quarters, the delinquency rate increased slightly, reaching 3.97 percent. That was significantly lower than the 8.22 percent during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter of 2020 or the peak of 9.3 percent during the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2010. What does the mortgage delinquency rate tell us?The mortgage delinquency rate is the share of the total number of mortgaged home loans in the U.S. where payment is overdue by 30 days or more. Many borrowers are eventually able to service their loan, though, as indicated by the markedly lower foreclosure rates. Total home mortgage debt in the U.S. stood at almost 13 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. Not all mortgage loans are made equal‘Subprime’ loans, being targeted at high-risk borrowers and generally coupled with higher interest rates to compensate for the risk. These loans have far higher delinquency rates than conventional loans. Defaulting on such loans was one of the triggers for the 2007-2010 financial crisis, with subprime delinquency rates reaching almost 26 percent around this time. These higher delinquency rates translate into higher foreclosure rates, which peaked at just under 15 percent of all subprime mortgages in 2011.

Credit card delinquency reached its highest level since 2019 in the first quarter of 2024, whereas mortgage delinquency declined to its lowest level. This is according to consumer data supplied by large banks that have to report such figures when handling over 100 billion U.S. dollars worth of assets. 3.56 percent of credit card balances were 30 days late - the highest percentage since tracking began in 2012. First-lien mortgage origination remained historically low, likely due to high interest rates and housing prices. Note the graphic shown here is different from another source on credit card delinquency rates in the U.S., as those figures are aggregates.

Car loan interest rates in the United States decreased since June 2024. Thus, the period of rapidly rising interest rates, when they increased from less than four percent in February 2022 to 7.9 percent two years later, has come to an end. The Federal Reserve interest rate is one of the main causes of the interest rates of loans rising or falling. If inflation stays under control, the Federal Reserve will start cutting the interest rates, which would have the effect of the cost of car loans falling too. How many cars have financing in the United States? Car financing exists because not everyone who wants or needs a car can purchase it outright. A financial institution will then lend the money to the customer for purchasing the car, which must then be repaid with interest. Most new vehicles in the United States in 2024 were purchased using car loans. It is not as common to use car loans for purchasing used vehicles as for new ones, although over a third of used vehicles were purchased using loans. The car industry in the United States The car financing business is huge in the United States, due to the high sales of both new and used vehicles in the country. A lot of the United States is very car-centric, which means that, outside large cities, it can often be difficult to do their daily commutes through other transportation methods. In fact, only a small percentage of U.S. workers used public transport to go to work. That is one of the factors that has helped establish the importance of the automotive sector in North America. Nevertheless, there are still countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe with higher car-ownership rates than the United States.

As of March 2024, the 30-day delinquency rate for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) varied per property type. The share of late payments for office CMBS was the highest at over 6.58 percent, about two percentage points higher than the average for all asset classes. A 30-day delinquency refers to payments that are one month late, regardless of how many days the month has. Commercial mortgage-backed securities are fixed-income investment products which are backed by mortgages on commercial property.