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41 » VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM HOUSEHOLD DEBT ON THE RISE e Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data recently released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit—reporting that household debt increased while delinquency rates of several debt types continued to rise. According to the report, total household debt increased by $116 billion to $12.96 trillion in Q 3 2017. LendingTree Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze said although household debt is at a high, the financial obligations ratio and household debt service ratios remain favorable because of income growth and lower interest rates. "is favorable picture is dependent on low rates, which may face some upward pressure, but not to an extent we think will put borrowers under significant pressure," said Kapfidze. "It is also dependent on strength in home prices which we expect to continue given tight housing inventory and a strong labor market." Overall, the New York Fed's data found that mortgage debt increased by 0.6 percent, student debt increased by 1 percent, and credit card debt increased by 3.1 percent—while home equity lines of credit (HELOC) balances experienced a decrease by 0.9 percent. Kapfidze added that HELOC balances continuing to fall indicates that homeowners are not accessing their record equity for consumption. Additionally, the share of mortgage balances that were 90 or more days delinquent continued to improve, at 1.4 percent in Q 3, which is a decrease from 1.7 percent at the beginning of 2017, and an improvement from the 8.9 percent high reached in 2010. As 69,580 individuals had a new foreclosure notation added to their credit reports in Q 3 2017, foreclosures represented a new historical low. e report notes that its information is based on data from the New York Fed's Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample of individual and household-level debt and credit records drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data. CREDIT ACCESS REACHES NEW LEVELS According to the Q 3 Industry Insights Report by TransUnion, credit access is at an all- time high. 195.9 million consumers have access to revolving credit, including bank-issued and private label credit cards, auto loans, personal loans—and of course mortgages.. is number marks the highest level of credit yet measured by TransUnion. With greater access to credit comes a greater amount of loans, and TransUnion found that a record 142.5 million consumers had a balance on non-revolving loans, which consist of auto loans, mortgages, student loans and unsecured personal loans. In particular, the report mentioned that the national serious mortgage borrower delinquency rate, defined as the mortgage payments that are 60 or more days past due, were down approximately 16 percent on an annual basis to 1.91 percent at the end of the third quarter (Q1). e report also found that while delinquency rates were at their lowest point since the Great Recession, the total number of mortgages outstanding increased by almost 1 percent in the last year, marking a tally of 52.7 million. According to the report, this continues the second quarter's (Q2) and reverses the previous trend of yearly declines that started in the fourth quarter of 2014. TransUnion also stated that the average mortgage debt per borrower increased to $199,417, which was a growth trend that had not been previously broken since the first quarter of 2005. However, while average mortgage debt per borrower has increased, the report states that average new account balances dropped by 2.4 percent from the last year to $224,502. According to TransUnion, this drop in new account balances can be attributed to a decline in refinance origination shares to 33 percent in 2017 from 37 percent in 2016, according to an Ellie Mae statistic cited by the report. Additionally, TransUnion states that refinance mortgages tend to hold higher balances than purchase mortgages. "Serious mortgage delinquency rates continue to drop to new post-recession lows, indicating there may be opportunities to responsibly expand access," said Joe Mellman, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion. However, Mellman noted that the drops in delinquency rates were usually preceded by periods of flat delinquencies. He also noted that drops in delinquency rates were also accompanied by higher interest rates and market saturation, both of which negatively impact the refinance market share. Credit access is at an all-time high according to TransUnion's Q3 Industry Insights Report. Per the report, 195.9 million consumers now have access to revolving credit. KNOW THIS

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