Consumer credit defaults, including on first and second mortgages, fell to a new post-recession low in March.
The composite Standard & Poor’s/Experian index fell to 1.96% in March, its lowest level since it sat at 1.85% in July 2007.
Defaults on first mortgages declined to 1.88% and second liens to 1.03%, low points for both since July 2007 and August 2005, respectively.
Only bankcard defaults, one of four measures that make up the composite index, increased, up to 4.47% from 4.41% in February.
Still, the overall decline in consumer defaults reflects an overall trend of decline since the depths of the recession and financial crisis. Defaults peaked at 5.51% in May 2009, according to S&P and Experian.
Default rates fell in March in four of the five major metropolitan areas — New York, Chicago, Dallas and Miami — measured in the index. Los Angeles saw a slight uptick to 1.88% from 1.87% a month earlier.
The default index complies info form Experian’s database that covers roughly $11 trillion in loans and 11,500 lenders.
