Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for January, 2014

Auto Loan Origination Hits 8 Year High

The number of new auto loans made in the first three quarters of 2013 grew to the highest level in eight years, according to data from Equifax, while car loan delinquencies fell to pre-Recession lows. The Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report found that between January and October 2013 there were 20.2 million new auto […]

Big Banks Take Small Business Loan Traffic From Credit Unions

After taking a back seat to small banks, credit unions and alternative lenders for the past several years, big banks are now making a bigger footprint in the small business loan market. Big banks – those with more than $10 billion in assets – approved a record 17.6 percent of their small business loan applicants […]

Consumer Delinquencies Fell in Third Quarter

Consumers did better at managing their debt in six of eight different loan categories in the 2013 third quarter, according to a recent survey from the American Bankers Association. The ABA’s Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin found that all taken together Americans were delinquent – by 30 days or more – on 1.63 percent of all […]

Auto and Student Loans Push Consumer Borrowing Up in November

Americans are starting to feel more confident in the economy these days, but only by a little bit. Consumer borrowing rose in November by its slowest pace in six months, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Total U.S borrowing grew by a seasonally adjusted 4.8 percent to a […]

Home Sales Speed Slowed in November

With the end of the fall buying season, U.S. homes took a little longer to go under contract in November, according to mortgage data website Redfin.com. The median number of days that homes stayed on the market before scoring a pending sale rose to 34 days from 31 days in October. At the same time […]