Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for April, 2016

Mortgage Applications Fall as Economy Looks Brighter

This past week was good for investors but disappointing for mortgage lenders, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA’s Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage application volume, fell 4.1 percent during the week ended April 22, 2016. While applications for home purchase loans dipped 2 percent, refinance requests […]

Fitch: Dip in Auto Delinquencies Will Not Last

The percentage of seriously delinquent auto loans fell in March, but Fitch Ratings says that it was just a seasonal drop that will not become a trend. Seriously delinquent car loans – those with late payment of 90 days or more – reached a 20-year high in February of 5.16 percent before declining in March to […]

Mortgage Delinquencies Fell in Fourth Quarter as Auto Loan Late Payments Jumped

U.S. mortgages and related loans fell significantly during the 2015 fourth quarter, according to recent data from the American Bankers Association. In its Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin the ABA reported that two out of the three home loan categories it tracks showed marked improvement. Home equity lines of credit (HELOC) delinquencies fell to 1.18 percent […]

Small Business Lending Got a Boost in February and March

Two separate indexes released this week show that small business lending has been picking up over the last two months, a welcome sign of a stronger economy. The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index , a measure of small business borrowing, rose to a reading of 138 in February, up 17 percent from the month […]