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I included them in the story last night but I wanted to pull these new numbers out in case you missed them:
The share of San Diego County borrowers holding subprime loans who are at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments shrank very slightly between March and June, dropping from 38.5 percent in March to 38.31 percent in June, according to First American CoreLogic.
These are the now-infamous loans that seduced borrowers with poor credit. Defaulting subprime loans have been blamed for many of the housing market’s ills.
But while the default rate hasn’t grown for subprime, trouble is growing for Alt-A and prime loans.
The category above subprime known as Alt-A — the higher-risk loans for good-credit borrowers — saw defaults increase between March and June. In that category, 27.18 percent of the borrowers were at least 60 days delinquent by the end of June, up from 25.41 percent in March.
More prime borrowers are at least 60 days behind — 7.04 percent in June compared to 5.99 percent in March.
You can read more about the breakdown in these defaults by loan type in this story that fleshed out those March numbers.
Back then, I spoke with Dave McDonald, a local mortgage broker and president of the San Diego chapter of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers, who said he’d been hearing from clients with Alt-A loans, wondering if they should walk away.
I just caught McDonald on the phone. He said he’s still hearing many of the same rumblings, but most people are still making their payments even if they’re upside-down.
Here’s more of what McDonald told me this morning:
The rates are really good and everything but along with those lower rates, the lenders are still increasing credit score requirements and a lot of people are losing jobs.
I’m seeing all this recovery news and everything — it could be happening. But I probably would say that I don’t believe in the stats. I don’t know how there could be such a recovery. I’m expecting an uptick in sales prices because of the (more expensive) properties that are selling, but there’s so much left that hasn’t really dropped yet. …
Everybody’s still feeling it out, especially in San Diego.