First mortgage and bank card default rates rose to 2.17 percent and 4.91 percent in November, from 2.08 percent and 4.85 percent in October, respectively, according to the latest S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices. Second mortgage and auto loan default rates decreased slightly. Second mortgages moved down from 1.29 percent in October to 1.26 percent in November, and auto loans from 1.22 percent to 1.17 percent. The increases in first mortgage and bank card rates, however, caused the national composite to rise from 2.15 percent to 2.22 percent
“As we indicated last month, the weight of first mortgage default rates tends to drive the trend in the national composite,” said David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Indices. “First mortgage default rates rose for the third consecutive month, leading the same pattern for the composite.”
All five major Metropolitan Statistical Areas showed increases in default rates in November. Los Angeles had the highest default rates increase among these MSAs, from 2.15 percent in October to 2.53 percent in November. Miami, Chicago and New York increased to 4.47 percent, 2.84 percent and 2.21 percent in November, from 4.16 percent, 2.64 percent and 2.09 percent in October, respectively. Chicago, Los Angeles and New York have all seen at least three consecutive months of increasing default rates. Dallas default rate moved up slightly from 1.30 percent in October to 1.38 percent in November.