Auto Loan Delinquencies Surge 18% Among Young Americans

Auto loan delinquency rates jumped nearly 13% in the last year, according to a new report by Transunion, with young (under-30) Americans seeing a 17.8% surge in 60+ day delinquency rates, as auto loan debt rose for the 14th straight quarter to $17,352. While these are notable rises, the overall levels remain low for now, but subprime-loan-delinquencies rose notably to 5.31%. However, in a somewhat stunningly blinkered conclusion, Transunion’s Peter Terek notes “the uptick in delinquency reflects a healthy and thriving auto finance industry where credit is more broadly available to all consumers.” So delinquencies are great news…

As Transunion reports,

Auto loan delinquency rates jumped nearly 13% in the last year to close Q3 2014 at 1.16%. At the same time, auto loan debt rose for the 14th straight quarter to $17,352. The latest TransUnion auto loan report also found that delinquency rates increased most for the youngest population subset with those under the age of 30 seeing a nearly 18% rise.

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Auto loan debt per borrower rose 3.9% from $16,694 in Q3 2013 to $17,352 in Q3 2014. On a quarterly basis, auto loan debt increased 1.4% from $17,108 in Q2 2014. Auto loan balances rose in every state between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014. Among the largest U.S. cities, Phoenix, Atlanta and Chicago saw the largest yearly auto loan debt rises of approximately 5%.

Source: MarketWatch

TransUnion recorded 64.2 million auto loan accounts as of Q3 2014, up from 59.4 million in Q3 2013.

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The subprime delinquency rate (those consumers with a VantageScore® 3.0 credit score lower than 601) increased from 4.50% in Q3 2013 to 5.31% in Q3 2014. The share of non-prime, higher risk loan originations (with a VantageScore® 3.0 credit score lower than 661) grew by 14 basis points (from 36.39% in Q2 2013 to 36.53% in Q2 2014). This percentage is higher than what was observed five years ago near the end of the recession (31.67% in Q2 2009).

Read full report here