A new report says the percentage of homeowners late with mortgage payments hit another record during the last three months of 2009, and the pace at which they fell behind took a turn for the worse.
The credit reporting agency TransUnion said 6.89 percent of mortgage payments were 60 or more days past due in the fourth quarter of 2009. That's up from 4.58 percent in the final three months of 2008. The old record delinquency rate was 6.25 percent in the third quarter of 2009.
The latest report marked the 12th consecutive quarter - equal to three full years - that delinquency rates have risen from the previous year.
More worrisome was that the quarter-to-quarter trend veered higher after declining in each of the previous three quarters.