Residential mortgage loan delinquencies in metro Atlanta -- borrowers 60 or more days past due -- declined in the first quarter of 2011, the fifth consecutive three-month period in which they have fallen.
However, delinquencies here were still higher than the national average, which also decreased for the fifth straight quarter.
The data was reported by TransUnion, a credit reporting agency.
"It's a mixed message," said Tim Martin, group vice president of the U.S. housing market for TransUnion. While Atlanta continues to improve, he said, "it's a long way to getting back to something like normal."
In the first quarter of 2007, the delinquency rate in metro Atlanta was 3.2 percent, which Martin said was closer to normal.
For the first quarter of this year, 8 percent of Atlanta's mortgages were 60 or more days overdue. Nationwide, the average was 6.2 percent.
In the first quarter of 2010, 9 percent of mortgages in Atlanta were delinquent.
The year-over-year decline shown in the data for the first quarter of this year represents a change. Atlanta mortgage loan delinquencies increased by 34 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, and increased by 24 percent from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. They decreased by 10 percent from the first quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011.
Delinquent loans in Atlanta have increased by 48 percent since the beginning of the recession in the fourth quarter of 2007.
