Personal loans, including loans for home renovations, have been making big payments in recent years, as interest rates have been lower and the cost of borrowing for those renovations has fallen.
But a report released Thursday by the National Association of Home Builders and loan servicers said that personal loan payments for the second consecutive year hit $31.3 billion for the three months ending Sept. 30.
The average payment for a loan is $4,700.
Personal loan originations for the same period fell 4.2 percent.
Personal loans were also up 7.1 percent for the six months ending in September from the same month last year.
That was good news for borrowers who are still paying down debt, said Richard Coyle, president of the National Mortgage Association, which represents loan servicars.
Personal lenders are continuing to make good progress, he said.
“They’re still making good progress.
We’ll see what happens when we go into a recession.”
Homeowners are continuing the slowest pace of payment growth in more than 10 years.
The median personal loan payment fell 6.7 percent in the past year, according to the report.
The number of loans serviced by the three leading mortgage servicers rose 7.2 million in the same time period.
The National Association estimates that there are more than 4.5 million personal loans in the U.S., and that roughly one-third of them are for home repairs.
The report said that total loan origination for the third quarter was $30 billion, a 4.6 percent increase from the previous quarter.
The group said that loan originating fees are also up 9.7 percentage points to $4.2 billion.
Loan origination is a component of interest rate adjustments and are calculated based on a borrower’s income.
For the six-month period ending in Sept. 2018, the median loan originator fee was $3,800.
The overall median loan fee for the period was $8,300.
The cost of servicing mortgages fell 1.6 percentage points from last year to $2,900, the group said.
Mortgage rates fell slightly to 4.8 percent from 5.5 percent in September.
Home prices in the metro Atlanta area rose 3.7% in the second quarter.
But the report said overall prices were still down about 8.4 percent.
That’s due in part to a slowdown in new listings.