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California Credit Dashboard Q1 Update: Delinquencies Decrease Slightly, Credit Scores Increase Slightly, and New Mortgages Up $30,000

May 21, 2024, Berkeley, CA — The nonpartisan California Policy Lab posted updated data to the California Credit Dashboard today, with data through the end of March 2024.

“Our new data show slight improvements in some credit conditions, though interest rates continue to keep people out of the mortgage market,” explains Evan White, Executive Director of the California Policy Lab’s UC Berkeley site, and a member of the research team that created and maintains the dashboard. “Some seasonal trends, like delinquencies, often improve in the first quarter but are still worse than the same time last year.”

The Dashboard includes a new California Financial Trends snapshot showing how recent changes in credit scores, delinquencies, monthly payments, and new loan amounts compare to the previous quarter, the same quarter 1 year ago, 5 years ago, and 10 years ago.

3 example trends in Q1, 2024:

Delinquencies were down 0.25% from last quarter, but up 1.7% from this time last year: 5.6% of Californians are delinquent on at least one account, a trend which has been worsening since mid-2021. See more

Credit scores were up 0.14% from last quarter, though are mostly flat for the last year: The average credit score in California was 711, which is the same as March 2023, and contrasts with the steady rise in scores since 2013.

New mortgage amounts increased 3.7% (about $30,000) from last quarter: The average new mortgage amount in California in the first quarter of 2024 was $595,000. See more

That is a:

  • 1.7% increase from Q1, 2023
  • 3.8% increase from Q1, 2019
  • 23.5% increase from Q1, 2014

See 5 additional trends on the California Financial Trends snapshot.

California Credit Dashboard: Insights into Californians’ Financial Health
The interactive Dashboard includes 10 longitudinal charts for 6 types of debt (auto, credit card, home equity, mortgage, student, and other) and collections. The 10 figures can be sorted by 7 age groups, 9 economic regions, and 5 credit ratings. The Dashboard also includes 4 county-level maps which can be filtered by generation, loan type, credit score, and timeframe (2004 to present).

Using the interactive the maps, users can compare:

  • Delinquency rates
  • New loan amounts
  • Monthly payments
  • Credit score trends

Note: The California Policy Lab’s Data Point, Introducing the California Credit Dashboard, shows examples of how the figures can be adjusted to show differences by region, generation, and credit ratings.

More about the California Credit Dashboard
The Dashboard uses credit-bureau data from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel. All figures in the Dashboard are based on a 2% random sample of individuals. Where applicable, the results are multiplied by 50 to obtain the full-population estimate. A technical appendix provides detailed information about the data and underlying research. Several dozen faculty and graduate students from the University of California currently use this dataset for research.

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The California Policy Lab is a research institute based at the University of California that generates insights for government impact. Through hands-on partnerships with government agencies, CPL performs rigorous research across issue silos and builds the data infrastructure necessary to improve programs and policies that millions of Californians rely on every day.



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