National mortgage loan delinquency rates for loans delinquent 60 days or more fell for the second quarter in a row to 6.67%, according to TransUnion’s quarterly trend analysis released Tuesday; a sign the housing sector is beginning to stabilize. The 1.48% drop in Q210 follows an 18.52% drop in Q110 for loans delinquent 60 days or more. Delinquent loans accounted for 6.77% of the all loans in Q110. The current delinquency rate is still up 14.8% from the same quarter last year when the rate was 5.81%. TransUnion reported that loans delinquent 90+ and 120+ days also decreased for the first time since the recession hit in 2007. The credit-reporting group said 64% of all metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) showed a decline in 90-day delinquent mortgages, up from 45% last quarter, and the percentage of MSAs that reported a decline in 120-days delinquent mortgages nearly doubled from last quarter. “The second quarter decline in mortgage delinquency gives further credence to the notion that the credit market is stabilizing,” said FJ Guarrera, vice president in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “Although this is good news for the consumer, the economy is still burdened by high unemployment, upcoming ARM resets and a glut of foreclosures.” Nevada (15.86%) and Florida (15.02%) continued to lead the states in terms of the highest delinquency rates in Q210. North Dakota (1.61%), South Dakota (2.23%) and Nebraska (2.61%) had the lowest mortgage-delinquency rates. The average national mortgage debt per borrower decreased to $191,284. This is 0.77% lower than Q110’s average of $192,774. On a year-over-year basis, the second quarter 2010 average represents a 1.3% decrease over the second quarter 2009 average mortgage debt per borrower level of $193,811. Year-over-year TransUnion reported a 50% drop in mortgage originations across all states with Idaho and Wisconsin experiencing the steepest declines (down 58.7% and 58.6% respectively). TransUnion predicts a gradual drop in delinquency rates for the remainder of 2010, nearing 6.4% by the end of the year, assuming that both real estate values and unemployment improve. TransUnion, one of the three major US credit bureaus, conducts a survey of 27m credit files from its total consumer base each quarter, representing about one in every nine files in its database of 250m consumer files. Write to Christine Ricciardi.