Here's why student loan delinquencies are so high

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Student loan delinquencies are growing, even as the subprime mortgage disaster and financial crisis recede into the past.

 

If there's a student loan crisis, it's here.

 

The share of U.S. student debt delinquent for at least 90 days rose slightly to 11.45 percent in the second quarter, according to the latest report on household debt and credit from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

 

That percentage has nearly doubled from a decade earlier, when it was 6.71 percent.

 

Student loan delinquency now is worse than mortgage repayment was at the depths of the housing crash, according to the same dataset.

 

Furthermore, experts believe that the reported delinquency rate understates the true level of non-repayment. Only 37 percent of student borrowers are in repayment and up-to-date on their payments, because roughly half of them are still in school, in deferment, or in another program that lets them avoid payments.

 

Widespread delinquency is a major problem for borrowers and the taxpayers who back most of their loans. It's getting worse at the same time that unemployment is falling, jobs are opening up and foreclosures and other kinds of debt problems are abating.