A steadily growing number of Australian homeowners are making their mortgage repayments on time, which is helping to give the nation's economy an overall boost.
New figures from ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) show that mortgage arrears fell to just 1.04 per cent in October 2017, continuing the steady decline that has been recorded throughout the past year, Business Insider Australia reports.
Back in January, the nation's mortgage arrears level stood at 1.29 per cent, indicating significant progress in the first ten months of the year alone.
The Northern Territory has recorded the greatest decline in mortgage arrears throughout 2017, with a 0.13 per cent drop, placing the state's current level at 1.57 per cent. This is followed by Western Australia, which has seen its mortgage arrears level fall by 0.09 per cent, then Queensland with its fall of 0.08 per cent and the Australian Capital Territory (0.07 per cent).
Meanwhile, mortgage arrears in South Australia have fallen by 0.05 per cent, while a decline of 0.04 per cent has been recorded in New South Wales over the past 12 months.
In Victoria, the number of people falling behind with their mortgage repayments has dropped by 0.02 per cent and in Tasmania it has declined by a modest but positive step in the right direction of 0.01 per cent.
Between September and October alone, significant progress was made in resolving some of the nation's mortgage arrears, with S&P explaining: "Queensland and Western Australia, where arrears have been more elevated for some time, recorded another month-on-month decline in mortgage delinquencies.
"In Queensland, arrears fell to 1.39 per cent in October from 1.47 per cent in September. In Western Australia, they declined to 2.12 per cent from 2.21 per cent a month earlier, against a backdrop of increasing loan balances."
Whether or not this trend will continue as we went into 2018, only time will tell.
