Family homes in arrears fall 31% in 2 years

The number of households in arrears on mortgage payments on their homes has fallen by almost one third in less than two years, according to the latest data from the Department of Finance.

However, there are still almost 30,000 principal dwelling house (PDH) mortgages with those lenders which are in arrears of greater than two years.

Overall, there were 82,271 PDH mortgages in arrears (all arrears past one day) at the end of April 2015 — a 1,976 decrease compared to March. That also marked a 23% decrease compared to the same point in April 2014 and a 31% decline from the 118,438 accounts which were in arrears in September 2013. There were 25,163 in arrears for less than 90 days and 57,108 for more than 90 days as of the end of April.