While it is too early to call this a trend, there is some positive economic news coming out of the last quarter of 2009.  One bright spot is student loan repayment – for the first time in 15 months, there has been a drop in the late-payment rate.

Trans Union, the credit reporting agency, just released their first analysis of private student loan payment data.  The results show the ratio of late payments in this loan category dropped to 6.03% in the last quarter of 2009, against 6.34% in the third quarter.

These figures represent student loans that were at least 90 days past due.

According to Trans Union’s manager of Analytic and Decisioning Services, these findings are in line with in other consumer borrowing arenas such as mortgages and credit cards.  Along with surges in unemployment and household debt, late payments have increased in each of these sectors.

As a point of reference, the late payment rate on college loans was at 5.4% in 2008 before the jump to over 6%.  However, the fact that the delinquency rate has stabilized and started to drop seems to indicate that consumers may actually be getting control of their debt.

There are other factors that may be contributing to the trend.  The number of new student loans from private sources decreased in the last two years, in part due to economic concerns and tightening requirements for loan recipients.  The increase in co-signers on these loans seems to have helped reduce the overall delinquency rate.

The Trans Union representative points out that there is a difference in flexibility between federally-backed and private college loans. Private lenders and non-government financial institutions like banks are not as apt to reduce or defer payments when borrowers hit a rough stretch.

The study seems to indicate there is correlation between graduation rates and delinquency rates.  In addition, graduates of four-year programs seem to have a higher payment rate than graduates of two-year and technical schools.

The states with the highest delinquency rate in the 4^th quarter of 2009 were Florida (9.44%), Mississippi (9.09%) and Tennessee (9.07%).  All three of these states experience big increases in the number of unemployed residents in the last year.

Vermont (3.28%), New Hampshire (3.6%) and North Dakota (3.75%) showed the lowest delinquency rates for college borrowers. While the unemployment rates in these states have increased, it has been at a slower rate than the rest of the nation.