The early-stage delinquency rate (30 to 89 days past due) declined by 8.8% year over year and stands at 2.7% of total loans in repayment. Compared to five years ago, the early-stage delinquency rate has declined by 43.6%.
Both undergraduate and graduate early-stage delinquencies are at the lowest levels since peaking. For undergraduate loans, Q3 2016 had the lowest rate at 2.8% since the peak of 8.7% in Q4 2008, a decline of 67.1%; for graduate loans, the 1.9% rate is lower than the Q4 2009 peak of 4.0%, a decline of 52.9%.
The late-stage delinquency rate (90 days or more past due) declined by 14.9% year over year and stands at 1.9% of total loans in repayment. Compared to five years ago, the late-stage delinquency rate has declined by 51.4%.
As with early-stage delinquencies, both undergraduate and graduate late-stage delinquencies are at the lowest levels since peaking. Third-quarter 2016 had the lowest late-stage delinquencies rate at 2.1% for undergraduate loans, 71.4% lower than the Q2 2009 peak of 7.3%. Similarly at 1.2% for graduate loans, late-stage delinquencies are 56.0% lower than the Q1 2010 peak of 2.7%.
Annualized charge-offs declined by 20.8% year over year and stand at 1.9% of loans in repayment, the lowest Q3 charge-off rate since before the financial crisis. By comparison, the charge-off rate five years ago was 4.8%, representing a decline of 61.0% from Q3 2011 to Q3 2016.
Year over year, the percent of loans in forbearance status declined 1.5% with a current rate of 2.2%; loans in deferment declined 3.2% with a current rate of 18.2%; and loans in repayment increased 0.4% with a current rate of 74.5%; the percent of loans in grace status increased 7.1% and stands at 5.0%.
The overall private student loan balance increased by 0.8% with undergraduate loans continuing to make up a greater percentage of the overall balance at 86.2% compared to graduate loans at 13.8%. Of the total, the undergraduate loan balance increased 0.6% year over year, and the graduate loan balance decreased 3.8%.
Private student loan originations in academic year 2016-2017 increased 5.47% compared with academic year 2015-2016. Of this total, undergraduate loans account for 88.7% and graduate loans account for 11.3%.
Just over 93.2% of undergraduate private student loans included a cosigner in academic year 2016-2017, a rate that has steadily increased since academic year 2008-2009 when it stood at 75.8%. Conversely, the proportion of cosigned graduate loans has decreased for three consecutive academic years from AY2012/2013 to AY2014/15 and stands at just over 59.3%.