The rate of serious delinquencies on residential mortgages was up in December 2012, after also rising each of the preceding three months, according to data from the S&P/Experian Credit Default Indices, Mortgage Daily reported Jan. 15. Second mortgage delinquencies also moved higher in December.

As of Dec. 31, first mortgages at least 90 days past due accounted for 1.68 percent of all outstanding liens. The December rate was 0.1 percent higher than November. The rate on 90-day first mortgages has increased each month since the post-recession low of 1.36 percent in September.

Late payments on second mortgages also have increased, with the delinquency rate at 0.69 percent at the end of December, up from 0.62 percent in November, Mortgage Daily reported.

“Fourth-quarter consumer default rates reversed some of the recent declines and pushed the composite default rate above its level of last May,” David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in the report, Mortgage Daily reported. “The principal culprits were first and second mortgages.”

The five largest metropolitan statistical areas all experienced increases in composite delinquency rates in December, with Miami maintaining its position as the MSA with the highest rate at 3.07 percent. Dallas, on the other hand, had the lowest delinquency rate of 1.26 percent.