Consumers have returned to payment patterns that were typicalbefore the Great Recession, according to one of the threenationwide credit reporting bureaus.

A Sept. 19 TransUnionreport said consumers are once again making their mortgage paymentsfirst before making payments on auto loans and credit cardbalances.

During the Great Recession, the opposite occurred.

“We had previously determined that, beginning in 2008, consumershad a higher propensity to go delinquent on their mortgages than ontheir credit cards—a reversal of traditional payment patterns,” said SteveChaouki, co-author of the study and group vice president inTransUnion's financial services business unit.

“This occurred in an economic environment marked by the build-upand bursting of the housing bubble. In fact, it is broadly believedthat the shift in payment preferences was largely derived from thestruggles of the housing market. For the first time since thehousing bubble, we now see consumers valuing their mortgagepayments as much as their credit cards, though auto loans remainthe most valued of the three.”

Transunion examined average housing prices in major metropolitanareas along with the spread between credit card and mortgage loandelinquencies in those areas over the same periods.

Antoni Guitart, director of analytical services for TransUnion,said the credit bureau does not survey consumers about theirmotivations. However, he said consumer payment data supportsdifferent theories about the reasons underlying changes inbehavior.

For example, the credit bureau said it found a strongcorrelation between housing prices and payment behavior. Inmetropolitan areas like Los Angeles, where housing prices droppedsignificantly but then rebounded, a large number of consumers paidtheir credit card bills first during the downturn. However,consumers returned to previous patterns as home prices increased,Guitart said.