Tell-tale stat: Luxury home owner default rate hits highest level since 1992

It's another stat that's indicative of the challenging times for both homeowners and lenders: luxury homeowners are falling behind in their payments at levels not seen in more than a decade.

About 2.6% of prime borrowers who took out a jumbo loan last year were at least 60 days delinquent -- the highest delinquency rate since at least 1992, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing data compiled by LPS Applied Analytics.

Jumbo loans typically involve purchases of luxury or larger homes and they carry a higher interest rate than conventional loans. The latter, provided they are not larger than $417,000 (up to $729,500 in high-cost areas, such as New York and Los Angeles), are eligible for sale by lenders to Fannie Mae (FNM) or Freddie Mac (FRE).