NEW YORK -

The new and used vehicles moving out of dealership showrooms and their installment contracts filling finance company portfolios are now producing an origination pace not seen in almost a decade.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Q3 2014 Household Debt and Credit report showed auto loan originations in the third quarter totaled $105 billion, the highest amount in nearly 10 years.

Analysts also determined auto loan balances now have increased for 14 straight quarters. The streak has left the total amount of auto loan debt outstanding as of Q3 at $934 billion.

Meanwhile, the New York Fed found that 90-day delinquencies in the auto space dropped marginally on a sequential basis, ticking down to 3.1 percent in Q3 from 3.3 percent a quarter earlier.

All the of the paper being pushed through F&I offices helped to push Q3 outstanding household debt up by $78 billion from the previous quarter, led by balance increases in all measured categories except home equity lines of credit (HELOC).

At $11.71 trillion, the New York Fed reported total household indebtedness remains $970 billion below the peak of $12.68 trillion reached in Q3 2008.

Additionally, mortgage debt increased by $35 billion, and non-housing debt was up $48 billion (auto loans $29 billion higher, credit cards $11 billion higher and student loans $8 billion higher). Home equity lines of credit (HELOC) decreased $9 billion, continuing a three-year decline.

This report is based on data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data.

“Outstanding household debt, led by increases in auto loans, student loans and credit card balances, has steadily trended upward in recent quarters,” said Wilbert van der Klaauw, senior vice president and economist at the New York Fed.

“In light of these data, it appears that the deleveraging period has come to an end and households are borrowing more,” van der Klaauw added.