U.S. consumers are doing better about paying their mortgages on time, indicating that the worst might be over for financial stress in households.

While the unemployment rate continues to grow and will probably top 10 percent in 2010, fewer people are filing for jobless benefits and housing prices have stabilized, giving consumers some hope, USA Today reported.

“As new jobless claims start to slow, there will be fewer people with payment issues,” Brian Foley, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, told the newspaper.

In the third quarter, the number of home equity loans at Bank of America that were more than 90 days delinquent dropped by $146 million, the newspaper said. “(It’s) the first decrease since the start of this credit cycle,” it quoted BofA’s CFO Joe Price as saying.

“We’re at an inflection point – delinquencies are a measure of households’ financial stress, and perhaps the worst is over,” says Sara Johnson, an economist at IHS Global Insight.

At JPMorgan Chase, loan payments late by over 90 days in the third quarter were down to 2.8 percent of total loans, compared with 3.3 percent in the second quarter.

“There seems to be stability in the environment in terms of consumer spending…that could be forming the base of a recovery,” the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon said.

USA Today also noted that consumers are making the same kind of on-time payments for credit card bills – another sign that financial worries have eased.

At Wells Fargo, the loss rate on its credit card portfolio fell to 10.9 percent from 11.6 percent of loans.

The run-up in the stock market since March is also encouraging consumers, especially the more affluent among them, the newspaper said.

American Express, a barometer of higher-end household spending, saw a drop in its 30-day delinquency rate to 4.1 percent from 4.4 percent.

“The trends in card member spending are encouraging, and there are signs that the recession may be approaching an end,” CEO Kenneth Chenault said.