Financially stressed homeowners have increasingly been forced to choose which bills to pay and which to delay.

In a notable shift, U.S. consumers were 19% more likely to pay their auto loan than their mortgage for the two years spanning 2023 to 2025, according to a recent white paper by credit scoring company FICO.

One simple factor creating this payment hierarchy, FICO notes, is monthly payments are generally lower for vehicles than mortgages. But the report also observes that “while the mortgage foreclosure process takes longer and there are more legal protections for homeowners, automobiles can be repossessed with little notice,” adding urgency to paying that auto bill collecting dust on the kitchen counter.

From 2020 to 2022, car loans took a backseat to mortgages in the payment hierarchy. They were also behind student loans, which fell to fifth in the 2023-25 period behind personal loans and credit cards.

Those trends were partially due to the pandemic-era CARES Act, which paused student loan payments and provided 0% interest rates with no interest accrued on eligible loans. The 0% interest period ended Sept. 1, 2023, and required payments restarted in October 2023.

“Many consumers might not have prioritized student loans over the last two years because the forbearance and on-ramp periods meant many borrowers hadn’t made payments since 2020 (or ever, if their loans were taken out after 2020 or were previously in deferment) and were unfamiliar with the process of paying, the lack of consequences of nonpayment, and servicing issues,” the report states.

Meanwhile, more consumers were able to pay their mortgages during 2020-22 compared with the subsequent three years because of lower interest rates. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell as low as 2.65% during January 2021, according to Freddie Mac data, before spiking as high as 7.79% during October 2023.

But among consumers with a prime FICO score of 700 or more, mortgages remained atop the payment hierarchy throughout the 2020 to 2025 timespan. Besides the obvious fact that people with higher credit scores are more likely to be financially secure, the FICO report notes that “with recent home price increases, high-scoring consumers are more likely to have home equity they can tap into to help them avoid mortgage delinquency.”

The average FICO score fell two points year over year to 715 in April, in part because of the resumption of student loan delinquency reporting.