Coping with last December's annual spending frenzy was a bigger factor in home loan repayments over the first half of the year.Loans 30 days or more in arrears increased by two basis points to 1.22 per cent at June 2014, "rather than experiencing the usual second-quarter seasonal decrease," Fitch Ratings said in its periodic Dinkum report."The absence of a seasonal correction was due to the marginal impact of Christmas spending on borrowers in [the March quarter], when arrears were unchanged," it said."Arrears are expected to remain stable until year-end, as rising unemployment is offset by the strong housing market.""There were just 34 lenders' mortgage insurers' claims recorded worth A$1.6 million in the quarter, compared to 77 claims totalling $6 million in the March quarter."The significant decrease in the number of claims and the average claim amount is a result of the appreciating housing market," Fitch noted. Fitch said one measure of low-doc loan arrears, covering securitised loans, "saw a deterioration of 44 basis points" over the quarter "partially due to the redemption of three transactions with low arrears."