If you’ve never fallen behind, or it’s been over 5 years since you paid off your delinquent debts, there’s no record.

It's kind of similar in the US, negative things are gone 7 years later, regardless of whether they were resolved.

The country is Estonia. Mortgage delinquency rates are 0.17% over 60 days late as of last year. Home ownership rate is about 80% and a lot of those are mortgaged.

I'm seeing about 20% of homeowners having mortgages in Estonia, I wouldn't call 1 in 5 a lot. It's more like 60% in the US.

Also reading up on this, it looks like some post Soviet-era policies gave a lot of people the ability to buy their homes outright for a fraction of the cost in the 90s, so it seems a lot of what you're saying is the result of inertia from that. From what I read, it also seems Estonians are more likely than Americans to 'live within their means' as well, being much more averse in general to going into debt. That's definitely going to contribute to that low delinquency rate.

There are good reasons to avoid delinquency. The bailiffs can get your bank accounts even in other EU countries arrested if you keep refusing to pay. Also the debt registry system is fairly effective. You won’t be getting any major credit for at least 5 years once you’re in on it.

This all sounds pretty similar to how it is in the US.

Banks are also willing to work with people on alternative payment schedules if they get in trouble. I’d wager that saves everyone involved some money and time too.

This is also true in the US.

Overall, from what I'm seeing, I don't think any of the significant differences you've mentioned between Estonia and the US can be chalked up to how our credit score system works versus how it is there—you honestly describe a very similar system, and there are much more obvious reasons for the differences that I saw in the bit of research I did.