LPS' Mortgage Monitor Report Shows Both Foreclosure Starts and Sales Surged in January; Repeat Foreclosures Hit All-Time High
Jacksonville, FL -- The January Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS) shows that both foreclosure starts and sales spiked in the first month of 2012, up approximately 28 and 29 percent respectively. While one month of data does not necessarily indicate a trend, this surge could suggest the backlogged foreclosure pipeline is beginning to move. The January data also showed that the percentage of repeat foreclosures hit a new all-time high, with 47 percent of all foreclosure starts falling into that category.
Despite the sharp increase in foreclosure sales, the contrast between judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states remains stark, with sales in non-judicial states outpacing judicial by over three to one. While foreclosure inventories in judicial states still far outweigh those in non-judicial, the recent surge in foreclosure sales is having a significant impact on pipeline ratios. Even in judicial states, the average pipeline ratio is now at 63 months; though still more than twice as high as non-judicial states. This is down from a high of 147 months at its peak in February of 2011.
The January mortgage performance data also showed that new problem loan rates are still relatively low nationally at 1.4 percent. Still, pockets of trouble exist, and the top five states for new seriously delinquent loans in January were Nevada, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona and Georgia, respectively.
As reported in LPS' First Look release, other key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report include:
Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 7.97 %
Month-over-month change in delinquency rate: -2.2%
Total U.S foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 4.15%
Month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 1.1%
States with highest percentage of non-current* loans: FL, MS, NV, NJ, IL
States with the lowest percentage of non-current* loans: MT, AK, WY, SD, ND
*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state.
Notes:
(1) Totals are extrapolated based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets.
(2) All whole numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand.
About the Mortgage Monitor
LPS manages the nation's leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information on nearly 40 million loans across the spectrum of credit products. The company's research experts carefully analyze this data to produce a summary supplemented by dozens of charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations for LPS' monthly Mortgage Monitor Report. To review the full report, visit https://www.blackknightinc.com/.
About Lender Processing Services
Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) is a leading provider of integrated technology, services and mortgage performance data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. LPS offers solutions that span the mortgage continuum, including lead generation, origination, servicing, workflow automation, portfolio retention and default, augmented by the company's award-winning customer support and professional services. Approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume are serviced using LPS' loan servicing platform, MSP. LPS also offers proprietary mortgage and real estate data and analytics for the mortgage and capital markets industries.
