Lender Processing Services Inc. reports that the nation’s average mortgage loan delinquency exceeds 500 days in five of the 23 states where foreclosures must be approved by a court.
LPS reports that these “extremely delinquent” loans reported in New York, Florida, New Jersey, Hawaii and Maine are part of the nation’s 4.3 million pool of loans 90 days or more delinquent or in foreclosure.
By September the loan delinquency rate was 9.27%, while the combined percentage of delinquent and foreclosed loans brought the U.S. non-current rate to 13.11% of all active loans.
But while five of the judicial states reported extremely high delinquency rates, according to the LPS September Mortgage Monitor, the foreclosure timeline extension in non-judicial states “has been significantly more pronounced.”
Furthermore, historically high delinquency levels have a new twist.
The report finds that timelines in the 90-days or more delinquency category have continued to increase “even as inventories have declined.”
By the end of September up to 32% of the seriously delinquent loans turned into what LPS calls the “extremely delinquent” category, or loans that are past due 12 months or more.
On average these borrowers are 316 days delinquent and the average loan in foreclosure has not seen a payment in 484 days, or about 16 months.
Even the finding that September’s year-over-year delinquency rate dropped 7.8% is not good news--given that month-over-month delinquencies have increased.
In September 275,000 loans started foreclosure proceedings and 1.13 million or 1.84% of the loans that were current at the beginning of January were at least 60 days delinquent or in foreclosure by the end of September.
LPS expressed concern about the “increasing trend in this new problem loan category,” which indicates that the number of “extremely delinquent loans” continues to swell.
