When Rising Foreclosures are Good News

Who says rising foreclosures are bad? Keep in mind that there are many default management firms and specialty servicers that make a living off of high touch loans and foreclosures. In a new report Sterne Agee analyst Greg Smith notes that according to a just published 'Mortgage Monitor' report from Lender Processing Services, foreclosure starts totaled 248,000 units in August, up 20% over July. However, year-over-year the decline was 12%, but when you combine July and August foreclosure starts, the third quarter is tracking to 683,000 foreclosure starts – “nicely ahead of the 602k starts reported by LPS in 2Q11,” writes Smith. Rising foreclosures means loan facilitation revenue will rise at LPS. Sterne Agee now anticipates that LPS will meet its earnings per share estimate of $0.55 for the third quarter…