5.6 million mortgages in America are delinquent

Foreclosure sales slump to December 2010 levels

According to the Lender Processing Services (LPS) Mortgage Monitor report, March foreclosure starts rose 8.1 percent from the previous month, remaining 31 percent below March 2011 levels, and first-time foreclosure starts hit a five month high. LPS notes that despite the increase, the number of first-time foreclosure starts in March was still far below those seen throughout much of 2011 and all of the previous three years. The total U.S. loan delinquency rate is now at 7.09 percent, or 5,591,000 loans delinquent or in foreclosure, which is down 6.3 percent from February.

Foreclosure inventory levels remain steady ad their historically high levels maintained since the end of 2010, with varying performance rates betwen judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states. Inventory levels at judicial states are at 6.5 percent while non-judicial state levels are at 2.45 percent (2.5 times lower than judicial states’ levels), with the total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate hitting 4.14 percent, down 0.1 percent from the month prior.

Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada and Illinois have the highest percentage of non-current loans, LPS reports, while Montana, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming and North Dakota have the lowest percentage of non-current loans.

LPS’ Mortgage Monitor report reveals that mortgage delinquencies have continued to slide, reaching their lowest level since August 2008, with loans 90+ days delinquent falling across the board. The rate of loans that were current six months ago but are now delinquent continues to improve nationally, but LPS observes that “the LPS March mortgage performance data did show that foreclosure sales continued to behave somewhat erratically, dropping to their lowest level since December 2010, and most sharply in non-judicial states.”