The number of delinquent mortgages continued declining into February based on comparisons for both the prior month and year, according to data from ""Lender Processing Services"":http://www.lpsvcs.com/Pages/default.aspx (LPS).
[IMAGE]The delinquency rate, which consists of loans at least 30 or more days past due but not in foreclosure, dropped 5 percent on a month-over-month basis, and 14 percent compared to the same time last year in February.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Overall, 5,846,000 properties were either 30 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure in February.
LPS uses a database with nearly 40 million mortgage loans to determine its month-end performance statistics.
The total loan delinquency rate stood at 7.57 percent for February, with 3,781,000 properties 30 or more days past due, and of that figure, 1,722,000 mortgages had fallen behind 90 or more days.
Foreclosure pre-sale inventory, which also saw a decline, numbered 2,065,000, with the foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate at 4.13 percent. Month-over-month, presale inventory rate fell 0.5 percent and dropped by 0.3 percent on a year-over-year basis.
States with highest percentage of non-current loans, which includes foreclosures and delinquencies, were Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, and Illinois.
States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans were Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota.