LPS Reports Delinquencies Still Rising

""Lender Processing Services, Inc."":http://www.lpsvcs.com (LPS), a Florida-based provider of mortgage technology and services, released its ""May 2009 LPS Mortgage Monitor"":http://www.lpsvcs.com/NEWSROOM/INDUSTRYDATA/Pages/default.aspx on Tuesday, which provides market performance indicators based on mortgage data collected through April of this year.
LPS reported that total mortgage delinquencies in April rose slightly to 8.1 percent, with a year-over-year increase of 43 percent. In an interesting vintage delinquency analysis, the report shows that recent loans are showing a clear and steady trend of improvement through reduced delinquency rates. LPS found that mortgages originated in 2009 have a lower default rate than those originated between 2004 to 2008.
The national foreclosure rate for April was 2.7 percent, LPS said, representing a year-over-year increase of 90.5 percent. LPS found positive news in foreclosure starts, however, which declined in April from March's spike, although April's foreclosure start rates remains higher than all other prior months.
However, LPS' May report indicates a steady increase in the number of loan modifications involving reductions in interest rates or unpaid principal balances. LPS' analysis of loans six months post-modification reveals that principal reductions lower the re-default rate by 25 percent.
This month's Mortgage Monitor also analyzes delinquency and foreclosure rates by state and reports that although the national average of loans in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure is 10.8 percent, in Florida, almost one in five homes falls into this category, the highest in the nation in April.
LPS' monthly ""Mortgage Monitor report"":http://www.lpsvcs.com/NEWSROOM/INDUSTRYDATA/Pages/default.aspx is based on data from the company's repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information, including more than 40 million active loans across the credit spectrum. According to LPS, approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages are serviced using its technology.