The November Mortgage Monitor report from Lender Processing Services (LPS) showed that mortgage delinquencies at the end of last November were close to 25% less versus the January 2010 peak.
However, LPS also reported that the trend of fewer loans becoming delinquent, which was a major theme in 2010 and 1Q11, seems to have stopped.
Simultaneously, new problem loans or loans seriously delinquent as of the end of November that were current six months ago have not improved considerably in the past year. LPS noted.
The degree of stagnation might mean that even though the situation is not getting markedly worse, neither is it improving. Futhermore, inventories of troubled loans are still significantly more versus pre-crisis levels across the board, LPS reported.
The November mortgage performance data also reported that both new and repeat foreclosure starts fell in November, dropping nearly 30% from the month before.
With late-stage delinquencies in the pipeline still near 2 million, the sharp drop shows more clearly the impact of ongoing document reviews, added state legislation and new regulatory requirements instead of indicating a shifting trend.
Prepayment activity, which is an important indicator of refinancings, stayed strong after several straight months of growth. However, the October origination data showed a month-over-month drop of nearly 12%. While still the second highest level for the year, originations through October 2011 were down 21% versus the same period in 2010 and down almost 30% compared with 2009.
Other key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report are: total U.S. loan delinquency rate at 8.15%; month-over-month change in delinquency rate at 2.7%; total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate at 4.16%; month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate at 3.0%; the states with highest percentage of non-current loans include FL, MS, NV, NJ and IL; and the states with the lowest percentage of non-current loans are ND, AK, WY, SD and MT.
The non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in the given state.
