Foreclosure Starts Near Three-Year Lows in July, Average Loan Delinquency Now at Record 599 Days

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Based on Lender Processing Services' July Mortgage Monitor report released this week, foreclosure timelines continue their steady upward trend, as a payment has not been made on the average loan in foreclosure in a record 599 days.

Of the nearly 1.9 million loans that are 90 or more days delinquent but not yet in foreclosure, 42 percent have not made a payment in more than a year with an average delinquency of 397 days, also a new record. At the same time, first-time foreclosure starts in June were near three-year lows, and first-time delinquencies accounted for only 25 percent of new delinquent inventory.

As of the end of June, 4.1 million loans were either 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure, as delinquencies remain two times and foreclosures eight times pre-crisis levels. Foreclosure sales remain constricted, with foreclosure starts outnumbering sales by a factor of almost three to one. The slowdown is most pronounced in judicial foreclosure states, which maintain a foreclosure and seriously delinquent pipeline that is more than three times as long as non-judicial states. On average, at the current rate of foreclosure sales, judicial foreclosure states would require 111 months to work through inventories of loans that are 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure as compared to non-judicial states, which would be able to clear the inventories in approximately 32 months.

Mortgage Monitor Report Key Highlights:

• Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 8.34%

• Month-over-month change in delinquency rate: 2.4%

• Total U.S foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 4.11%

• Month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: -0.4%

• States with highest percentage of non-current* loans: FL, MS, NV, NJ, IL

• States with the lowest percentage of non-current* loans: MT, WY, AK, SD, ND

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