A report from Lender Processing Services last week shows the housing market to still be beset by a foreclosure crisis, though the siege has started to weaken some. Still, the recent good news may not be as positive as some think. As reported by Mortgage Servicing News:
[The] report shows frequent in and out loan delinquency and foreclosure traffic is one of the reasons why apparent improvements in the nation’s distressed mortgage market are relative, if not meaningless, when seen as part of the overall picture.
LPS reports that repeat foreclosures or loans that had cured in one way or another but have fallen back into foreclosure now account for over 35% of foreclosure starts.
It means the fact that foreclosure starts decreased 11.4% in the first month of 2011 compared to December and 20.1% annually does not call for rejoicing even though the good news is that there is some stability in the number of those who are adding up to the existing number of distressed borrowers. (Similarly, new seriously delinquent loan rates also improved as all states reported significant annual declines in new seriously delinquent loan inventory.)
The bad news is that despite government/private sector efforts to help keep these distressed borrowers in their homes the assistance given to many of those who repeatedly go into foreclosure may be futile and just postponing the inevitable.
For more see here.
Also here are the raw LPS numbers as of the end of January this year from LRU News:
- As of January 31, 2011, there are now more than 2.2 million loans 90 days or more delinquent but not yet in foreclosure, with more than 6.9 million loans in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure.
- Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 8.9 percent
- Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate: 4.16 percent
- Total U.S. non-current* loan rate: 13.1 percent
- States with most non-current* loans: Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, Georgia, New Jersey
- States with fewest non-current* loans: Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota
For more see here.