Lender Processing Services' February 2010 Mortgage Monitor Report Shows Pace of Delinquencies Slowing, but Delinquency Rates at All-Time Highs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The February 2010 Mortgage Monitor report, released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS), a leading provider of mortgage performance data and analytics, shows that while delinquency rates in the U.S. have risen to historic highs, the pace of deterioration has slowed. However, the nation's housing market remains far from a full recovery.

Based on data extrapolated from the LPS servicing database, nearly 7.5 million loans are in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure, with an additional one million properties in REO or post-sale foreclosure. In addition, approximately 2.5 million loans that were current on Jan. 1, 2009, were 60 or more days delinquent (including foreclosures) as of Jan. 31, 2010. Despite extraordinary loss mitigation efforts that have resulted in the execution of approximately two million loan modifications -- including the federal government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) trial periods -- the number of new delinquencies since January 1, 2009, still exceeds this number by 25 percent.

The nation's pool of problem loans continues to grow and stagnate. More than 31 percent of loans that have been delinquent for six months are not yet in foreclosure, while 22.8 percent of loans delinquent for 12 months have not been moved to foreclosure status (up from 9.0 percent in 2008).

Older loans now make up a higher proportion of new delinquencies, as more loans experience repeat delinquencies. The average loan age of newly delinquent loans is now 46 months, as compared to an average newly delinquent loan age of 27 months in January 2007. During January 2010, 346,000 borrowers became delinquent for the first time, representing approximately 40 percent of all newly delinquent loans for the month.

Other key results from LPS' January 2010 Mortgage Monitor include:

    
    
    Total U.S. loan delinquency rate:         10.2 percent
    Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate:    3.3 percent
    Total U.S. non-current* loan rate:        13.5 percent
    States with most non-current* loans:      Florida, Nevada, Mississippi,
                                              Arizona, Georgia, California,
                                              Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and
                                              Ohio
    States with fewest non-current* loans:    North Dakota, South Dakota,
                                              Alaska, Wyoming, Montana,
                                              Nebraska, Vermont, Colorado,
                                              Oregon and Washington
    

*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state.

Note: Totals based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets.

LPS manages the nation's leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information from approximately 40 million loans across the spectrum of credit products. The company's research experts carefully analyze this data to produce dozens of charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations for LPS' monthly Mortgage Monitor Report.

To review the full report, listen to a presentation of the report or access an executive summary, visit http://www.lpsvcs.com/NEWSROOM/INDUSTRYDATA/Pages/default.aspx.

About Lender Processing Services

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) is a leading provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage and real estate industries. LPS offers solutions that span the mortgage continuum, including lead generation, origination, servicing, workflow automation (Desktop), portfolio retention and default, augmented by the company's award-winning customer support and professional services. Approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume are serviced using LPS' Mortgage Servicing Package (MSP). LPS also offers proprietary mortgage and real estate data and analytics for the mortgage and capital markets industries. For more information about LPS, visit www.lpsvcs.com.

SOURCE Lender Processing Services, Inc.