LPS' September Mortgage Monitor: One-Month Delinquency Rise Tied to Early-Stage Missed Payments, Shortened Transactional Period; Originations at Three-Year High

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The September Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) looked at the significant month-over-month increase in the nation's delinquency rates – up 7.7 percent from August, and representing the largest monthly increase since 2008. While September has historically been marked by seasonal rises in delinquencies, this was still a marked upturn. However, according to LPS Applied Analytics Senior Vice President Herb Blecher, it is important to view the month's data in its proper context.

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"September's increase in the delinquency rate was indeed significant, but the overall trend is still one of improvement," Blecher said. "Despite the monthly jump, delinquencies are down 30 percent from their January 2010 peak, and our analysis revealed some interesting factors related to the spike. Of course, one month's data does not indicate a trend. We will be monitoring these factors over the coming months to see how the situation develops."

Blecher continued, "September 2012 was notable in its short duration of business days and virtually all transactional or operational metrics we observed declined in volume for the month; foreclosure starts, foreclosure sales, delinquent cures and loan prepayments all dropped from their August levels. It is important to note that we also saw the percentage of re-defaulting modifications contributing to the delinquency rate actually declined from the month prior."

Newly available origination data also provided additional insight into the increase seen in August's prepayment rates. After allowing a month for loan data to board, originations in August were found to be up 13.2 percent month-over-month and 42.1 percent year-over-year, reaching their highest point since 2009. The data shows that high loan-to-value HARP originations made up nearly a quarter of August originations.

As reported in LPS' First Look release, other key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report include:

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

Totals are extrapolated based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets.

About the Mortgage Monitor
LPS manages the nation's leading repository of loan-level residential mortgage data and performance information on nearly 40 million loans across the spectrum of credit products. The company's research experts carefully analyze this data to produce a summary supplemented by dozens of charts and graphs that reflect trend and point-in-time observations for LPS' monthly Mortgage Monitor Report. To review the full report, visit http://www.lpsvcs.com/LPSCorporateInformation/CommunicationCenter/DataReports/Pages/Mortgage-Monitor.aspx

About Lender Processing Services
LPS (NYSE: LPS) delivers comprehensive technology solutions and services, as well as powerful data and analytics, to the nation's top mortgage lenders, servicers and investors. As a proven and trusted partner with deep client relationships, LPS offers the only end-to-end suite of solutions that provides major U.S. banks and many federal government agencies the technology and data needed to support mortgage lending and servicing operations, meet unique regulatory and compliance requirements and mitigate risk. 

These integrated solutions support origination, servicing, portfolio retention and default servicing. LPS' servicing solutions include MSP, the industry's leading loan-servicing platform, which is used to service approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume. The company also provides proprietary data and analytics for the mortgage, real estate and capital markets industries.

Lender Processing Services is a Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., employing approximately 8,000 professionals. For more information, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.

SOURCE Lender Processing Services