First, LPS released their Mortgage Monitor report for April today. According to LPS, 6.21% of mortgages were delinquent in April, down from 6.59% in March
LPS reports that 3.17% of mortgages were in the foreclosure process, down from 4.20% in April 2012.
This gives a total of 9.38% delinquent or in foreclosure. It breaks down as:
• 1,717,000 properties that are 30 or more days, and less than 90 days past due, but not in foreclosure.
• 1,394,000 properties that are 90 or more days delinquent, but not in foreclosure.
• 1,588,000 loans in foreclosure process.
For a total of 4,699,000 loans delinquent or in foreclosure in April. This is down from 5,617,000 in April 2012.
Click on graph for larger image.
The first graph from LPS shows percent of mortgage delinquent and in-foreclosure by month.
The percent of delinquent loans is still high (normal is in the 4% to 5% range), but the percent of delinquent loans is falling quickly.
The second graph shows the percent of loans in foreclosure in judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states.
[T]he disparity in foreclosure timelines between judicial and non-judicial states — continues to grow. Still, as LPS Applied Analytics Senior Vice President Herb Blecher explained, the steady return to a relative degree of normality in the foreclosure sale rate has helped to bring down foreclosure inventories at the national level.
“The foreclosure sale rate in judicial states rose nearly 17 percent from March to April,” Blecher said. “This is the highest that rate has been since the moratoria and process reviews in the fall of 2010 led to a near-complete halt in the process in both judicial and non-judicial states. Non-judicial rates were relatively quick to bounce back, but judicial states experienced a much slower, though steady, increase. This has helped drive an overall decline in foreclosure inventory at the national level, which is now at 3.2 percent — its lowest point in four years.
“The situation is far from resolved,” Blecher stressed. “Foreclosure inventories in judicial states are still more than three times the size of those in non-judicial states, and national inventories are still more than seven times pre-crisis levels. Additionally, recently announced moratoria will need to be monitored to determine the impact on timelines, as well as the rate of the improvement trend.”
There is much more in the mortgage monitor.
Friday economic releases:
• At 8:30 AM, the BLS will release the Employment Report for May. The consensus is for an increase of 167,000 non-farm payroll jobs in May; the economy added 165,000 non-farm payroll jobs in April. The consensus is for the unemployment rate to be unchanged at 7.5% in May.
• At 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for April from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $14.0 billion in April.