Vermont continues to see increase in bad mortgages

The percent of delinquent and foreclosed mortgages in Vermont continues to increase slowly, as the 2011 increase in non-current mortgages was 7.9 percent. The November Mortgage Monitor report released today by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS) shows that while mortgage delinquencies at the end of November 2011 were nearly 25 percent less than the January 2010 peak, the trend toward fewer loans becoming delinquent, which dominated 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, appears to have halted. At the same time, new problem loans - those loans seriously delinquent as of the end of November that were current six months prior - have not improved significantly in the last year. This degree of stagnation indicates that while the situation is not getting markedly worse, it is not improving either, and inventories of troubled loans remain significantly higher than pre-crisis levels across the board.
The November mortgage performance data also showed both new and repeat foreclosure starts dropped sharply in November, down nearly 30 percent from the month prior. As late-stage delinquencies in the pipeline still number close to 2 million, the sharp drop is more indicative of the impact of ongoing document reviews, additional state legislation and new regulatory requirements rather than a shift in trend.
Prepayment activity - a key indicator of refinances - remained strong after several consecutive months of growth; however the October origination data showed a month-over-month drop of nearly 12 percent. While still the second highest level for the year, originations through October 2011 were down 21 percent vs. the same period in 2010 and down almost 30 percent vs. 2009.
As reported in LPS' First Look release, other key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report include:
Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 8.15%
Month-over-month change in delinquency rate: 2.7%
Total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 4.16%
Month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 3.0%
States with highest percentage of non-current* loans: FL, MS, NV, NJ, IL
States with the lowest percentage of non-current* loans: ND, AK, WY, SD, MT
*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state.
Notes:
(1) Totals are extrapolated based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets.
(2) All whole numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand.

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/NEWSROOM/INDUSTRYDATA/Pages/default.aspx.
About Lender Processing Services
Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) is a leading provider of integrated technology, services and mortgage performance data and analytics 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' loan servicing platform, 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.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jan. 6, 2012 -