by Calculated Risk on 4/24/2012 04:15:00 PM

LPS released their First Look report for March today. LPS reported that the percent of loans delinquent declined in March from February. However the percent of loans in the foreclosure process remained at a very high level.

LPS reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) declined to 7.09% from 7.57% in February. This is the lowest delinquency rate since August 2008; however the percent of delinquent loans is still significantly above the normal rate of around 4.5% to 5%. The percent of delinquent loans peaked at 10.97%, so delinquencies have fallen over half way back to normal. Note: There is a seasonal pattern for delinquencies, and it is not unusual to see a decline in March.

The following table shows the LPS numbers for March 2012, and also for last month (Feb 2012) and one year ago (Mar 2011).

LPS: Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure
	Mar-12	Feb-12	Mar-11
Delinquent	7.09%	7.57%	7.78%
In Foreclosure	4.14%	4.13%	4.21%
Loans Less than 90 days	1,888,000	2,059,000	2,122,000
Loans More than 90 days	1,643,000	1,722,000	1,989,000
Loans In foreclosure	2,060,000	2,065,000	2,222,000
Total	5,591,000	5,846,000	6,333,000

The number of delinquent loans is down about 14% year-over-year (580,000 fewer mortgages deliquent), but the number of loans in the foreclosure process has only declined slightly year-over-year. This remains far above the "normal" level of around 0.5%.

On March New Home Sales:
• New Home Sales in March at 328,000 Annual Rate
• Comments on Housing and "Distressing Gap" Graph • New Home Sales graphs

On House Prices:
• Case Shiller: House Prices fall to new post-bubble lows in February NSA
• Real House Prices and Price-to-Rent Ratio at late '90s Levels
• House Price graphs