by Calculated Risk on 9/24/2012 09:08:00 AM

LPS released their First Look report for August today. LPS reported that the percent of loans delinquent decreased in August from July, and declined about 10% year-over-year. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process also decreased in August, but remain at a very high level.

LPS reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) decreased to 6.87% from 7.03% in July. 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 10.57%, so delinquencies have fallen over half way back to normal. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process declined to 4.04%.

The table below shows the LPS numbers for August 2012, and also for last month (July 2012) and one year ago (August 2011).

The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down about 10% year-over-year (530,000 fewer properties delinquent), and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is down 5% or 100,000 year-over-year.

The percent of loans less than 90 days delinquent is close to normal, but the percent (and number) of loans 90+ days delinquent and in the foreclosure process is still very high.

LPS: Percent Loans Delinquent and in Foreclosure Process
	August 2012	July 2012	August 2011
Delinquent	6.87%	7.03%	7.68%
In Foreclosure	4.04%	4.08%	4.12%
Number of properties:
Number of properties that are 30 or more, and less than 90 days past due, but not in foreclosure:	1,910,000	1,960,000	2,240,000
Number of properties that are 90 or more days delinquent, but not in foreclosure:	1,520,000	1,560,000	1,720,000
Number of properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory:	2,020,000	2,042,000	2,120,000
Total Properties	​5,450,000	5,562,000	6,080,000