LPS' January Mortgage Monitor: "Time-to-Clear" Default Backlog Still Extreme in Some Regions; Certain Non-Judicial States' Pipeline Ratios Extending Due to Legislative, Legal Actions

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The January Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) found significant differences continue in foreclosure pipelines between states with judicial and non-judicial foreclosure processes. Though both foreclosure starts and sales rates have been relatively volatile at the national level due to the effects of regional processes and compliance issues, the foreclosure inventory in judicial states remains three times that of non-judicial states. However, according to LPS Applied Analytics Senior Vice President Herb Blecher, even this now-familiar judicial/non-judicial dichotomy is not as clearly defined as it once was.

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"On average," Blecher said, "pipeline ratios -- the rate at which states are currently working through their existing backlog of loans either in foreclosure or serious delinquency -- are almost twice as high in judicial states than non-judicial states. At today's rate of foreclosure sales, it will take 62 months to clear the inventory in judicial states as compared to 32 months in non-judicial states. A few judicial states -- New York and New Jersey in particular -- have such extreme backlogs that their problem-loan pipelines would take decades to clear if nothing were to change.

"More recently, certain non-judicial states, such as Massachusetts and Nevada, have enacted 'judicial-like' legislative and/or legal actions which have greatly extended their pipeline ratios. Nevada's 'time to clear' has extended from 27 months in January 2012 to 57 months as of January 2013. The change in Massachusetts has been even more pronounced. Since June of last year, its pipeline ratio has gone from 75 to 171 months. As California's recently enacted Homeowner's Bill of Rights is closely modeled on the Nevada legislation, we'll be watching that state closely over the coming months to gauge its impact, as well."

The January data also showed that, despite an overall national trend of improvement, new problem loan rates remain high in states with large numbers of "underwater" borrowers. So-called "sand states," such as Nevada, Florida and Arizona, are still seeing high levels of negative equity (45, 36 and 24 percent of borrowers are underwater, respectively), and each of those states is experiencing higher-than-average levels of new problem loans. Additionally -- and further underscoring the differences seen between judicial and non-judicial states -- new problem loan rates in non-judicial states declined slightly over the last six months, while increasing almost 20 percent in judicial states.  

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

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

Lender Processing Services (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.

LPS is headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., and employs approximately 8,000 professionals. The company is ranked on the Fortune 1000 as the 877^th largest American company in 2012. For more information, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.

SOURCE Lender Processing Services