Delinquencies, Foreclosures Soared In September

Today one out of every eight American homeowners with a mortgage 
(12.5 percent) is either in foreclosure or delinquent in their payments.

Record high rates of foreclosures and delinquencies in September are 
the latest bad news in the October 2009 Mortgage Monitor LPS, a 
leading provider of mortgage performance data and analytics.

The nation's September 2009 foreclosure rate rose to 3.12 percent - 
a month-over-month increase of 2.6 percent and a year-over-year 
increase of 88.9 percent. Among individual states, Florida posted the 
most troubling results with 10.4 percent of loans in foreclosure, and 
more than 22 percent of loans reported as non-current.

LPS' also found large "shadow" foreclosure and REO inventories - loans 
and properties stuck in the already clogged pipeline that have yet to 
complete foreclosure and come to market. The number of loans 
deteriorating further into delinquent status is now more than twice the 
number of foreclosure starts, indicating another major wave of foreclosures 
is on the way. Nearly one-third of foreclosures remain in pre-sale status 
after 12 months - twice as many as the year prior. The six-month average 
deterioration ratio has risen the past two months to 300 percent, showing 
that for every loan that improves in status, three more deteriorate further.