by Calculated Risk on 3/04/2014 09:21:00 AM

Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS, formerly the LPS Data & Analytics division) released their Mortgage Monitor report for January today. According to LPS, 6.27% of mortgages were delinquent in January, down from 6.47% in December. BKFS reports that 2.35% of mortgages were in the foreclosure process, down from 3.41% in January 2013.

This gives a total of 8.62% delinquent or in foreclosure. It breaks down as:

• 1,851,000 properties that are 30 or more days, and less than 90 days past due, but not in foreclosure.
• 1,289,000 properties that are 90 or more days delinquent, but not in foreclosure.
• 1,175,000 loans in foreclosure process.

For a total of ​​4,315,000 loans delinquent or in foreclosure in January. This is down from 5,208,000 in January 2013.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph from BKFS shows percent of loans delinquent and in the foreclosure process over time.

Delinquencies and foreclosures are moving down - and might be back to normal levels in a couple of years.

The second graph from BKFS shows mortgage origination. From BKFS:

“In January, we saw origination volume continue to decline to its lowest point since 2008, with prepayment speeds pointing to further drops in refinance-related originations,” said Herb Blecher, senior vice president of Black Knight Financial Services’ Data & Analytics division. “Overall originations were down almost 60 percent year-over-year, with HARP volumes (according to the most recent FHFA report) down 70 percent over the same period. These declines are largely tied to the increased mortgage interest rate environment, which is having a significant impact on the number of borrowers with incentive to refinance. A high-level view of this refinancible population shows a decline of about 13 percent just over the last two months.

“Of course, in addition to higher interest rates, a good deal of this decline can be attributed to the fact that a majority of those who could refinance at historically low rates in recent years already have, and we see a similar dynamic in terms of HARP-eligible loans. The volume of HARP refinances over the past year has driven this population down to about 700,000 loans in January 2014, as compared to over 2.3 million at the same time last year. From a geographic perspective, outside of Florida and Nevada, we see the Midwestern states of Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio have among the highest percentage of HARP eligibility.”
emphasis added

There is much more in the mortgage monitor.