Foreclosure Delays Reach New Records

Delinquent home owners are living in their homes longer, rent-free. Home owners with a loan in foreclosure haven’t made a payment, on average, for 20 months or 599 days--a new record, according to new data by Lender Processing Services Inc. 

Of nearly 1.9 million loans that are 90 or more days delinquent--but not yet in foreclosure--42 percent of the home owners have not made a payment in more than a year, with an average delinquency of 397 days--another record, LPS reports. 

The slowdown in foreclosures was most evident in judicial foreclosure states.  At the current rate of foreclosure sales, judicial foreclosure states would require 111 months to work through inventories of loans that are 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure. On the other hand, non-judicial states would be able to clear inventories in about 32 months, according to LPS data.  [California = nearly 3 years to resolve PRESENT distressed inventory, NOT counting future distressed sales]