Where are the foreclosure sales?
According to the LPS Applied Analytics Mortage Monitor for March 2011; mortgage delinquencies are down from 8.8% in February 2011 to 7.78% for March 2011 – versus 9.66% in March 2010 (still horrible, but better – see Chart below provided by LPS). They also note March typically sees large seasonal declines. Even considering the sasonality, it’s good news.
Now for the bad news. The report shows foreclosure starts occurring at a rate about 2.85 times faster than foreclosure sales…so the shadow inventory builds.  In addition, 31% of the loans in foreclosure have not made a payment in over 2 years. If that sounds like a big number, get this: 67% have not made a payment for at least one year or more!
