The September Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) shows that foreclosure timelines continue to increase, with the average number of days delinquent in five judicial foreclosure states (New York, Florida, New Jersey, Hawaii and Maine) exceeding 500 days. At the same time, the foreclosure timeline extension has been significantly more pronounced in non-judicial states.

Approximately 275,000 loans started foreclosure during the month and, while delinquencies in September dropped 7.8 percent as compared to a year ago, in the context of "normal market conditions," delinquencies remain at historically high levels and foreclosure inventories are only slightly below all-time highs. More than 4.3 million loans are 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure.

Timelines in the 90-days-or-greater delinquency category have continued to increase even as inventories have declined. As of the end of September, 32 percent of 90-days-or-greater delinquencies could be categorized as "extremely delinquent," with borrowers not having made payments for 12 months or more. The average days delinquent for loans in the 90-days-or-greater delinquency category is 316 days, and the average loan in foreclosure has not had a payment made in 484 days, or roughly 16 months.

This month's report also shows that approximately 1.13 million loans that were current at the beginning of January 2010 are at least 60 days delinquent or in foreclosure as of the end of September 2010 - a month-over-month increase of approximately 120,000 loans. The last two months have seen an increasing trend in this new problem loan category -1.84 percent of loans that were current six months ago are 60 or more days delinquent today.

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

►Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 9.27 percent
►Total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate: 3.84 percent
►Total U.S. non-current* loan rate: 13.11 percent
►States with most non-current* loans: Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana
►States with the fewest non-current* loans: North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana

*Non-current totals combine foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans in that state. Totals based on LPS Applied Analytics' loan-level database of mortgage assets and are extrapolated to represent the industry.

For more information, visit www.lpsvcs.com.