Foreclosure pre-sale inventory was down 19.6 percent in February from a year ago, to 1.7 million homes, according to the latest "First Look" Mortgage Report from Lender Processing Services.
The mortgage delinquency rate fell to 6.8 percent in February, dropping 6.5 percent on an annual basis and 3.2 percent from January, LPS said.
Mortgages on 3.4 million were 30 days or more past due but not in foreclosure. Among those, 1.5 million mortgages were 90 days or more delinquent.
All told, LPS counted 5.1 million homes either in foreclosure or delinquent.
States with the greatest percentage of delinquent loans were Florida, New Jersey, Mississippi, Nevada and New York. States with the lowest delinquency rates were Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
