Lender Processing Services (LPS) previewed its October Mortgage Monitor Report today and it shows a continued decline in both mortgage delinquencies and the shadow inventory.   Data covered by the report, which covers about 70 percent of the overall mortgage market, is for the month of August.

The national delinquency rate which includes loans that are 30 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure declined 2.3 percent to 6.87 percent, 10.6 percent below the rate in August, 2011.  There are now 3.43 million homes with delinquent mortgages for which foreclosure proceedings have not yet started and 1.52 million of those are seriously delinquent, that is 90 or more days past due.

There are 2.02 million homes in the pre-foreclosure sale inventory of 4.04 percent of all mortgaged homes.  This is a decline of 1.0 percent since July and 2.0 percent year over year.   LPS says that there are, overall, 5.450 homes with mortgages that are in some state of distress. 

The states with the highest percentage of non-current loans are Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, and New York.

The full version of the Mortgage Monitor report will be published on October 2.