TAMPA, Fla. - Jan. 16, 2013 - The November Mortgage Monitor report released by Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services (LPS) finds that the national foreclosure inventory dropped to 3.51 percent in November - an almost 10 percent decline from September 2012, when National Mortgage Settlement requirements began to influence the pace of first-time foreclosure starts.

However, LPS expects foreclosure starts to rebound as mortgage servicers incorporate new procedural requirements into their operations in the coming months.

According to LPS Applied Analytics Senior Vice President Herb Blecher, borrowers are benefiting from today's historically low interest rates. "Comparing interest rates on new versus paid-off loans, we see that interest rates on the former are 1.5 percentage points below the latter," says Blecher. "On average, this translates into new loan payments that are approximately $190 less per month than those of borrowers prior to paying off their loans.

Blecher also thinks more homeowners will avoid foreclosure in the future as HARP - the government program to help at-risk homeowners in foreclosure - expands to other mortgages.

Key results from LPS' latest Mortgage Monitor report

* Total U.S. loan delinquency rate: 7.12 percent
* Month-over-month change in delinquency rate: 1.2 percent
* Total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: 3.51 percent
* Month-over-month change in foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate: -2.84 percent

* States with highest percentage of non-current loans (foreclosures and delinquencies as a percent of active loans): Florida, New Jersey,

Mississippi, Nevada and New York

* States with the lowest percentage of non-current loans: Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and North Dakota


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