More homes moved from delinquency into foreclosure in August, as the inventory of homes 30-plus days and 90-plus days delinquent decreased and foreclosure starts rose to the highest level since January, according to Lender Processing Services. HousingWire reported the initial results of the report last week. The firm’s final monthly mortgage monitor was released today. The majority of foreclosure inventory included prime loans, which increased 106.4% over an 18-month period in the agency sector, 102.4% in the non-agency sector, and 107% in the non-agency jumbo sector. According to CoreLogic (CLGX), there are about 40 million prime loans in the marketplace, 6.2% of which were 60-days delinquent in June and 3% of which were 90-days delinquent. CoreLogic analyst Mark Fleming said the percentage of delinquent loans in the prime space have been masked because the volume is so huge. LPS reported 282,528 foreclosure starts last month, up 1% from July and 3.8% higher than the year earlier. The year-to-date foreclosure rate is now 20.4% higher than 2009. Thirty-day delinquent inventory fell to 9.22%, the lowest level in over a year. The percentage was 9.3% in July and 9.7% a year ago. The inventory of 90-day delinquent loans decreased to 8.22%, down from 8.3% in July. The percentage was 8% a year earlier. Despite the spike in overall foreclosure starts, the number of starts within agency loans decreased in August for the first time in three months, to less than 140,000. Agencies also have accelerated foreclosures in late-stage delinquencies, six-month delinquencies decreasing to 60,000 from 65,000. Six-month delinquency volume is the highest on agency portfolio. Three-month delinquencies account for more than 30,000 loans and two-month delinquent loans have risen for three month to almost 20,000 loans. Write to Christine Ricciardi.