The national delinquency rate stood at 8.9% in January, up 0.8% from the month prior, but down 18.8% over the year-ago period, according to the “First Look” report from Lender Processing Services (LPS). The report provides month-end mortgage performance statistics from LPS’ loan-level database of nearly 40 million mortgage loans. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm will release more detailed reporting in its upcoming “Mortgage Monitor” report, which comes out in March. Although delinquencies remained relatively stable month-over-month, there were still about 6.9 million properties more than 30 days delinquent or in foreclosure. Foreclosure pre-sale inventory accounted for 4.16% of the homes on the market, up 0.2% from December and up 7.9% from January 2009. That amounts to a total 2.2 million homes. Florida posted the highest percentage of noncurrent loans statewide in January, followed by Nevada, Mississippi, Georgia and New Jersey. The states with the least percentage were, in descending order, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota and North Dakota. The bottom five, except for Alaska, also have the least amount of risk exposure to mortgage fraud, according to Interthinx. Write to Christine Ricciardi. Follow her on Twitter @HWnewbieCR.