A new report on September delinquency and foreclosure data from the data and analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services finds that the U.S. delinquent inventory decreased by 117,000 from August, while foreclosure starts rose nearly 12 percent. Foreclosure inventory is currently at its lowest levels since February 2008.

The total U.S. loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 5.67 percent in September, down 3.9 percent from August and down 12.2 percent compared with September 2013.

The total U.S. foreclosure inventory rate was 1.76 percent, down 2.2 percent from August and down 33 percent from September 2013. There were 91,000 total U.S. foreclosure starts last month, up 11.5 percent compared with August, but down 16.5 percent compared with September 2013.

There were 2,878,000 total delinquent properties across the country in September, down 117,000 from August and down 388,000 from the same time last year. Of those, 1,118,000 were seriously delinquent, that is, 90 days or more past due. That number is down 25,000 from August and down 213,000 from the same time last year.

There were 893,000 properties in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, down 20,000 from August and down 435,000 from the same time last year.

The top five states with the highest number of delinquent loans were Mississippi (14.41 percent), New Jersey (12.17 percent), Louisiana (11.16 percent), New York (10.76 percent) and Florida (10.55 percent).

The top five states with the highest number of seriously delinquent (90 or more days past due) loans were Mississippi (5.34 percent), Alabama (3.6 percent), Rhode Island (3.53) percent, Louisiana (3.52 percent), and Massachusetts, at 3.26 percent.