HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private
sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and
non-profit counselors, reported that its participants completed an estimated
75,968 permanent loan modifications during August. An additional 16,509 modifications were completed
through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). So far this year 400,285 homeowners have
received proprietary modifications and HOPE NOW has processed an additional
143,320 through HAMP.
Short sales, which were virtually
non-existent in the early days of HOPE NOW, have grown steadily over the last 2-1/2
years and the program is now utilizing these sales at nearly three times the
rate it is putting loans through HAMP modifications. There were 39,559 short sales completed in
August, a total of over 1 million since December, 2009.
Since 2007 HOPE NOW has enabled
4,678,514 homeowners to obtain proprietary loan modifications and 1,076,747 to
obtain relief through HAMP for a total of 5.75 million modifications.
HOPE NOW said modifications
completed via proprietary programs continue to show characteristics of
sustainability and affordability for homeowners. For the month of August:
- Proprietary loan modifications that included fixed interest
rates of five years or more accounted for 93% (55,531) of the total.
- Proprietary loan modifications with reduced principal and
interest monthly payments accounted for 82% (48,524) of the total.
- Proprietary loan modifications with reduced principal and
interest payments of more than 10% accounted for 71% (42,388) of the total.
There were 71,149 foreclosure sales
reported in August, an increase of 12 percent from 65,527 in July and there
were 187,941 foreclosure starts. This
was an increase of 14 percent from 164,593 starts reported in July.
Serious delinquencies declined from
2.47 million in June to 2.42 million in July, a 2 percent decrease.
Faith Schwartz, Executive Director, said,
"The cumulative efforts of many different parties have made a significant
difference in preventing foreclosures where possible. Without the
collaboration of industry, non-profits and our government, we would not have
5.75 million loan modifications for homeowners or over 115,000 total permanent
solutions for the month of August. The increase of short sales has been
significant and, for the first month since reporting on short sales, we
estimate a high of 39,559. Short sales provide another tool to avoid the high
cost of foreclosure for families, communities and investors.
"We are seeing improvement across
the board in 'serious delinquencies', currently at 2.42 million homeowners.
While this is almost 40% lower than the all-time high of 4 million homeowners
seriously past due on their mortgage, we cannot forget there are many more who
remain at risk of foreclosure."