Housing Scorecard: Delinquencies Down. Foreclosures Delayed

ThernDepartments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Treasury released their MonthlyrnHousing Scorecard for February on Wednesday afternoon. </p

This monthly report is an attempt tornencapsulate the Obama Administration’s efforts to stabilize the housing marketrnand provide a snapshot of the status of that market.  It contains a round-up of information fromrnboth public and private sources, most of which has already been reportedrnhere on MND.  The Scorecard is issued simultaneousrnwith the release of the monthly report on the Making Home Affordable Programrn(HAMP).</p

Accordingrnto the Scorecard, the housing market remains fragile as data through Januaryrnpaint a mixed picture of recovery.  Onrnthe sales front there was a little good news as sales of existing homes tickedrnup to 446,700 in January compared to 435,000 in December.  New home sales, however, dropped from 27,100rnto 23,700.  The inventory of existingrnhomes fell by slightly less than 200 thousand to 3.38 million while the supplyrnof new homes was almost flat at 188,000. rnThere is a 7.6 month supply of existing homes compared to 8.2 months inrnDecember and a 7.9 month supply of new homes as compared to 7.0 months.  Over 3.6 million homes are currently vacantrnand held off the market for a variety of reasons.  This is an increase of 45,000 since December. MND wants to know what you think…RENT OR OWN?</p

In a sign of positive progress, delinquency rates were notably better in February. Therndelinquency rate for prime loans was 4.8 percent in January compared to 6.7rnpercent in January 2010 and the subprime rate was 36.4 compared to 39.2 last year.   FHA had a delinquency rate of 12.8 percent,rndown from 15 percent a year earlier.   Arntotal of 4.2 million mortgages are delinquent nationally.  </p

Foreclosure starts and completions remain below peak, however as lenders review internal procedures related to foreclosure processing, many foreclosure actions have been delayed. The decline is likely to be temporary as lenders eventually revise and resubmit foreclosure paperwork in the coming months.</p

The embedded HAMP report covers data up until the end of January, which indicated a continued drop in the rate at which new borrowersrnare entering into trial loan modifications.  In January there were 26,659rntrials initiated.  A total of about 1.5rnmillion homeowners have entered trial modifications since the program startedrnin April 2009 and 145,260 trials remain active. rnOf those over 36,000 have been in the three-month trial program inrnexcess of six months.  Nearly a thirdrn(12,200) of these aged loans is serviced by Bank of America which has initiatedrn358,726 of the total of 1.5 million trials (25 percent).</p

Morernthan 600,000 homeowners have converted from trial to permanent status since thernprogram began, 28,000 since the last HAMP report.  After many complaints about the rate ofrnconversion, program administrators claim that there has been an average ofrn29,000 loans converted in each of the last six months.  Approximately 68,000 permanent modifications havernbeen cancelled; about 1,000 were paid; the remaining loans were cancelled afterrnborrowers missed three consecutive payments.</p

ThernAdministration claims that, overall, its efforts have been effective inrn”blunting the effects of the deepest economic crisis since the GreatrnDepression.”  Since April 2009, inrnaddition to HAMP’s efforts there have been more than 730,000 FHA lossrnmitigation and early delinquency interventions, and more than 2 millionrnproprietary modifications under the joint public/private HOPE Now program.  The Scorecard says that, “While some homeowners mayrnhave received help from more than one program, the number of agreements offeredrnwas more than double the number of foreclosure completions for the same periodrn(1.8 million).”</p

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