Mortgage Servicers Modify 850,000 Loans in 2012: HOPE NOW

HOPE NOW, the voluntary, privaternsector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profitrncounselors, has now helped over 7 million homeowners with various foreclosurernprevention alternatives since it was founded in 2007 including 6.06 loanrnmodifications and 1.15 million short sales. rnThe program only began tracking short sales in December 2009.  </p

The organization released data for allrnof 2012 and the fourth quarter today.  Forrnall of 2012 the organization’s mortgage servicers provided 850,034 loanrnmodifications, 661,363 which were proprietary modifications and 188,671rncompleted through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). There werern422,605 short sales completed during the year.</p

Of the 6,061,589 total permanentrnloan modifications completed over the life of the program three-quarters orrn4,939,591 were proprietary programs and 1,121,998 were completed under HAMP.</p

Foreclosure activity and seriousrnmortgages delinquencies declined in 2012. rnThere were 1.92 million foreclosure starts during the year, down 14.8rnpercent from the 2.26 million starts in 2011. rnCompleted foreclosure sales declined 7.3 percent from 840,186 torn779,220.  In the last month of 2012 therernwere approximately 2.52 million mortgage loans that were 60+ days delinquentrncompared to 2.79 million at the end of 2011. </p

Of loans modified during the year 90rnpercent included fixed interest rates of five years or more, 82 percent hadrnreduced monthly payments and 75 percent had reductions in payment of 10 percentrnor more. </p

On a quarter over quarter basisrnproprietary modifications increased to 200,931 from 185,608, an 8.3 percentrnincrease from the third quarter. rnForeclosure starts were down 27.2 percent to 363,499 from 499,362 andrnforeclosure sales decreased 3.6 percent to 188,814 from 195,918.  </p

Eric Selk, Executive Director, “In thernpast year, there has been unprecedented work from the industry with respect tornshort sales as a viable mortgage solution. For example, many mortgage servicersrnhave staffed our borrower events with short sale specialists in order to helprntrain real estate agents and created intake portals specifically for the shortrnsale process. Additionally, mortgage servicers are utilizing betterrncommunication tools such as Single Point of Contact and assisting withrnrefinance options through HARP. </p

In 2012, we hosted 20 events with anrnattendance of over 14,000. In addition, five HOPE NOW events were held onrnmilitary bases that saw more than 500 Service Members receive face to facernassistance. Our ability to bring together industry, non-profit organizations,rngovernment agencies and others on behalf of homeowners is unmatched, and wernwill continue our aggressive outreach to borrowers in 2013.”

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.