November Housing Scorecard: "Homeowners' Equity $1.5T Higher than 2009"

The November edition of the ObamarnAdministration’s Housing Scorecard notes that home values are continuing tornrise and home sales remained strong during October.  The Scorecard is issued jointly by thernDepartments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (HUD)</p

ErikarnPoethig, HUD Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Researchrnsaid that the Administration’s efforts to speed housing recovery are showingrncontinued progress.  “Six consecutive months of rising home prices have bolstered homeowners’rnequity, which is now $1.5 trillion higher than in April 2009,” she said.  “But with so many households still strugglingrnto make ends meet, we have important work ahead. That is why we are askingrnCongress to approve the President’s refinancing proposal so that morernhomeowners can receive assistance.” </p

The Scorecard is a summary of recent housingrndata from a number of sources such as the Census Bureau, RealtyTrac andrnS&P/Case-Shiller.  Much of the data,rnsuch as housing permits and starts, home prices, and foreclosure data have beenrnpreviously reported by MND.  ThernScorecard also incorporates by reference the monthly report on the variousrnforeclosure prevention programs operated under the umbrella of the Making HomernAffordable (MHA) program including the Home Affordable Modification Programrn(HAMP.), the Unemployment Program (UP) and the Principal Reduction Alternativern(PRA), .  That MHA report, coveringrnprogram operations through the end of October, also includes results of quarterrnassessments of servicers participating in the programs.</p

Since the end of the previous reportingrnperiod HAMP has started 13,403 trial modifications and converted 16,003 trialrnmodifications to permanent status.  Arntotal of 1.94 million borrowers have started trials since the program began inrnApril 2009 and 1.11 million trials have been converted to permanentrnstatus.  There are currently 840,838 activernpermanent modifications.  Borrowers whornhave received permanent modifications have reduced their monthly mortgagernpayments by a median amount of $542 a month for aggregate savings of $16.2 billionrnsince the program began.</p

The Second Lien Modification Programrn(2MP) has initiated 99,157 second lien modifications over the life of thernprogram, 793 of them in October.  Secondrnliens were extinguished for 24,617 borrowers and 5,765 were partially extinguished.  The median value of extinguished loans wasrn$61,960 and the median value of the partial extinguishment was $9,125.  In addition, modifications were made torn68,088 second liens.</p

The Principal Reduction Alternative</b(PRA) is a program to reduce principal on loans as part of a modification.  The Treasury Department incentivizes this programrnand there have been 104,191 principal reductions through HAMP and anotherrn33,361 PRA modifications have been done outside of HAMP.  Since September 3,467 PRA modifications havernbeen started under HAMP and 1,342 outside of HAMP.  Modifications including PRA have outstandingrnprincipal balances totally $8 billion.  Loansrnowned by either Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae are not permitted to participate inrnthe reduction program.  </p