Mortgage Servicers Completed 850,000 Loan Modifications for Homeowners in 2012
WASHINGTON, DC – February 11, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors, released its final 2012 loan modification data, which shows that 850,034 homeowners received permanent, affordable loan modifications from mortgage servicers in 2012.
The reported data for December shows that, for the year, mortgage servicers completed 661,363 proprietary loan modifications for homeowners and 188,671 Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modifications (as reported by US Treasury Department).
December data also showed 422,605 short sales completed for the year.
Total Loan Modifications since 2007 at 6.06 Million
Since 2007, the mortgage industry has completed 6,061,589 total permanent loan modifications for homeowners. Of those loan modifications, 4,939,591 were proprietary programs and 1,121,998 were completed under HAMP.
Short Sales Completed Since 2009 at 1.15 Million
Short sales for 2012 were 422,605, bringing the life to date total to1,153,441 The combination of loan modifications and short sales has brought the total number of permanent, non-foreclosure solutions to approximately 7.21million. HOPE NOW has been tracking short sale data since December 2009
Foreclosure Starts and Sales Down in 2012
Foreclosure starts and completed foreclosure sales both declined compared to data reported in 2011. There were 1,923,872 foreclosure starts in 2012, compared to 2.259.108 in 2011 – a decline of 14.8%. Completed foreclosure sales were 779,220 in 2012, compared to 840,186 in 2011 – a decline of 7.3%.
60+ Days Delinquencies Declined in 2012
The inventory of loans that were seriously delinquent in December 2012 was lower than the total from the same point in 2011. In the last month of 2012, there were approximately 2.52 million loans in this category, compared to 2.79 million at the end of 2011. This represents a 9.6% decline. Delinquency data is extrapolated from data received by the Mortgage Bankers Association for the third quarter of 2012.
Proprietary Loan Mods Continued to Show Affordability
Proprietary loan modifications remained strong with respect to principal and interest reductions, as well as fixed interest rates. Of the 661,363 proprietary loan modifications reported for 2012:
? Loan modifications that included fixed interest rates of five years or more accounted for 90% (598,017) of the total.
? Proprietary loan modifications with reduced principal and interest monthly payments accounted for 82% (543,010) of the total.
? Proprietary loan modifications with reduced principal and interest payments of more than 10% accounted for 75% (495,566) of the total.
Q4 2012 vs. Q3 2012 – Loan Mods Up, Foreclosure Starts and Sales Down
Year-end data showed significant progress in the last three months of the year, compared to the 3rd quarter of 2012.
? Proprietary loan mods completed increased from 185,608 in 3Q 2012 to 200,931 in 4Q 2012 – a gain of 8.3%.
? Foreclosure starts decreased from 499,362 in 3Q 2012 to 363,499 in 4Q 2012 – a decline of 27.2%.
? Foreclosure sales decreased from 195,918 in 3Q 2012 to 188,814 in 4Q 2012 – a decline of 3.6%.
The full data set for 2012 is available at www.hopenow.com
Eric Selk, Executive Director, issued this statement:
“2012 saw the mortgage industry and its partners continue to make great strides in assisting homeowners nationwide. For the year, almost 1.3 million people received a permanent alternative to foreclosure, via loan modification or short sale.
Public/private partnerships, targeted outreach, improved technology, continued education with real estate professionals and streamlined solutions are all part of the equation, as our members keep working together to improve the nation’s housing market.
In the past year, there has been unprecedented work from the industry with respect to short sales as a viable mortgage solution. For example, many mortgage servicers have staffed our borrower events with short sale specialists in order to help train real estate agents and created intake portals specifically for the short sale process.
Additionally, mortgage servicers are utilizing better communication tools such as Single Point of Contact and assisting with refinance options through HARP. In 2012, we hosted 20 events with an attendance of over 14,000. In addition, five HOPE NOW events were held on military bases that saw more than 500 Service Members receive face to face assistance. Our ability to bring together industry, non-profit organizations, government agencies and others on behalf of homeowners is unmatched, and we will continue our aggressive outreach to borrowers in 2013.”
Media Contact:
Brad Dwin
(410) 303-6391
