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Freddie Mac has helped nearly 1.1 million struggling homeowners either retain their homes or otherwise avoid foreclosure through a variety of means since the beginning of 2009, four months after the FHFA conservatorship began, according to the GSE's 2014 Financial Results Summary released on Thursday. That number includes the 120 thousand homeowners Freddie Mac helped avoid foreclosure during 2014 through either loan modifications, repayment plans, forbearance agreements, or short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure transactions.
Loan modifications were the most popular foreclosure alternative for homeowners in 2014 with loans backed by Freddie Mac, as they have historically been. Of the 120,000 homeowners Freddie Mac helped avoid foreclosure in 2014, more than half of them, 67,000, did so through a loan modification. About 21 percent avoided foreclosure with a repayment plan, and about 8 percent were able to stay in their homes through forbearance agreements. About 16 percent were helped through short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure transactions.
Lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in an attempt to address the lack of Congressional oversight for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republican Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio and Democratic Representative Tim Walz of Minnesota introduced the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection-Inspector General Act of 2015, a bill that would create an independent Inspector General for the Bureau. Currently, 30 government agencies or departments have independent Inspector Generals.
