OCC: 90% of Mortgages Current in Q1 as Foreclosure Efforts Continue

Mortgage performance improved in the first quarter of this year, with 90.2 percent of mortgages current and performing, the ""Office of the Comptroller of the Currency"":http://www.occ.gov/ (OCC) reported Thursday.

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The share is up from 89.4 percent in the previous quarter and 88.9 percent a year ago. The OCC's report represents 55 percent of all mortgages and is based on data from seven national banks and a federal savings association with the largest mortgage-servicing portfolios.

For the most part, delinquencies and foreclosures were down across the board, with the exception of early delinquencies and newly initiated foreclosures.

The OCC found the percentage of loans 30 to 59 days past due showed a slight increase year-over-year after ending at 2.6 percent, up by 3 percent from a year ago, but still down by 9.3 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Loans past due by 60 to 89 days fell to 0.9 percent, down quarterly and yearly by 16.7 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. Serious delinquencies (90 days or more past due) averaged 2.1 percent, down 7.5 percent from the previous quarter and 13.6 percent from last year.

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Furthermore, the number of loans in foreclosure fell to 907,231, down 28.6 percent from a year ago and down by 1.9 percent from the previous quarter.

During the first quarter, servicers covered in the report foreclosed on 84,972 properties, down by 19.7 percent from the end of last year and down by 30.9 percent from a year ago.

As for foreclosure prevention solutions, servicers were able to complete 43,137 short sales in the first quarter, down 30.2 percent from a year ago, while deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure increased by 151.8 percent to 3,595 during the same time period.

Despite a near 14 percent quarterly increase in newly initiated foreclosures, home retention actions far outpaced new foreclosures in the first quarter.

During the first three months of this year, the OCC reported servicers implemented 348,733 home retention actions, which include loan modifications, trial-period plans, and payment plans, compared to 178,356, newly initiated foreclosures.

Data from the report also revealed loans modified through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) perform better compared to non-HAMP mods. For example, in the first quarter of 2012, 37,456 loans were modified through HAMP, of which 4.9 percent were 60 days or more past due three months after getting modified compared to 9.3 percent for non-HAMP mods. One year after receiving a HAMP modification, 12.9 percent of loans rolled into 60-day delinquency status compared to 25.4 percent for non-HAMP loan modifications.

The OCC also reported 3.02 million mortgages have been modified since the beginning of 2008 to the end of last year. As of the end of March, 49.5 percent of the loans were current or paid off, while 12.4 percent were seriously delinquent and 7.4 percent were lost to foreclosure.