Tag Archives: HAMP

Coinciding with Wednesday's House committee hearing on the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a boutique investment firm, released its predictions of what actions the government is and is not likely to take to further assist the housing market. Generally speaking, ""any large program expansions which require congressional approval are, in our view, not likely to go far,"" said Brian Gardner, SVP of Washington research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

When Treasury issued the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in October 2008, it designated $45.6 billion for mortgage-related programs. However, a little more than four years later, when a few of the non-mortgage TARP programs have drawn to a close, more than $40 billion in mortgage relief remains unspent, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GOA).

According to the latest monthly housing scorecard from the Obama administration, the housing market has officially bottomed out, although ""recovery remains fragile."" With prices rising for 12 consecutive months as of October and sales on the rise as well, HUD's senior advisor on housing finance, Michael Berman said, ""[O]ur housing market is continuing to show important signs of recovery."" The government's Making Home Affordable Program has achieved more than 1.5 million loss mitigations and early delinquency interventions, according to the December report.

Short sales continued to increase in October, while foreclosure starts fell, according to data from HOPE NOW. Completed short sales reached 38,518 in October, representing a 13 percent increase from September. Meanwhile, HOPE NOW also reported nearly 6 million struggling homeowners have received a permanent modification since 2007. Among the modifications, 4.8 million were proprietary loan modifications, while 1.1 million mods were through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

After four and a half years, the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program has assisted 1.5 million at-risk homeowners, according to a NeighborWorks America report. Consumers who received mortgage modification assistance from NFMC saw their monthly payments decrease by an average of $176 more per month compared to non-NFMC clients. In addition, homeowners who sought assistance from NFMC were nearly twice as likely to receive a modification.

Based on data compiled in the latest ""housing scorecard, the Obama administration described the housing market as ""strengthening"" and noted the continual rise in home values and the strong home sales in October. The administration also released the Making Home Affordable Program report, which details performance related to modifications. According to the report, since the national mortgage servicing settlement, principal reductions outside of the HAMP Principal Reduction Alternative (PRA) program have been more widely used.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced revisions to parts of its loss mitigation program last week in order to expand the number of borrowers who can receive assistance. Through changes to the Loss Mitigation Home Retention Options, more homeowners in distress should be able to qualify for FHA foreclosure prevention efforts and the level of assistance available should also increase.

Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA), an association of private mortgage insurers, reported Monday that since 2009, its members have insured $86.9 billion in mortgages modified or refinanced through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) as well as in mortgages modified through other means. The $86.9 billion is distributed among 496,961 homes across the nation.

Since 2011 when Treasury required the largest servicers to develop a single point of contact (SPOC) for all homeowners working through loss mitigation as part of the Making Home Affordable program, servicers have begun to implement the new standard in various ways. The Treasury noted in a recent report the nine largest servicers participating in the program have implemented three different SPOC models. In total, the nine servicers Treasury observed have increased staffing and now have 12,000 SPOCs working to communicate with homeowners.

The state of the housing market continues to improve though recovery remains ""fragile,"" according to the October Housing Scorecard released Friday by the Obama administration. Along with the scorecard, the administration released special instructions for those administering the Making Home Affordable Program in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. In areas directly impacted by Hurricane Sandy, servicers must offer at least three months forbearance to any homeowners eligible for Making Home Affordable who request forbearance.