Tag Archives: HOPE NOW Alliance

Freddie Mac said Thursday that its board of directors has selected Donald H. Layton to serve as the company's new CEO. Layton will join the GSE on May 21, and will also have a seat on the board of directors. In October 2011, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that Charles E. Haldeman, Jr. had informed Freddie Mac's board of his desire to step down within the year. Haldeman served as the GSE's CEO since August 2009. Layton has had a long career in the private banking and financial services sectors. He worked for nearly 30 years at JPMorgan Chase and its predecessors and more recently, served as chairman and CEO of E*Trade Financial.

At 207,000 permanent loan modifications for homeowners from servicers for the first quarter of 2012, loan modifications decreased by 31 percent compared to a year ago this same quarter, according to data released by HOPE NOW. Of the total, approximately 147,000 were proprietary modifications and 60,225 were HAMP mods. Additionally, 72 percent, or 105,000, of the proprietary modifications had reduced principal and interest payments by more than 10 percent, and 77 percent of the mods included principal and interest payment reductions.

The Obama Administration released its March Housing Scorecard Friday, which showed delinquencies on a downward decline, while modifications continue to help struggling homeowners through reduced monthly payments. Foreclosure completions were down though, but delays are expected to pick up due to the mortgage settlement, which just received approval from a federal judge Friday.

HOPE NOW, a private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers, and non-profit counselors, estimated 45,000 homeowners received permanent, non-HAMP loan modifications from mortgage servicers during February 2012, down from 56,000, or 20 percent, compared to the month before in January. While modifications were down, foreclosure sales and foreclosure starts also declined on a month-over-month basis, with 69,000 foreclosure sales and 167,000 foreclosure starts in February, compared to 79,000 sales, a 12 percent drop, and 200,000 starts, a 17 percent drop, in January.

During January, approximately 74,000 homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers, according to modification data released by HOPE NOW, a voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors. While the January numbers are a decrease compared to the previous two months, it was a record-breaking month for foreclosure sales. For the first time since October 2009, foreclosure sales, which reached approximately 79,000, outpaced loan modifications.

HOPE NOW announced plans to reach out to military homeowners facing foreclosure. Stakeholders representing the mortgage servicing industry, non-profit counselors, investors, regulators, and military members met in Washington, D.C. to strategize on ways to assist those in the military who are at risk of losing their home due to a permanent change in station and other issues.

An estimated 1.05 million homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers in 2011, according to year-end data released Tuesday by HOPE NOW. That tally includes both proprietary and government-program mods, and represents a 40 percent decline from the 1.76 million modifications granted in 2010. At the same time, HOPE NOW reports loan modifications outpaced foreclosure sales for the fourth consecutive year. In 2011, there were approximately 843,000 foreclosure sales completed, down from 1.07 million in 2010.

The number of mortgage modifications completed during the month of November rose 5 percent from October, bringing the year-to-date total to about 969,000, according to data released Tuesday by HOPE NOW, a voluntary private sector alliance of mortgage industry participants. While completed modifications rose over the month, 60-plus day delinquencies also increased. After reporting 2.65 million 60-plus day delinquencies in October, HOPE NOW reported 2.77 million in November.

About 885,000 borrowers have received permanent loan modifications so far this year, according to October data from HOPE NOW. The voluntary alliance of mortgage industry participants announced last month that the industry had completed 5 million modifications since 2007. October saw almost 80,000 proprietary and HAMP modifications. Sixty-plus day delinquencies declined 6 percent between September and October, and foreclosure sales fell 5 percent. Foreclosure starts, however, rose by 7 percent.

HOPE NOW announced a major milestone Tuesday -- the completion of 5 million loan modifications since the group began tracking such loss mitigation efforts in 2007. More than 80 percent of these modifications were completed through servicers' own proprietary programs, with the rest coming from the government's Home Affordable Modification Program. Officials called the 5 million mark a halfway point, adding that much more work needs to be done to help distressed homeowners.