Foreclosure

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan unveiled a new strategic plan for the federal agency in an address to all HUD staff nationwide on Wednesday. Donovan says the plan will serve as the agency's roadmap toward accomplishing its mission of creating strong, sustainable communities and affordable homes for all. At the top of Donovan's goal list is strengthening the housing market by reducing foreclosures.

Fitch Ratings recently conducted a study of all securitized non-agency California mortgage loans, finding that delinquency rates in California are fairly similar to national levels. But a closer look revealed dramatic differences among various regions within the 382 metropolitan statistical areas tracked by Fitch. In fact, Fitch found that California has both the best performing region in the country - San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City - and some of the worst performing regions, such as Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario.

Bank of America announced Thursday that it has completed a total of 56,400 permanent mortgage modifications under the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), including nearly 24,000 in April alone. ""We were able to convert close to 24,000 Bank of America customers from trial to permanent modifications in the past month, completing the process for more homeowners than in any previous month,"" said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation strategies executive for Calabasas, California-based Bank of America Home Loans.

One in every 387 homes in the United States was in some stage of foreclosure last month, RealtyTrac reported Thursday. The company's data shows that foreclosure filings were issued on 333,837 properties in April. While still elevated, that figure represents a 9 percent drop from the previous month and a 2 percent decline compared to a year ago. It's the only month in the history of RealtyTrac's report where foreclosure activity fell on an annual basis.

Treasury has issued a new servicer document outlining its payment relief program for homeowners who have lost their jobs. The program, initially announced by the administration in March, becomes effective July 1, 2010, and offers eligible unemployed borrowers a forbearance plan to temporarily reduce or suspend their mortgage payments for at least three months. Interestingly enough, the government program does not apply to government-backed loans, such as those guaranteed by the GSEs.

With delinquency rates at sky-high levels, servicers and counselors continue to be inundated with requests from homeowners for loan modifications. As a result of these high demands, industry leaders have realized that new tools are needed to collect complete information from homeowners more efficiently and to develop better communication between servicers and counseling professionals. Freddie Mac recently released a report highlighting two Web-based communication tools that are doing just that.

Underperforming properties in states with weak economies led to another increase in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) delinquencies in April. Both Fitch and Moody's put the CMBS delinquency rate above 7 percent, but interestingly enough, they have different takes on the pace of the increase. Fitch says April's climb represents a slowdown thanks to special servicers stepping up loan resolutions. Moody's says the April increase in the second biggest jump it has ever recorded.

Stewart Lender Services (SLS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Stewart Title Company, announced Tuesday that during the past year it has processed more than 725,000 distressed mortgage loans and generated more than 1 million lines of outreach to delinquent borrowers. This, the company said, proves that SLS is a strong, stable, and large-scale provider of loss mitigation services for mortgage lenders and servicers.

In order to bring high-tech loan modification solutions direct to consumers, HOPE LoanPort has launched a new, consumer-based Web site--HopeLoanPortal.org. According to a statement by the organization, this site will complement HOPE LoanPort's web-based housing counselor tool that is designed to streamline submission of completed loan modification applications.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed a new law establishing that a power of sale is valid in existing and future deeds of trust originally granted to a corporate trustee. A power of sale clause is sometimes included in a mortgage contract or deed of trust that grants the lender the right to sell the property upon certain default without court approval, but courts in several Maryland counties had ruled against the validity of such a power of sale.