Loss Mitigation

Mortgage financier Freddie Mac announced today that in the third quarter of 2008, 94 percent of prime borrowers who originally had a 1-year conforming adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) chose a new conforming fixed-rate mortgage when they refinanced.

In an environment where defaults continue to mount and home retention has become a mainstream issue, Florida-based Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS), a provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage industry, has created RediMod, an end-to-end solution for streamlining the mass loan modification process and improving servicers’ ability to help delinquent and at-risk borrowers.

United States Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Steve Preston today announced that the HOPE for Homeowners (H4H) board of directors has approved changes to the program, designed to help more distressed borrowers refinance into affordable, government-back mortgages.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed on Friday to spend $24 billion of the $700 billion bailout package to help 1.5 million households avoid foreclosure. This new plan is a mild deviation from the FDIC’s $40 billion incentive-based foreclosure plan put forth to Congress committee members in late October, under which the government would guarantee part of homeowners’ modified loans.

The First American Corporation has developed a new reverse mortgage score to help servicers identify senior homeowner candidates for a government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), who might otherwise face foreclosure.

Webster Bank N.A., a subsidiary of Webster Financial Corporation, announced today that it is halting foreclosures for 90 days, becoming the latest bank to expand its mortgage assistance program to keep more families in their homes.

Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Ocwen Financial Corporation, a servicer of subprime mortgages, have signed a compact that is designed to reduce foreclosures and keep Maryland homeowners in their homes.

Following suit behind other national lenders such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup said on Monday that it is stopping foreclosures on borrowers who occupy their property as a principal residence and have enough income to keep up lower, renegotiated mortgage payments.

Government officials and mortgage industry leaders announced a major initiative Tuesday that is designed to stem the growing number of foreclosures on a national scale by streamlining loan modifications to put struggling homeowners into sustainable mortgages.

Cranbury, New Jersey-based Visionet announced today that it is offering an updated version of its VisiRetention solution to facilitate refinancing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUDxs) Hope for Homeowners (H4H) program.