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Minimizing Foreclosure, Maximizing Home Retention

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released Foreclosure Prevention Report for April 2017 on Wednesday, which catalogued the details of over 16,000 foreclosure prevention actions.

Of the total 16,521 foreclosure prevention actions in April, which are designed to help homeowners retain ownership of their home when they’re struggling financially, 11,328 of those were permanent loan modifications. April’s numbers bring the Enterprises total loan modifications to 2,065,576 since September of 2008, and the total foreclosure prevention actions to 3,898,985.  Further, the share of modifications with principle forbearance accounted for 32 percent of all modifications, while extend-only terms accounted for 38 percent. The agency attributes this change to improving home prices.

Serious delinquency rates were also down 0.03 percent, from 1.04 percent to 1.01 percent month-over-month, as were active HAMP trials, down from 1,597 to 1,176. Sixty-plus days delinquent numbers fell from 1.35 percent to 1.34 percent, but the number of homes that were 30-59 days delinquent rose to 1.45 percent from 1.14 percent. The number of loans in bankruptcy only accounted for 0.20 percent.

In terms of home forfeiture actions, numbers were down from March, totally 1,650 in April compared to 1,827, which is a 10 percent decrease. Of the 1,650 forfeiture actions, 1,055 were short sales and 595 were deeds-in-lieu. Short sales were down compared to March’s numbers (1,262), while deeds-in-lieu were up, comparatively (565 in March). Third-party and foreclosure sales were down significantly, dropping from 6,581 in March to 5,523 sales in April.

Foreclosure starts, however, increased 10 percentage points, rising from 15,478 to 17,056 month-over-month.

The FHFA produces monthly and quarterly versions of the Foreclosure Prevention Report. The quarterly report features additional information, including MHA program updates, benchmarking of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s delinquency rates, the type and depth of loan modifications, and the performance of all modified loans.