The Federal Housing Finance Agency demonstrated its progress toward the goal of helping distressed and at-risk families remain in their homes in the April 2015 Foreclosure Prevention Report released this week. More than half of the nearly 3.5 million foreclosure prevention actions completed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the start of the conservatorships in September 2008 were permanent loan modifications. The GSEs have completed 1.8 million permanent loan mods since 2008 up to the last day of April.
According to FHFA, the share of extend-term only permanent loan mods in April held steady at 48 percent, due to increasing house prices and a decline in the population eligible for the government's Home Affordable Modification Program. As of the end of April, there were slightly more than 412,000 active permanent HAMP mods, down slightly from March's total of 413,500. Modifications with principal forbearance comprised 19 percent of the total number of permanent loan mods during April.
Bank of America reported a net income of 5 point 3 billion dollars for Q2, more than twice the bank's net income from the same quarter in 2014, according to the bank's Q2 2015 earnings statement released Tuesday. A 6 percent reduction in expenses and a 40 percent increase in residential mortgage and home loan equity loan originations were drivers of the substantial increase in net income for Bank of America, which saw its income jump from $2.3 billion in Q2 2014 up to $5.3 billion in Q2 2015.