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Total FHFA Prevention Actions Edge Close to 4 Million

FHFACollectively, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sealed 18,034 foreclosure prevention actions back in October, bringing the combined total to 3,990,723 since the GSE conservatorships launched in September 2008, so says the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s [1] (FHFA) October 2017 Foreclosure Prevention Report. By comparison, the number of foreclosure prevention actions amounted to 12,322 in September 2017. More than half of the prevention actions recorded in October—11,010, to be exact—were permanent loan modifications, inching up the total of permanent mods to 2,129,220 since September 2008.

What’s more, 39 percent of mods completed in October were those with principal forbearance, the report says. Slightly eclipsing that number, extend-term only modifications comprised 44 percent of all loan modifications during that month.

As for short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure finalized in October, that number was down a bit compared with September: 1,147 in October vs. 1,158 the previous month, according to the report. That being said, however, October saw 839 completed short sales compared with 828 the prior month. Some 308 deeds-in-lieu made it to completion in October, contrasting with 330 tallied in September.

In terms of Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage performance, the serious delinquency rate stayed flat—0.95 percent—at the close of October, which means roughly 78 percent of borrowers who received a modification in both October and September were three or more months behind on their mortgage payment, the report states. In summary, the 60-plus-day delinquency rate leaped from 368,182 in September to 401,818 in October.

When talking about the enterprises’ foreclosure numbers, third-party and foreclosure sales dipped from 4,905 in September to 4,776 in October. On the flip side, the number of foreclosure starts jumped from 12,830 in September to 13,601 in October.

Completed foreclosure prevention actions grew from 11,164 in September to 16,887 in October, driven mostly by loan modifications and forbearance plans.