Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed nearly 3.2 million foreclosure prevention actions since the start of the government's conservatorship of the two companies in 2008. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's [1] Foreclosure Prevention Report [2], 88,000 actions were performed in the first quarter of 2014 alone.
The agency found that foreclosure prevention actions in Q1 allowed 2.6 million borrowers to remain in their homes, while 1.6 million borrowers received permanent loan modifications.
"There were nearly 54,700 permanent loan modifications in the first quarter, bringing the total number of permanent modifications to more than 1.6 million since conservatorship," FHFA said. "In addition, the Enterprises completed approximately 16,100 repayment plans and 2,900 forbearance plans to help delinquent borrowers during the quarter."
Properties currently utilizing the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) totaled 431,000 in the first quarter of 2014.
Of all permanent loan modifications in the first quarter, 42 percent reduced monthly homeowner payments by over 30 percent. "Approximately 27 percent of borrowers who received permanent loan modifications during the quarter had portions of their mortgage balance forborne," FHFA said.
The FHFA found that approximately 14,900 short sales and deeds-in-lieu were completed during the quarter, bringing the total to more than 566,800 since the start of the conservatorship.
Seriously delinquent loans fell by 8 percent in Q1 2014. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's seriously delinquent rate fell to 2.2 percent at the end of the quarter, compared with 6.7 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 3.6 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 5.0 percent for all loans.
The Enterprises' 30-59 day delinquency rate fell to 1.4 percent in Q4 2013, while the 60-day plus delinquency rate continued to slide, settling at 2.6 percent in Q4 2013.
Foreclosure starts declined 25 percent to nearly 84,700 in Q1 2014, while third-party sales and foreclosure sales fell slightly to 47,300. REO inventory was down as well, dropping 3 percent to roughly 146,000.