DSNews The homepage of the servicing industry
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Thursday released its Q2 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report.
The report shows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, since the 2008 start of conservatorship, completed 252,014 foreclosure prevention actions. Overall, that brings the number of "troubled homeowners who have been helped" to 4.68 million, FHFA reported.
The Agency said that 3.98 million of the foreclosure prevention actions have helped people stay in their homes.
The actions have included 2,420,846 permanent loan modifications.
The initiation of forbearance plans has significantly increased to 1,511,787 from 170,533 in Q1, due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as forbearance programs being offered to the affected borrowers, the Agency reported.
It said, "The total number of loans in forbearance plans at the end of the quarter was 1,398,250, representing approximately 4.95% of the total loans serviced, and 90% of the total delinquent loans."
Of modifications in the second quarter, 19% were modifications with principal forbearance.
Modifications with extend-term only accounted for 66% of loan modifications in Q2.
Short sales completed and deeds-in-lieu this quarter totaled 922, which brought the total to 699,596 since start of the conservatorship.
GSEs' mortgage performance looked like this:
The 60-plus days delinquency rate jumped from 0.92% at the end of Q1 to 4.08% at the end of Q2. That is the highest rate since Q2 2012. The spike in delinquencies was caused by the pandemic, the Agency reported; serious delinquency rates (90-plus days) rose to 2.58% at the end of the second quarter. This compared with 7.96% for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 3.98% for VA loans, and 4.26% for the industry average.
GSE foreclosures:
Foreclosure starts decreased to 74% to 7,551; third-party and foreclosure sales dropped 87% to 1,028 in the second quarter due to the suspension of foreclosures.
Refinance-activity highlights from the Q2 report:
Total refinance volume increased in June to levels last observed in 2013 as mortgage rates fell in previous months; rates decreased further in June, and the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell to 3.16% from 3.23% last May.
Completed refinances through the High LTV Refinance Option totaled 51 in Q2, bringing total refinances through that option, from its inception, to 70.
Cash-out refinances increased from 28% in May to 27% in June. "Mortgage rates continued to fall," the FHFA said, "creating more opportunities for non cash-out borrowers to refinance at lower rates and lower their monthly payments."
The entire report, including detailed charts and graphs, can be viewed here.
