HOPE NOW Reports 385K Loan Mods in First Half of 2012

The first half of 2012 saw more than 385,000 permanent loan modifications for struggling homeowners, ""HOPE NOW"":http://www.hopenow.com/index.php reported Tuesday.

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The voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage professionals and non-profit counselors released its ""June 2012 data"":http://www.hopenow.com/press_release/files/2Q%202012%20Data_FINAL.pdf, showing that 385,468 homeowners received permanent loan modifications for the first half of the year. This statistic brings the total number of loan modifications completed since 2007 to 5.6 million.

The data revealed that during the first six months of 2012, 275,324 homeowners received proprietary loan modifications, while 110,144 received loan modifications completed under HAMP.

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Proprietary modifications continued to show lower monthly principal and interest payments. Of the proprietary modifications completed in the first half of the year, 79 percent included reduced monthly principal and interest payments, and 90 percent had fixed interest rates of 5 years or more.

Proprietary mods that reduced principal and interest payments by more than 10 percent made up 72 percent of the total through June.

Delinquencies and foreclosures fell during the year's first half, with serious delinquencies (60 or more days past due) dropping 10 percent from the first half of 2011.

Foreclosure starts totaled 1.06 million, a 15 percent drop from 1.3 million during the first half of 2011.

HOPE NOW executive director Faith Schwartz said the organization's goal is to keep that momentum going into the future.

""HOPE NOW data for the first half of 2012 shows a continued trend of reduced late stage delinquencies year-over-year. However, efforts and resources have expanded to assist all at-risk homeowners in finding solutions to avoid foreclosure where possible,"" Schwartz said.