Tag Archives: HAMP

Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee point to the GSEs and the Obama administration's housing programs as areas for Congress' deficit reduction super-committee to examine as it works toward cutting $1.5 trillion of the nation's debt. A letter drafted by Chairman Spencer Bachus and signed by 20 Republican committee members first calls for an increase in the GSEs' guarantee fees and then the elimination of such programs as HAMP and HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Amid a challenging environment for servicers, CitiMortgage, GMAC, and Ocwen have outperformed major competitors with regards to loss mitigation and foreclosure timelines, according to a recent report from Moody's Investors Service. The company's Servicer Dashboard rates major servicers on their performance from June 2010 to June 2011. Moody's notes that Bank of America's and Chase's performance assessments were affected by large servicing acquisitions and foreclosure moratoria.

Federal housing programs came under attack during a congressional hearing Thursday titled ""The Obama Administration's Response to the Housing Crisis."" Members of the Senate challenged witnesses with questions about the effectiveness of several programs, including the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Home Affordable Modification Program. Industry experts also discussed the potential of new initiatives, such as the REO rental proposal.

Treasury released a new progress report on its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Wednesday. The number of modifications granted continues to slip - fewer than 26,000 in August - but each month's results are chipping away at the pool of eligible borrowers who fit the HAMP criteria. Treasury's report comes just one day before a House subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the administration's response to the housing crisis, and one of HAMP's most outspoken critics is heading to Capitol Hill to testify.

Data released Thursday by a federal banking regulator provides a snapshot of mortgage performance over the second quarter of this year. Both early stage and serious delinquencies increased slightly compared to the previous three-month period, as did completed foreclosures, while new modification actions fell nearly 20 percent. Perhaps the most troubling result in the report is post-modification performance. Of loans modified since the beginning of 2008, nearly half have since gone delinquent.

Servicers completed about 56,000 proprietary permanent loan modifications in the month of August - similar to their July efforts. Most of these modifications included reduced principal and interest payments and fixed interest rates for five years or more, according to HOPE NOW data released Wednesday. While proprietary loan modifications remained level, foreclosure starts increased 18 percent, rising from 185,000 in July to 218,000 in August.

Freddie Mac has rolled out a new standard for mortgage modifications that the GSE says will strengthen servicers' ability to support positive outcomes for financially distressed borrowers. It replaces Freddie Mac's classic modification. The ""Standard Modification"" is available to borrowers who don't qualify for the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and includes a trial period to help reduce re-default rates. It is part of the Servicing Alignment Initiative underway at the two GSEs.

Fannie Mae is bolstering the incentive fees paid to servicers modifying the GSE's loans through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The new incentives apply to all HAMP mods with a trial period effective date of October 1, 2011 or later. In a servicing policy update, Fannie Mae explained that it will begin paying servicers based on a tiered incentive structure that coincides with the number of days the mortgage loan has been delinquent when the trial plan starts.

Treasury has released the results of its second-quarter assessment of servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable program. Officials say they will continue to withhold program incentives owed to Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. The two were determined to need ""substantial improvement"" in key areas including borrower evaluations. BofA and JPMorgan received the same score last quarter, as did Wells Fargo, but Wells has now elevated its grade to needing ""moderate improvement.""

Mortgage servicers completed 56,000 permanent loan modifications through their own proprietary assistance programs during the month of July, according to figures released Wednesday by HOPE NOW. July's tally represents an 11 percent increase over the 50,000 proprietary mods reported in June. At the same time, foreclosure sales fell by 11 percent month-to-month and newly initiated foreclosure actions slipped 5 percent. HOPE NOW also found that the redefault rate for proprietary modifications is 20 percent.