Tag Archives: Loan Modification

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) introduced a new tool to help seriously delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure. Starting July 1, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicers will lift loan modification barriers by offering eligible borrowers reduced payments without asking for financial or hardship documentation. Through the FHFA's Streamlined Modification Initiative, eligible borrowers who are 90 days to 24 months past due will receive a solicitation offer with a trial period plan that lasts for three months. The offer will include a dollar amount for a new mortgage.

While the trend of low mortgage rates seen in the last year has stirred up housing activity and helped the market, Pro Teck Valuation Services posits a major question in its latest Home Value Forecast (HVF): Why have home prices in some markets been less responsive to low rates? The writers of the report named three dominant reasons. First, they note that credit scores for many households took a hit during and after the crisis as a result of loan modifications, foreclosures, and job losses, ""and the breadth of the impact has been sufficient to affect millions of households who now much become or are already renters.""

A new report from a government watchdog accused Freddie Mac, its servicers, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) of not meeting requirements when handling and resolving escalated consumer complaints. According to a report from the FHFA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Freddie Mac and eight of its largest servicers, which service 70 percent of the GSE’s mortgages, received over 34,000 complaints that became escalated cases during a 14-month time period ending November 30, 2012. After tracking the escalated cases, FHFA OIG found seven out of the eight Freddie Mac servicers did not resolve all escalated cases within the 30-day requirement.

In January, servicers completed about 78,400 modifications, bringing the total since 2007 to 6.15 million, according to data from HOPE NOW. The number of completed short sales in January slowed to 29,244, down from 34,909 in December 2012. As of December 2009, the industry has completed 1.18 million short sales. When combining foreclosure prevention solutions through loan modifications and short sales, the cumulative total is about 7.33 million.

The housing market showed signs of progress across the board, but the overall recovery is still fragile, hence the need for efforts to prevent avoidable foreclosures, according to the Obama Administration Housing Scorecard for February. ""House prices are steadily rising above the mid-crisis lows in markets throughout the country, while inventories of new and existing homes are further tightening, and even estimates of the 'shadow inventory' are down,"" said HUD deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs Kurt Usowski. ""That said, we still remain considerably below long-term normal levels of home sales and production.""

Fannie Mae unveiled 2012 program results for the Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards (STAR) scorecard. The STAR program was introduced to recognize Fannie Mae servicers and establish servicing standards. ""STAR is one of the many ways that we are helping servicers improve their work with homeowners,"" said Leslie Peeler, SVP of Fannie Mae's national servicing organization. The final STAR Program designations, set to be released in April, will evaluate customer service and foreclosure prevention, as well as operational assessments of the servicer's processes, policies, and capabilities.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco released his 2013 priorities for the GSEs Monday. DeMarco anticipates the gradual reduction of the GSEs' presence in the market, and this year's goals largely build on last year's. ""Despite some signs of normalization in the housing market, our Nation finds itself in the uncomfortable position of having over 90 percent of new mortgage originations supported by the Federal government,"" DeMarco said. As such, FHFA's goals for this year expand on last year's three main goals of building an infrastructure for the future of the secondary market, contracting the GSEs' role in the market, and maintaining the GSEs' foreclosure prevention and credit availability efforts.

In recognition of National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW), Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto released a list of the top five most common mortgage fraud consumer complaints addressed by the state's Mortgage Fraud Unit (MFU). In 2012, complaints related to loan modification and loss mitigation issues were No. 1.

Bank of America announced it has completed or approved nearly $30 billion in relief to more than 330,000 homeowners as of the end of 2012.

A year after the nation's largest mortgage servicers reached a monumental settlement with 49 state’s attorneys general and several federal agencies, the five servicers have reportedly provided assistance in the amount of $45.83 billion to 550,000 homeowners, according to the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight reported. The greatest portion of the total $45.83 billion distributed since the settlement went to ""relief to support home ownership."" About $24.7 billion went to these efforts. Short sales made up another significant portion of servicers' efforts, totaling $19.5 billion.