The Obama Administration’s foreclosure mitigation programs continue to benefit millions of homeowners as the housing market recovers.
With that being said, the government remains cautious about issues in mortgage servicing. Even though delinquencies are trending down, they remain high when compared to historic levels, the report noted.
Nonetheless, the Making Home Affordable Program has assisted more than 1.6 million homeowners since its inception in 2009, the Obama Administration said in its June Scorecard report. That figure is unchanged from the last score report.
Homeowners continue to benefit from deep payment relief, helping them sustain their mortgage payments overtime, the government asserted.
As of May, more than 1.2 million homeowners received a permanent modification through the Home Affordable Modification Program, saving homeowners $547 on their mortgage payments each month — a 39% savings from their previous payment.
As a result, HAMP modifications continue to exhibit lower delinquency and re-default rates than industry modifications, the report explained.
“Homeowners who receive help from the Administration’s HAMP program continue to show success at avoiding foreclosure, which benefits families, communities and the economy,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad.
He added, “HAMP has also put into place important standards for the mortgage servicing industry that have improved outcomes for struggling families more broadly.”
The Federal Housing Administration has offered more than 1.8 million loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions since the launch of HAMP.
Meanwhile, HOPE Now lenders offered homeowners more than 3.6 million propriety modifications through April.
Homeowners currently in permanent HAMP modifications were granted about $10.6 billion in principal reductions. Of all non-agency loans eligible for principal reduction entering HAMP in May, 69% received a principal writedown.
In May, nearly 112,000 second-lien modifications were completed through the Second Lien Modification Program. Additionally, 170,000 homeowners exited their homes through a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure with the assistance of the government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program.
The 15 metropolitan areas with the highest HAMP activity included Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Cali.; New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.; and Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI.
Since the inception of the government’s Making Home Affordable Programs, the Treasury has required participating servicers to take specific action to improve their processes through ongoing reviews.
The top three servicers for May were Bank of America (BAC), CitiMortgage (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).
