HOPE NOW: Loan Mods Down in January; Foreclosures Up

HOPE NOW yesterday reported loan modifications continued to wind down from housing crisis peaks, noting that foreclosures and foreclosure starts increased.

HOPE NOW, of which the Mortgage Bankers Association is a founding member, said 26,000 homeowners received permanent, affordable loan modifications from mortgage servicers during the month. This total includes 19,000 through proprietary programs and 7,616 completed through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

Total non-foreclosure solutions (the combination of total loan modifications, short sales, deeds in lieu and workout plans) for January totaled 102,000, compared to 33,000 foreclosure sales for the month.

“The housing market is taking the necessary steps towards recovery,” said HOPE NOW Executive Director Eric Selk. Although the foreclosure starts, sales and serious delinquency numbers increased in January, we usually see this trend in our historical data.”

Report highlights: December to January
–Loan Modifications: 26,000 completed in January vs. 29,000 in December, a decrease of 10%.
–Short sales: 5,700 completed in January vs. 6,500 in December, a decrease of 12%.
–Deed in-lieu: 1,700 completed in January vs. 1,400 in December, an increase of 17%.
–Foreclosure starts: 58,000 in January vs. 54,000 in December, an increase of 6%.
–Foreclosure sales: 33,000 in January vs. 24,000 in December, an increase of 35%.
–Serious delinquencies: 1.84 million in January vs. 1.62 million in December, an increase of 14%.

The full data set for January is available at www.hopenow.com.