HOPE NOW: Permanent Loan Mods Up in January

Permanent loan modifications started the year with a slight uptick, while foreclosure starts also increased, reported HOPE NOW, Washington, D.C.

HOPE NOW, a voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors of which the Mortgage Bankers Association is a founding member, reported 29,000 homeowners received permanent, affordable loan modifications from mortgage servicers in January. This includes 20,000 through proprietary programs and 9,521 completed via the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

The report said total non-foreclosure solutions totaled 102,000. This compares to 26,000 foreclosure sales for the month.

“Although foreclosure starts and sales increased in January, this is typical with our historical data,” said HOPE NOW Executive Director Eric Selk. “Despite the increase in starts from the previous month, starts are down 4% and sales are down 22% from January of 2016…The data show that the continued industry efforts have produced consistent results, as foreclosures continue to drop month, over month.”

Key Metrics, Month to Month:
–Loan Modifications: 29,000 completed in January vs. 28,500 in December, an increase of 3%.
–Short sales: 3,700 completed in January vs. 4,200 in December, a decrease of 12%.
–Deed in-lieu: 55,000 in January vs. 49,000 in December, an increase of 14%.
–Foreclosure sales: 26,000 in January vs. 20,000 in December, an increase of 34%.
–Serious delinquencies: 1.46 million in January vs. 1.50 million in December, a decrease of 3%. Delinquency data is extrapolated from data received by the Mortgage Bankers Association for the fourth quarter.

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