About 34,000 homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers during November, down 14% compared to the approximately 39,000 completed in October, according to HOPE NOW, a voluntary, private-sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and nonprofit counselors.
Of those modifications, about 23,000 were through proprietary programs and 11,003 were completed via the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
There were approximately 136,000 non-foreclosure solutions (the combination of total loan modifications, short sales, deeds-in-lieu and workout plans) for the month. Non-foreclosure solutions continued to outpace completed foreclosure sales by a four to one margin (1.7 million solutions vs. 426,000 foreclosure sales), according to HOPE NOW's monthly foreclosure report.
That brings the total number of non-foreclosure solutions since 2007 to more than 23 million. The total number of permanent loan modifications stands at approximately 7.3 million. Of those, about 5.9 million were proprietary while about 1.4 million were through HAMP.
There were about 28,000 foreclosure sales in November – the lowest monthly total since HOPE NOW began recording data in 2007. This represented a 27% decrease from the approximately 39,000 recorded in the month of October. Foreclosure starts fell about 8% from approximately 65,000 in October to about 60,000 in November.
Serious delinquencies increased slightly: About 1.97 million loans were 60-plus days overdue, up about 3% compared to October's 1.91 million.
‘Although November tends to be a slower time of the year for foreclosure activity, HOPE NOW is still proud of the progress made by its members to offer five times as many non-foreclosure options during the month,’ says Eric Selk, executive director of HOPE NOW, in a statement. ‘The total solutions offered by the industry since the crisis started are a reminder of the hard work of our membership.
‘If a homeowner does not qualify for a modification, there are many other solutions that can be reviewed,’ Selk says. ‘For instance, repayment plans make more sense in cases of short-term hardship. As home prices appreciate, there are also solutions that help leverage this improvement. This point is illustrated very clearly by our life-to-date total solutions metric. The bottom line is that there is no single solution when reviewing at-risk homeowners and decisions are made based on sustainability.’
Selk adds that HOPE NOW currently has two more borrower outreach events scheduled for 2015 in Oakland and San Bernardino, Calif.
‘Additionally, HOPE NOW is planning several community roundtables designed to engage the industry, nonprofits and local partners in a holistic approach to finding viable housing solutions,’ he says.