Washington, D.C. (April 30, 2009) – HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, non-profit counselors, and investors that has been working aggressively to prevent foreclosures and keep homeowners in their homes, today announced that its members and the larger mortgage lending industry modified 134,000 mortgages in March.
This was the second consecutive month the lending industry completed this many modifications. Since September 2008, the industry has been averaging 116,000 modifications per month.
The industry also completed 115,000 repayment plans in March, up slightly from February. The combination of 134,000 mortgage modifications and 115,000 repayment plans means that, in March 2009, HOPE NOW members and the larger mortgage lending industry provided 249,000 homeowner solutions through these two options.
The HOPE NOW March data does not specifically break out the impact of the Obama administration’s recently announced Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, which has just begun to be implemented. According to Faith Schwartz, HOPE NOW’s executive director, “The lending industry is steadily working out solutions for homeowners and keeping as many as possible in their homes,” she said. “I expect that these numbers will continue to increase as servicers work with the Obama Administration to implement its Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan,” she added.
The HOPE NOW March data shows:
• Modifications were more than half of all solutions provided to homeowners.
• The number of completed foreclosure sales declined by 39 percent, from 87,000 to 53,000 in March, the lowest number since December 2007.
• Foreclosure starts, increased from 243,000 in February to 290,000 in March. This is the highest number of initiated foreclosure actions since HOPE NOW began tracking data in 2007 and is a 20 percent increase from February.
Michael Bright, HOPE NOW’s chief statistician, said the sharp reduction in completed foreclosure sales in March may have been because servicers allowed troubled loans to be run through the HASP program. “It’s too early to say this is a trend,” he said. “But anecdotal reports from servicers do indicate that they are taking this extra step to help homeowners who qualify stay in their homes.”
They tinkered with (at least temporarily) 249,000 loans, but the 290,000 new foreclosure starts will likely overwhelm the lenders and servicers. I heard yesterday that Chase has 60,000 short sale requests that they haven’t even inputted onto their system yet.
Woohoo! Moral hazard for everyone!
Can we just start the foreclosure train and get the economy moving again? We’re at a stand still right now because special money interests don’t want to lose their seat of power. It’s time to let the market weed out all the fraudsters.
I wouldn’t get your hopes up, Shadash. I’m sure you saw that the BK cramdown legislation got defeated – in a democrat-controlled Senate!
The banks are wielding their big-money power, and the stall is likely to continue for years.
The BK cramdown idea is garbage.
The simple solution is to do what’s always worked. Kick out the deadbeats and sell the property at market price to those that can afford to buy.
Banks just don’t want to realize losses.
I have a new index for neighborhoods who seem to be holding value and those not. I have found it to be very accurate, even as values fall around us.
Its the NWWSI. (Non Working Wives out Shopping Index). Unlike the Case Schiller Index or CSI, This is not on points, just an observed index.
The NWWSI is entrenched from Carmel Valley to Carlsbad within 3 miles of the coast. Strip malls full of 20″ chrome wheeled SUV’s, Mom at the wheel, post kid drop off, post pilates class parking at The Forum, Trader Joes, Target, Carlsbad Outlet Mall, Home Depot or Costco.
Homes in close proximity to these shopping shrines are holding value better to date. Sure there are pockets here and there that don’t follow this trend.
The best time for a true NWWSI reading is between the hours of 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Highest NWWSI levels I have seen are in SW Coastal Orange County. I’m sure Santa Barbara is very high, I have not been there recently enough to measure.
There are NO ice cream trucks in these neighborhoods with high NWWSI.
doughboy…
Have you looked at high-end properties around Fashion Island in Newport Beach? Tricked-out Euro SUVs fill the lots but home values are way off their highs. Down 30-40%.
All evidence points of a foreclosure avalanche hitting the MLS right around the end of the year and prices taking a steep plunge (especially on the high end) between now and then.
Inventory pretty much sucks right now in CA, as there isn’t much out there at a good price, and the good stuff gets multiple offers. I don’t think that will be the case as much by the end of the year.
More foreclosures + more knife-catchers who have already bought homes and are out of the market = cheaper houses for those of us who are still happily waiting.
-Erica
I wouldn’t say all evidence. It looks to me like the banks are doing everything they can to drag this out, not unleash a cascade of inventory.
Sadly Jim I think you’re right regarding the banks. It feels awesome having my own tax dollars keeping me from buying a house.
So basically the banks are going to create a “lost decade” for the United States?
I can walk to the Forum shops and there is an ice creme truck in front of my house right now. They have been coming here for 10 years because of all the kids in the hood.
When I first glanced at the Hope Now logo I thought it was joke from JtR; looks like a tsunami about to crash on some unlucky stick figures.
“looks like a tsunami about to crash on some unlucky stick figures.”
Or, the big bank about to eat it’s customers (and tax payers)!
More market bloodletting, lovely. By the time this is over I won’t even want a house anymore.
Fine by me. All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I’m fine. Is there a vacant home map online anywhere to help me find free beach parking?
Shadash,
Capitalism does not exist anymore.
It took years for this bubble to expand and now this govt will make sure that it will take years for it to get fixed. Does not seen logical, yet it is true.
Everything will be done to attempt to help the deadbeats while you wait fuming in anger.
Mr. Obama should realize there are plenty of people with cash waiting to purchase at fair price levels.
There are still plenty of people waiting to buy.
I say this because we are no where near a bottom. We still have knife-catchers galore.
I saw a house this week that I would consider at a price I thought was appropriate. I contacted my realtor (Brad Davidson) and he contacted the LA on list day +1. When we got ready to submit an offer on list day +2, he called back to the LA and she told him that there was so much interest in the house that the bank only wants to look at all cash offers. There’s no shortage of those right now.
The bubble mentality is alive and well in South Orange County despite having unemployment double what it was last year. We haven’t reached our tipping point near the coast yet… but look 30-40 miles inland and you’ve got complete and utter capitulation. Only time will fix that.
Chuck Ponzi
Shadash is holding strong – the force is strong with that one. I’ve learned to let go. There are less antioxidants in the body that way. Nothing is logical anymore and there is no substance. It is all superficial and it seems everybody takes the easy way out today. I’m still without a job since January. My mortgage is still being paid and we aren’t hurting because we have always lived beyond our means. That said, something tells me I’m going to go down with the ship while the ‘leased-out-$150-jean-wearing crowd gets their cake and eat it too. Call me stupid for not walking away, call me stupid for not paying my mortgage, call me stupid for not living ‘rent’ free and lastly, call me stupid for not moving forward with a mortgage modification.
ooops, I meant ‘always lived within our means’ NOT ‘beyond’.
I dont know about the NWWSI index, but I live in South OC and we are on the verge of a calamity.
Yes there 1000’s of Moms in the “tricked out SUV’s’ and $200 work-out outfits not to mention more silicon than in the Valley. I would guess than many of “opted-in” for the “free rent programs”, some are still living off the 500k helocs, and others have the option arm subsidy.
In my neighborhood of semi-custom Mc-mansions 47 of the 72 homes owe over 750k, not to mention the HOA, Taxes, leased Beamers, the list goes on.
We have the usual mix of Dr’s ,Attorneys(most in the loan mod biz now)mortgage brokers and realtors(given a reprise?)sales reps, and IT dudes.
JTR is right the “big banks” are using their influence to “stall the fall” but most of my neighbors do not have the ablity to sustain incomes of 15-20k per month for the next 5 years.
North SD and South OC are going down hard when the feds have to raise rates to off-set inflation.
The best objective measure of the NWWSI index is the annual divorce rate for high income families.
When parasites overwhelm their host, they move on and multiply elsewhere. Sometimes they take their children with them.
There was just a small earthquake up here in LA. I wonder what would happen to RE if there was another quake like the Northridge one. Look out below.
My dad got a call from a mortgage broker the other day peddling one of these government subsidized loans for troubled borrowers. Even after explaining to the broker that he is not having any trouble making the payments and that he has 90K sitting in the bank in cash the guy still wanted to get him on board to refinance. A lot of the loans going out probably aren’t even to people that need them and the likelihood that they will save many from foreclosure is low. It’s just a feel good program from a president and administration that likes to give out taxpayer money.
No taxpayer money is directly used in this program. Read the first sentence: “HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, non-profit counselors, and investors…”
It is in the bank’s best interest to provide loan modification in many cases due to the extreme fall in prices from peak. For example, I am currently in escrow on a $150k Riverside house. The previous owner paid $400k and probably still owed nearly that much. If the bank turned $400k owed into $300k owed, that’s a better deal for them than foreclosing on it and selling it for $150k, especially considering all the costs involved in foreclosing on a house and reselling it (real estate commissions, legal fees, repairs, etc.).
Looks like San Diego County property tax delinquencies are up +80% this year over last. I don’t think the Treasurer will be successful collecting this years past due amounts as they were last year. Stand by, more county programs to be cut/eliminated.
In my opinion all these “HOPE”, etc. programs are virtually useless in mitigating the avalance of foreclosures and have encouraged more fraud and crime. (Check out MortgageFraudBlog.Com)Scam artists and crooked attorneys the the real beneficiaries. The media is full of stories from frustated homeowners getting nowhere and losing more money to crooks. Sheila Bair(FDIC) is the only member of the current administration that has a brain. Obama should let her do it her way.
that would be the same Sheila Blair who is trying to make responsible banks/credit unions pay more to insure their safer deposits to bail out the morons who were greedy? and the same Sheila Blair who allowed the fdic pot to remain underfunded, because house prices never go down?
They all have brains – and they all seem to have them hard wired into looking after number one.
This housing disaster has been engineered by the administration. Yes prices went up too far because of liar loans, liar brokers, liar borrowers and greed all round, possibly with a touch of hope and desperation… but it’s the way that it’s been handled once prices peaked that has really made for disaster. Allowing people to walk away from the mortgages while also walking away from paying taxes to the IRS / state tax agency really encouraged people to walk and have nothing to lose and much to gain from doing so. This is a huge driving force of foreclosures. They took the one stick held over the borrowers and said be your tax paying neighbors guests.
This is like one of those huge tidal waves building, and when enough of the neighbors see how much they can save by doing the same, it’s going to get very ugly – it’s not like they want to do it, but so many of the neighbors have, why should they fund their neighbors and be a schmuck themselves?
Last week in the U-T there was some guy spouting about homes had fallen by about 140K over a year and how a realtor was your best asset in finding a home now that they were more affordable and how a realtor could help keep you from overpaying for a home – would that be the same ‘realtor’ that kept the people now foreclosed from overpaying?
I’d like to see realtors made into fiduciaries.
I’d like to see home closing paperwork reduced down to something which even I could read and understand.
I’d like it to be written in plain english and/or spanish – after all California has two official languages.
and, I’d dearly like to see a return to where you cannot buy a home unless you can put 20% down – because you know what, if you can’t afford something, you shouldn’t pretend to buy it. I’m not opposed to a deal where you rent to own, with the amount towards the own going into a 3rd party escrow safe from machinations of a defaulting owner. There are accepted standards for affordability, and because no one is responsible for when the deal goes sour, no one seems to care about whether the buyer can buy and keep their home. Just about whether they get their fees or commission.
And, I’d love to see realtor commissions reduced… I’m British and in the UK we do not pay our estate agents anything like the money we pay realtors here. They get paid for what they do, and that isn’t very much. I have no idea why anyone would choose to pay most of the realtors here because unlike JtR, most of them seem to do Jack for their commissions, and most of them seem to find interesting ways to supplement their incomes. Perhaps it isn’t most of them but its certainly a much reported on minority who are making sure they or their friends get both ends of a deal or you don’t get to take part in the deal. There are reasons why most realtors are regarded as sleazy, on a level with used car salesmen and as JtR has shown, it doesn’t have to or need to be that way.
So – if the govt doesn’t want it this way, why is SuperJenna still at large? Why isn’t she rotting in jail?
Crooked activity should have been punished, but it wasn’t because it greased a lot of wheels. No one wanted to tip over the gravy train. Meanwhile it pushed up the rents for people like me, and it pushed others out of town.
People could see the crooks weren’t being punished and we are not happy about it.
I like the idea of a public open data base for bidding on foreclosures – maybe like e-bay, because the system they have now seems to benefit only the insiders who control the listings, many of whom are responsible for this mess in the first place
People whine about code violations, unkept lawns, broken windows. Hey – there are laws, penalties get assessed – how come no one goes out and collects on them. There was a great video recently comparing Indio and Coachella – how one bunch criminalized not keeping the property up in foreclosure, and how the other place is becoming a ghetto. It is a bit extreme, but it seems to work based on the footage.
We are all in a deep mess. The extra property taxes allowed greedy govt officials to vote themselves extremely generous pension benefits – that money isn’t coming in any more but they still want their benefits. I’m not going to get a pension – why should my taxes pay for them to have over generous benefits while they cut back on all other aspects of govt?
The fraud and the crime is in allowing this mess to drag on and to not enforce laws and deal with problems promptly.
To Anon: I agree w/99% of your comments. However, once we become the USSA, real estate will be the least of our worries.