Industry Completes 50K Loan Modifications for Homeowners in October

“As HOPE NOW begins to wind down 2013 activities and head into a seventh year of existence, I continue to be humbled by the efforts of our industry members, non-profit partners and government partners on behalf of the nation’s homeowners,” said Eric Selk, Executive Director of HOPE NOW Alliance.

The total number of loan modifications for 2013 currently stands at approximately 680,000. This compares to approximately 545,000 foreclosure sales reported for the year-to-date. The total of 50,000 loan modifications for October represented a 5 percent decrease from the 53,000 completed in the month of September.

“The collaboration of so many companies and organizations, through early intervention and outreach at the first signs of delinquency, has allowed the industry to achieve close to seven million loan modifications since 2007,” Selk said. “These efforts, combined with almost one and a half million short sales, have produced an unprecedented number of solutions for homeowners struggling with their mortgages. HOPE NOW will continue to look for ways to improve the customer experience so that more families receive mortgage assistance in efficient and effective manners.”

The start of the third quarter also saw a total of approximately 50,000 loan modifications bringing the total number to approximately 6.76 million since HOPENOW began tracking the data. Approximately 5.47 million homeowners have received proprietary loan modifications since 2007, and since HAMP began reporting modifications in 2009, 1,285,018 homeowners have received HAMP modifications.

Short sales were still effective in the market in October as there were approximately 19,000, for a total of 1.41 million since December 2009. The combination of loan modifications and short sales has brought the total number of permanent, non-foreclosure solutions to almost 8.2 million life to date.

However, foreclosure trends continued to prove positive as they fell flat. In the month of October, there were approximately 51,500 foreclosure sales completed, compared to 50,600 completed in September–an increase of less than 2 percent. There were approximately 102,000 foreclosure starts in October, compared with 93,000 recorded in September–an increase of approximately 10 percent.