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Foreclosures Are Declining, But So Are Foreclosure Prevention Actions

foreclosure-helpWhile the number of nationwide foreclosures has been steadily declining since reaching historic levels in 2009 and 2010, the number of foreclosure prevention actions completed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has also been dropping, according to the FHFA’s August 2015 Foreclosure Prevention Report released Thursday.

In August 2015, the GSEs completed 17,806 foreclosure prevention actions, over half of which (11,382) were permanent loan modifications. August’s total included both home retention actions and home forfeiture actions and brought the total of foreclosure prevention actions completed by the GSEs to 3,578,227 since the conservatorships began in September 2008.

Though the Enterprises have completed 3.57 million foreclosure prevention actions in seven years, that number has been on the decline for a few years along with foreclosure volume. For example, in 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed a total of 940,974 foreclosure prevention actions between them. That number fell to 789,617 the next year and down to 561,312 for 2014. And the 2015 pace is behind last year’s: Through the first eight months of 2015, the number is 166,844.

In August the number of home retention actions recorded by the GSEs, which included loan modifications, repayment plans, and forbearance plans, totaled 14,914, down from 13,363 in July. The number of home forfeiture actions, which included short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure, was also down over the month in August from 3,122 to 2,892, a decline of 7 percent.

The number of permanent loan modifications also declined from July to August, from 12,237 to 11,382. The share of modifications with principal forbearance increased slightly from July to August up to 19 percent. According to the report, improved house prices and a declining Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)-eligible population resulted in a drop in the share of modifications with extend-term only down to 47 percent of all modifications.

Though the number of foreclosure starts on GSE-backed residential mortgage loans increased from 19,481 in July to 25,121 in August (a leap of 29 percent), the number of third-party and foreclosure sales (the true measure of homes lost to foreclosure) declined over the month in August from 9,316 to 8,530 (a decline of 7 percent).

The combined serious delinquency rate (mortgage loans 90 days or more past due) on loans backed by the GSEs declined only slightly from July to August (1.57 percent down to 1.56 percent).

Click here to see the FHFA’s complete foreclosure prevention report for August.

About Author: Brian Honea

Brian Honea's writing and editing career spans nearly two decades across many forms of media. He served as sports editor for two suburban newspaper chains in the DFW area and has freelanced for such publications as the Yahoo! Contributor Network, Dallas Home Improvement magazine, and the Dallas Morning News. He has written four non-fiction sports books, the latest of which, The Life of Coach Chuck Curtis, was published by the TCU Press in December 2014. A lifelong Texan, Brian received his master's degree from Amberton University in Garland.
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