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Over 2 Million Foreclosures Prevented in Past Year by HOPE NOW Alliance Members

Posted: 11/23/2008 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON, DC -- Number of homeowners helped in July 2008 sets another monthly record HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors that has been working aggressively over the past year to prevent foreclosures today announced that over 2 million homeowners have avoided foreclosure and have been able to stay in their homes due to the unwavering efforts of HOPE NOW and the broader mortgage industry.

HOPE NOW also announced that the number of foreclosures prevented in July 2008 was at a record high for the second consecutive month, and was 6 percent higher than the number of foreclosures prevented in June.  Compared to July 2007, the number of foreclosures prevented has increased by more than 54 percent.

In July 2008, HOPE NOW mortgage servicers helped homeowners avoid foreclosure by completing more than 192,000 mortgage workouts.  Workouts include both modifications to the terms of existing mortgages and repayment plans.  All workouts are intended to be permanent changes that, barring a life event such as a job loss, death, or illness, will enable the homeowner to stay in the home as long as he or she wishes to do so.

"The industry's overwhelming commitment to helping homeowners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes is undeniable and steadfast," said HOPE NOW's Executive Director Faith Schwartz.  "Because of HOPE NOW's vast and multifaceted efforts, more than 2 million families and the communities in which they live are much better off today than they otherwise would have been."

  The HOPE NOW report estimates that on an industry-wide basis:

  -- The total number of foreclosures prevented by mortgage servicers since
     July 2007 has risen to nearly 2.07 million.

  -- Mortgage servicers provided loan workouts for approximately 192,000
     borrowers in July, an increase of 11,000 loan workouts over June.

  -- Approximately 112,000 of the homeowners with prime and subprime
     mortgages helped by servicers in July received repayment plans;
     approximately 80,000 received loan modifications.

  -- Nearly 52 percent of homeowners with subprime loans received
     modifications.



A summary table of the results is attached and can be found at http://www.hopenow.com/media/press_release.php.

According to Schwartz, the rapid pace of foreclosure prevention by HOPE NOW members is likely to accelerate further in the coming months due to the alliance's continuing efforts to reach out to millions of homeowners through mailings, the HOPE Hotline, and the regional homeowner workshops it has been holding around the country.

"At the same time Tropical Storm Fay was raging, more than 3,600 people attended the homeowner workshops held in Florida last week," she said.  "These targeted efforts led by the HOPE NOW alliance clearly demonstrates the sheer volume of homeowners that will continue to be helped in the coming months."

Because of several factors, the numbers reported by HOPE NOW differ from those reported by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and other regulators.  For example, OCC collects information from 9 nationally chartered banks, OTS collects information from 5 federally chartered thrifts, and HOPE NOW collects data from 23 companies with a variety of charters and regulators.  HOPE NOW members report approximately 38 million loans, substantially more than the number included in either the OCC or OTS reports.

The HOPE NOW survey estimates the effort by the total mortgage lending industry to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.  By contrast, OCC and OTS only provide data from the largest chartered institutions they oversee.

None of these differences invalidate the information in any of the reports.

HOPE NOW also announced today the results of a separate survey of subprime adjustable rate mortgages with rates resetting in 2008.  The results, reported by 9 companies representing approximately 60 percent of subprime loans, are as follows:

  -- Approximately 1.1 million subprime loans were scheduled to reset
     between January and July 2008.

  -- Since rates began to reset on these loans in January 2008, those loans
     that were current at reset and subsequently started the foreclosure
     process account for less than 1 percent of remaining loans.

  -- Nearly 80,000 of these loans have been modified.   Over 74 percent of
     these modifications are for 5 years or longer.

  -- 436,000 of the subprime adjustable rate loans that were originally
     scheduled to reset during this period were paid in full when the
     homeowner refinanced the loan or sold the property.

  ABOUT HOPE NOW


HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, mortgage market participants, and mortgage servicers to create a unified, coordinated plan to reach and help as many homeowners as possible.

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation's HOPE Hotline (1-888-995-HOPE), which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, receives an average of more than 4,000 calls a day. There is no cost to homeowners for using the HOPE Hotline.

HOPE NOW coordinates a nationwide campaign to reach homeowners who may be at risk of losing their homes.  So far, HOPE NOW has sent almost 1.9 million letters.  About 18 percent of homeowners receiving the HOPE NOW-coordinated letters have contacted their servicer, six times more than the routine 2-3 percent response rate servicers receive when they send their own mailings.

In the past seven months, HOPE NOW has connected thousands of homeowners with their lender and/or a HUD-certified housing counselor at workshops in 20 different cities in California, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Florida, Massachusetts, Florida and Indiana. Additional workshops are being scheduled so that more troubled borrowers can be helped.

In addition, HOPE NOW members recently agreed to make substantial additional efforts to contact homeowners whose mortgages will reset in the coming months and to further expedite the process used to determine how best to keep them in their homes.

  Foreclosure Starts
                           Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total                      126    152    134    143    169    169
    Prime                     51     61     55     63     65     76



    Subprime                  75     91     79     81    103     92

                           Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
  Total                      168    179    179    195    192    187    197
    Prime                     78     82     90     95     96     96    105
    Subprime                  90     97     89    100     96     90     92


  Completed Foreclosure
   Sales
                           Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total                       42     48     45     55     54     43
    Prime                     17     20     17     21     22     16
    Subprime                  25     29     28     33     32     26

                           Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
  Total                       70     67     66     80     85     80     92
    Prime                     30     27     26     35     37     36     44
    Subprime                  41     40     39     45     49     44     48


  Completed foreclosure sales (Percentage of Starts)


There is a time lag between a foreclosure start and its completion. During this time many foreclosure starts drop out for a variety of reasons. The time lag varies for individual states, ranging between 2 and 12 months. The percentages shown below adjust for this lag and are calculated by multiplying the number of loans for each state by the average time from foreclosure initiation to completed foreclosure sale, summing the results for all states, and then dividing the aggregate by the total number of loans for all states.  The overall weighted average is approximately 5.4 months.

                           Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total                     40.5%  45.5%  39.8%  45.2%  45.1%  32.5%
    Prime                   37.1%  44.8%  37.0%  43.1%  44.9%  29.7%
    Subprime                43.1%  45.9%  41.8%  46.7%  45.4%  34.5%

                           Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
  Total                     50.7%  47.6%  43.5%  49.2%  51.8%  46.8%  51.9%
    Prime                   52.5%  44.7%  41.2%  49.6%  48.5%  45.4%  52.8%
    Subprime                49.4%  49.8%  45.1%  49.1%  54.6%  47.9%  51.2%


  Summary Loss Mitigation Statistics for 2007/2008 - Industry Extrapolation
   (thousands of residential loans)

  Summary loss mitigation statistics aggregate the Hope Now Alliance data on
   a monthly basis and are extrapolated to an industry estimated aggregate.


  Borrower Workout Plans (Repayment Plans
   Initiated + Modifications Completed)
                    Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total               125    142    131    167    156    151
    Prime              47     53     50     59     59     56
    Subprime           78     89     81    108     96     96

                                                                     Three-
                                                                      Month
                                                                     Rate of
                    Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08  Change
  Total               173    156    154    174    167    181    192    11.8%
    Prime              73     61     61     65     62     70     80    13.7%
    Subprime          100     94     93    109    105    111    112    10.7%





  Formal Repayment
   Plans Initiated
                    Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total               102    116    105    120    112    101
    Prime              37     42     40     47     46     44
    Subprime           65     74     65     73     67     57

                                                                     Three-
                                                                      Month
                                                                     Rate of
                    Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08  Change
  Total               117    101     94    100     97    105    112     6.5%
    Prime              57     45     45     45     45     51     58    13.6%
    Subprime           61     56     49     55     52     54     54     0.5%


  Modifications Completed
                    Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total                23     26     26     47     43     50
    Prime              10     11     10     12     14     12
    Subprime           13     16     16     35     30     38

                                                                     Three-
                                                                      Month
                                                                     Rate of
                    Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08  Change
  Total                56     55     59     74     70     76     80    20.2%
    Prime              16     16     16     19     17     19     22    13.7%
    Subprime           40     39     44     54     53     57     58    22.6%


  Modifications as a
   Percentage of
   Workout Plans
                    Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07
  Total              18.6%  18.5%  19.7%  27.9%  27.9%  33.3%
    Prime            20.8%  19.9%  19.3%  20.0%  22.9%  21.3%
    Subprime         17.2%  17.7%  20.0%  32.2%  30.9%  40.3%

                    Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08 Jul-08
  Total              32.1%  35.4%  38.7%  42.5%  41.8%  42.2%  41.7%
    Prime            21.8%  26.8%  25.9%  29.9%  27.6%  27.6%  27.7%
    Subprime         39.6%  40.9%  47.0%  50.0%  50.3%  51.3%  51.7%



                       BORROWER LOAN WORKOUT PLANS

                            2007 Q3   2007 Q4
  Repayment Plans           322,909   333,393
                  Prime     120,254   136,364
               Subprime     202,656   197,029
  Modifications              75,326   140,401
                  Prime      29,999    37,162
               Subprime      45,327   103,239
  Workout Plans             398,236   473,794
                  Prime     150,253   173,526
               Subprime     247,983   300,268

                            2008 Q1   2008 Q2  2008 July    Total
  Repayment Plans           312,225   301,894   111,993   1,382,414
                  Prime     146,586   141,126    57,822     602,152
               Subprime     165,639   160,768    54,171     780,262
  Modifications             170,090   220,100    80,042     685,959
                  Prime      48,022    55,907    22,115     193,204



               Subprime     122,068   164,193    57,927     492,754
  Workout Plans             482,315   521,994   192,034   2,068,372
                  Prime     194,607   197,033    79,937     795,356
               Subprime     287,708   324,961   112,097   1,273,016


                            foreclosure sales
                                                             2008
                        2007 Q3  2007 Q4  2008 Q1  2008 Q2   July    Total
  foreclosure sales     135,330  151,403  202,970  245,688  91,752  827,142
                  Prime  53,760   59,750   82,819  107,661  44,090  348,079
               Subprime  81,570   91,653  120,151  138,027  47,662  479,063


  Workout Plans = Repayment Plans + Modifications

  Repayment Plans:  A plan that allows the borrower to become current and
                    catch up on missed payments that are appropriate to the
                    borrower's circumstances, which involves deferring or
                    rescheduling payments but the full amount of the loan is
                    expected ultimately to be paid and within the original
                    contractual maturity of the loan.

  Modifications:    A modification occurs any time any term of the original
                    loan contract is permanently altered.  This can involve
                    a reduction in the interest rate, forgiveness of a
                    portion of principal or extension of the maturity date
                    of the loan.




   Notes:

Source: HOPE NOW


CONTACT: Kara Ross, +1-202-683-3117, Kate McGann, +1-202-683-3143, or
Aleis Stokes, +1-202-557-2741, all for HOPE NOW

Web site: http://www.hopenow.com/

About This Release
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