FreeDIYkits Loan Modification Blog

The Obama administration is facing increasing pressure from lawmakers and housing advocates to retool its troubled mortgage relief program a year after its debut as the housing crisis continues to deepen and spreads to more creditworthy borrowers.

The $75 billion program pays lenders to modify the mortgages of troubled borrowers, typically lowering their payments by about $500 a month.

But so far, fewer than 200,000 borrowers have received a permanent change to their loans, according to Treasury Department data released Wednesday, a small fraction of the 3 to 4 million borrowers who government regulators initially said the program could help before it expires in 2012. That may not bode well for efforts to stabilize the housing market. Credit Suisse has estimated that 3.2 million foreclosures would have to be prevented this year for home prices to rise modestly.

“Clearly the numbers that were discussed by the administration set up an expectation that just don’t deal with the reality we’re in,” said John Courson, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Administration officials have acknowledged that the program, known as Making Home Affordable, got off to a slow start and has yet to reach its full potential. Many lenders didn’t begin enrolling borrowers until last summer, months after the program was launched. By then, the primary cause of foreclosures had shifted from the risky mortgages that helped spur the financial crisis to rising unemployment. The latter is tougher to address because jobless borrowers often have little money with which to pay any type of home loan.

Through January, nearly a million borrowers had gotten at least some reduction in their mortgage payments as part of the program, but more than three-quarters have yet to win a permanent modification and must still prove they qualify, according to Treasury data. The program “is doing the job it was designed to do, Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, said in a statement. “Struggling families are receiving payment relief and the housing market is showing signs of stabilization.”

The Mortgage Bankers Association proposed a forbearance program Wednesday aimed at helping the unemployed pay their mortgages for up to nine months.

Under the proposal, loan servicers would reduce eligible borrowers’ monthly payments to no more than 31% of their household income for up to nine months. Unlike a modification, however, the arrears would be tacked onto the end of the mortgage.

As part of the proposal, the association has asked the Treasury Department to provide loans to some servicers to cover payments to the mortgages’ investors. Treasury officials, who met with the group last week, have not made yet a determination, a spokeswoman said.

The trade group’s goal is to address the growing number of people who are falling behind on their mortgages because they’ve lost their jobs.

“Borrowers with such a precipitous drop in income can’t qualify for most loan modification programs, so we are looking for ways to allow those borrowers to keep their homes while they look for another job,” said John Courson, the association’s chief executive.

Once borrowers find new employment, they will be considered for a long-term modification under the Obama administration’s foreclosure prevention program.

Most consumer advocates, however, do not think forbearance plans are an answer to the foreclosure crisis. Most delinquent borrowers need more help than just a temporary reduction of their payments.

Also, it’s unlikely that borrowers will find new jobs in nine months in this tough economy, said Kathleen Engel, a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston who specializes in foreclosures. She said the program would need to last at least two to three years to be effective.

The Obama Loan Modification or Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan offers protection and hope to billions of homeowners. Before you apply for a mortgage modification make sure you understand what protection is offered.

Full Disclosure:
When either just describing or encouraging loan modification, the servicer shall give the debtor information that will aid them in understanding the terms of the modification and the process of modification, and debtors should also be given written information about the costs, terms, and risks of modification that is clear and concise. This should be given in a timely manner as to allow debtors to make an informed decision.

Fair Lending:
Modifications under the plan must abide by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act, both of which do not allow discrimination on a prohibited basis connecting to mortgage transactions. Loan modification plans are subject to fair lending laws, and both servicers and lenders should make sure debtors are being treated equally when it comes to mortgage modification.

Consumer Complaints and Questions:
Servicers should have a system to answer complaints and questions regarding loan modification timely and appropriately, and that every question and complaint is taken seriously and answered appropriately.
This protection will ensure that you and your family are not treated unfairly and can receive the full benefits a mortgage modification.

They gathered to say goodbye at the bucolic Redwood City retreat Mrs. Bagnarol had created — a compound of three homes cascading down a steep hillside where she raised chickens. Some of her children and grandchildren live on the grounds.

But that night an unwanted visitor arrived: a process server delivered papers that ordered Mrs. Bagnarol and her family to get out. The bank had foreclosed on their property, and they were all being evicted.

Emotions exploded. Not now, the family cursed. A sheriff’s deputy was called to keep the peace. Mrs. Bagnarol died a day later.

But the unfortunate timing of the official visit was not the only source of the anger. More troubling were the financial deals that led to the visit — and the decision by lenders to sign Mrs. Bagnarol up for one exotic mortgage after another.

“It’s definitely elder abuse,” said Carolina Bagnarol, her daughter. “There’s predatory lending here.”

Ms. Bagnarol has filed a lawsuit against a lengthy list of lenders she said took advantage of her mother. The loans plunged her mother deeper into debt with each mortgage payment, to the point of financial ruin. The lawsuit contends that Mrs. Bagnarol was pursued and persuaded — twice over — to take out ultimately disastrous loans on the family’s property.

In recent years, 70 percent of the elderly have been solicited to take out new mortgages, according to a survey by AARP.

“Older people seem to be targeted in part because they own their houses and have owned them for a long time and have equity in their houses,” said Jean Constantine-Davis, senior lawyer for the AARP Foundation.

Mrs. Bagnarol was in her late 70s and suffered from the onset of dementia when she signed the loans, family members said.

“This is one of the most egregious cases I’ve ever seen,” said Michael Rooney, the San Francisco lawyer representing the family in the lawsuit. “The terms were so horrible — negative amortization and adjustable rate — no one would believe this loan was good for her.”

Do borrowers taking part in the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program deserve a black mark on their credit records?

Lenders use special codes to let credit bureaus know what customers are borrowing and whether they’re paying on time. When the loan modification program, which lowers mortgage payments for homeowners who are behind in their payments or in danger of imminent default, was announced in February, lenders used an existing code, called AC, to signal that borrowers were participating in the program.

The problem for those borrowers, however, was the fact that the AC code signals that a consumer has made only a partial payment. That often had a significant impact on the scores of borrowers with good credit who had made all of their payments on time. A Treasury Department spokeswoman estimated that their scores could fall from 30 to 100 points, depending on other information in their credit file .

Why use an old code? The AC code was the closest fit, so the Consumer Data Industry Association recommended using it until it could develop a new one.

One Bank of America executive, for instance, confirmed in this recent New York Times article, that it reported borrowers who made timely payments before and after agreeing to loan modifications as making only partial payments. Presumably, the bank used the AC code, which damaged the credit of many borrowers.

A group of billionaires, hedge-fund managers and ex-Goldman Sachs executives are building a banking empire in California—with assistance from Uncle Sam.

Exactly a year ago these investors acquired the assets of collapsed mortgage lender IndyMac Bank from the federal government for about $1.5 billion and renamed it OneWest Bank. Earlier this month, OneWest purchased First Federal Bank of California, a failed Los Angeles-based lender.

With the purchase, Pasadena, Calif.-based OneWest more than doubled its branches to 72 and increased its total assets by a third to $24 billion, making it the largest bank based in Southern California.

The OneWest ownership roster reads like an excerpt of the Forbes 400. It includes J.C. Flowers & Co., an investment firm run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker J. Christopher Flowers; Paulson & Co., the large hedge fund; MSD Capital, which invests the fortune of computer mogul Michael Dell; and a fund controlled by famed speculator George Soros.

How successful OneWest’s owners are with the venture—both financially and in the public eye—will influence whether the government welcomes more private capital into the banking system.

Federal regulators, struggling with a rash of failures, can save money by lining up a ready buyer when a bank fails. But the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been wary of private-equity investors, given their reputation for loading companies with debt and selling businesses quickly.

Of the 140 banks closed by the government this year, private investors have acquired only two outright—IndyMac and Florida’s BankUnited. Private equity investors argue that they should play a bigger role, as their funds’ billions in unspent capital could bolster the banking system.

The Obama refinance plan was created to help home owners lock into a low mortgage interest rate. The Making Home Affordable plan is designed to help homeowners stay in their home and avoid foreclosure. An easy way to lower your monthly mortgage payment is to refinance your current home loan to a lower mortgage interest rate. This could save you several hundred dollars a month.
If you have a decent credit score and you have equity in your home then there is a good chance that you can refinance to a much lower mortgage interest rate. It is extremely important that you have some equity in your home. Many people have tried to refinance and they have found that their home value is much lower than they expected. This is causing it to be very difficult to get through the refinance appraisal step.

It is also extremely important that you have a credit score of 680 or better to get a very low mortgage interest rate. If you have bad credit and little equity in your home then you might want to consider the home loan modification process because it is not likely you can refinance to the advertised low mortgage rates. For more information on the home loan modification option make sure to check out the Making Home Affordable website.

Only about 4% of homeowners whose home loans were reworked through a government-led program have successfully completed a trial period required to get permanent modifications — a slow pace of progress that has some now calling for change.
A total of 31,382 homeowners have gotten a permanent home loan modification since details of the program were announced in March, the Treasury Department said Thursday. There are more than 728,000 trial modifications underway.

Trial modifications last for three months before becoming eligible for permanent status; during that time, homeowners must remain current with their payments and submit documentation showing proof of income and that they are owner-occupants.

On Thursday, the Treasury Department released a list of servicers and the number of permanent modifications each has made.

About a quarter of borrowers in trial modifications already are in default again on their mortgages, according to Treasury, which has criticized banks for not doing more to make trial modifications permanent. Servicers have countered that borrowers have frequently failed to provide documentation of income or other paperwork.

HOPE NOW announced Thursday the initial launch of its HOPE LoanPort, a new web portal that will give HUD-approved housing counseling agencies the ability to submit completed Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) applications for borrowers facing foreclosure. The nationwide launch of the HOPE LoanPort is expected in early 2010.

“This is the highway system that will help more people get HAMP modifications, more quickly. It is a neutral and accessible site that will provide real-time aggregate reporting and status updates,” said Faith Schwartz, HOPE NOW executive director. “While we will initially roll it out with certified housing counselors, our goal in the upcoming year is take it directly to consumers.”

The intention of the new HOPE LoanPort is to streamline the HAMP application process by leveraging HUD counseling agencies that provide free services to at-risk borrowers. Housing counselors in nine key markets will assist troubled homeowners in collecting all required documents for a loan modification under the Making Home Affordable program.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today kick off a nationwide campaign to help borrowers who are currently in the trial phase of their modified mortgages under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) convert to permanent modifications. The modification program, which has helped over 650,000 borrowers, is part of the Administration’s broader commitment to stabilize housing markets and to provide relief to struggling homeowners and is a primary focus of financial stability efforts moving forward. Roughly 375,000 of the borrowers who have begun trial modifications since the start of the program are scheduled to convert to permanent modifications by the end of the year. Through the efforts being announced today, Treasury and HUD will implement new outreach tools and borrower resources to help convert as many trial modifications as possible to permanent ones.