The government-sponsored enterprises—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—worked with more than 130,000 borrowers during the first quarter to help troubled borrowers who were at risk of foreclosure not lose their property.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Federal Property Manager’s Report, nearly 2.8 million foreclosure prevention actions have been conducted by the GSEs since the start of conservatorship in 2008.
Overall, these actions have led to 2.3 million borrowers
During the first quarter, the GSEs’ foreclosure prevention actions included 63,766 loan modifications, 32,082 repayment plans, 3,808 forbearance plans and 146 charge-offs-in-lieu.
As of March 31, FHFA said the “performance of modified loans remains strong” as about 12% of these loans in the second quarter of 2012 had missed two or more payments.
Meanwhile, FHFA said half of the distressed borrowers who obtained a permanent loan modification in 1Q13 had their monthly loan payments reduced by at least 30%.
Also, more than one-third of loan modifications completed during the first three months of this year included principal forbearance.
There were 30,258 completed short sales and deeds-in-lieu in the first quarter, which is a 7% drop from the prior quarter. The latest quarterly figure helps bring the total home retention actions to over 476,300 since the FHFA was named a regulator for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Another highlight from the report is that serious delinquency rates dropped quarter-over-quarter from 3.3% to 3%. Additionally, the number of Fannie and Freddie borrowers who are 60 or more days late in mortgage loan payments declined 11% in the first quarter, which is the lowest level in four years, FHFA said.
