Fannie Pushes Alternative Mods to Help Borrowers

Fannie Mae beat Freddie Mac by a country mile in the loan modification race by moving borrowers who do not qualify for the government's Home Affordable Modification Program into alternative restructuring plans. Not counting HAMP modifications, Fannie completed 27,700 loan modifications in the third quarter, up 66% from the second quarter. Freddie completed only 9,000 alternative modifications, a 42% decline from the previous quarter. "Freddie has instructed its servicers to fully support HAMP as the primary modification program," said the Federal Housing Finance Agency in its quarterly Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report. "While Fannie Mae's primary modification solution is HAMP, it has also focused on putting borrowers who do not qualify for HAMP modifications into other modifications leading to most of this increase in the quarter," said FHFA. The agency's quarterly report does show that Freddie, relative to its size, is more efficient at completing HAMP modifications than its larger competitor. Fannie has completed 11,700 HAMP modifications as of Nov. 30, compared to 10,300 for Freddie.