With more home loans moving out of the distressed category and the country’s collective home-equity position improving, mortgage servicers are completing fewer loan modifications.
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently reported that seasonally adjusted 30-day delinquency, excluding foreclosures, was 6.11 percent in the first quarter — the lowest rate since the fourth-quarter 2007.
After peaking at 71.3 percent in the fourth-quarter 2011, the average national loan-to-value ratio has since fallen to 60.8 percent as of the first-quarter 2014, according to CoreLogic Inc.
The improving metrics have apparently reduced the need for loan modifications, based on data released Monday from HOPE NOW.
The Washington, D.C.-based alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, insurers and non-profit counselors reported that 36,664 loan modifications were completed in May.
That was the fewest modifications completed during any month since tracking began in 2009.
Servicers completed 41,648 modifications in April and 73,598 in May 2013.
Permanent modifications completed through the Home Affordable Modification Program numbered 11,774 in the latest report, slightly fewer than the 11,813 completed in April. There were 15,571 HAMP modifications in May 2013.
Since HAMP was launched in 2009, 1,376,448 permanent modifications have been completed through the program.
The May 2014 total additionally included 24,890 loan modifications completed through lenders’ own proprietary programs, dropping from the previous month’s 29,835.
Proprietary modifications sank compared to the 58,027 completed a year earlier.
