According to reports from the United States Department of the Treasury, about 63,000 homeowners received loan modifications during July 2013 (which is the last month statistics are available). This brings the total for 2013 to 519,000 loan modifications, a number which dwarfs the number of foreclosure sales (378,000) that were reported up to the same point. All in all, this totals 6.6 million permanent loan modifications since 2008. According to analysis from financial firm Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods, loan modifications are playing a large part in strengthening today's housing market.
It's clear that loan modifications have done plenty to improve housing statistics, but these numbers conceal serious issues that are often glossed over by pundits and the national media.
Many homeowners are investigating mortgage loan modification programs as an alternative to foreclosure and a way to stay in their homes. The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) promoted by the U.S. Government aims to streamline the process but many homeowners are still unsure about where to start the loan modification process and how to give their modification application the best chance of approval. As a homeowner, preparation and knowledge will allow you to help your lender review your case thereby increasing your chances of success.
In the wake of the recent economic downturn, more homeowners than ever are still facing foreclosure. If you and your family are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments and fear being served a notice of foreclosure, or if you have already been served a notice of default, and are searching for a way to keep your home, loan modification might be your best opportunity for a new beginning. If you have contacted your lender and they have offered a loan modification package, depending on your situation you may either be denied, offered a trial loan modification package, or be approved for a permanent loan modification package.
By Barbara Pronin, RISMedia Columnist
With home prices languishing and mortgage interest rates still at historic lows, this may be the year you will want to buy your first home. But getting a mortgage can be a daunting process, especially if the terms associated with getting a loan are new to your vocabulary.
This is the final installment in a three part series about free loan modifications. You can read Part 1: Free Loan Modifications: Hope Now and Part 2: Free Loan Modifications: NACA Know How?
In Brief:
- Hope Now, NACA, and other free loan modification services have helped thousands of homeowners.
- There are 3 main drawbacks to these free services.
- These companies can't help you the way a foreclosure defense attorney can.
Are Homeowners Being helped by Free Loan Modification Programs Hope Now and NACA?
This is a three part series about free loan modificaitons. See last week's article: Free Loan Modifications - Part 1: Hope Now Alliance
In Brief:
- NACA started as a grassroots homeowner advocacy group.
- Like Hope Now Alliance, NACA has ties with the big banks.
- Homeowners are better off using other methods of foreclosure defense.
NACA's Story
The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, or NACA for short, is as different from Hope Now (the subject of our last blog post) as can be. NACA started in the late 1980's as a local grassroots organization in Boston. It worked in concert with local trade organizations and unions to help rehabilitate neighborhoods and change housing laws, and the results of its work created positive ripples for homeowners throughout the United States. NACA continued to expand into a national entity into the mid 2000's, and forged agreements with most of the USA's top lenders to create favorable situations for homeowners in need. NACA even took the step of creating their own "fair" mortgage for homeowners, which was backed by the same big banks that NACA had signed agreements with.
In Brief:
- Hope Now Alliance was created by the Bush administration to save people from foreclosure.
- Due to its ties with the big banks, Hope Now isn't the best foreclosure defense alternative.
- Homeowners are better off using other methods of foreclosure defense.
In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, it's no surprise that there have been many "foreclosure rescue" schemes- some illegal and some legitamate- that have victimized homeowners in foreclosure, such as what that we've covered here and here. This has been especially true in states such as Illinois, Florida, and New Jersey, where the mortgage crisis was and is still at its worst. While the government has made an extensive effort to reign in illegal schemes, the government has never made a legitimate effort to change its own foreclosure recovery program for the better. Although Hope Now Alliance has assisted hundreds of thousands of homeowners, the question will always be "what if". What if it was more efficient? What if it offered homeowners better solutions? What if it wasn't bankrolled by the large banks? No one will ever know.
House vs. Home
We understand that you probably have an emotional attachment to your home, but is it time to start looking at your home as a house or an investment?
For Immediate Release - Plantation, FL - June 18, 2013
Law firm Amerihope Alliance Legal Services masters the art of foreclosure defense, helping over 5,000 homeowners expands its reach to helping homeowners in five judicial states.
Amerihope Alliance Legal Services, located in Plantation, Florida, started out as a law firm dedicated to helping Florida's homeowners fight foreclosure against the banks. During the last several years due to their vast experience in the judicial foreclosure process they have added four additional judicial states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
As of June 2013, over 5,000 (five thousand) loan modifications have been completed by Amerihope Alliance Legal Services. 5,000? What is their secret?
Editor's note: This article was originally published June 2013, and has been updated in November 2015. Some reported facts are from 2012 and 2013, but HAMP information is current as of this date.
In May 2013, the credit reporting agency TransUnion reported that the percentage of mortgage holders with mortgages 60 days or more delinquent decreased 12% from the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012 to 4.36% and a 21% drop from Q1 2013. Both numbers represent the biggest declines since TransUnion started tracking mortgage delinquency data.
Nonetheless, too many homeowners continue to have difficulties making their mortgage payments each month and suffer financial hardship. Due to a lack of accurate information, a large number of these borrowers do not realize that they may be eligible for financial relief under the federal government’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program.
Here are six of the most misunderstood aspects about the Making Home Affordable Program.
