The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHA) recently released its Foreclosure Prevention, Refinance and FPM Report. The agency highlighted the following April 2020 items:
– Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 16,738 foreclosure prevention actions in April, bringing the total to over 4.4 million since the beginning of the conservatorships in September 2008. Over half of these actions were permanent loan modifications.
– The agency reports 4,528 permanent loan medications in April, totaling more than 2.4 million since the beginning of the conservatorships.
– Nineteen percent of April modifications dealt with principal forbearance. Extend-term modifications made up 67 percent of all loan modifications in April.
– Forbearance plans increased by 989,594 in April, totaling over 1.1 million (and 4.1 percent of total loans serviced) for the month.
– The agency reports 326 short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure completed in April, down 5 percent from March.
– Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac delinquency rates (30-59 days) increased to 3.47 percent. The serious delinquency rate increased from 0.64 percent in March to 0.68 percent in April.
– Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac third-party and foreclosure sales decreased 83 percent in March to 344 in April. Foreclosure starts also decreased from 8,293 in March to 3,229 in April due to foreclosure suspensions.
– Refinance volume increased in April, matching 2013 levels. Mortgage rates decreased in April, with the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage down to 3.31 percent from 3.45 percent in March.
– Cash-out refinances decreased to 30 percent in April from 36 percent in March.
Source: FHFA
