More Home Owners Late on Mortgage Payments
Mortgage delinquencies rose during the first quarter, while new foreclosures dropped, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this week.
By the end of March, 8.23 percent of home owners with mortgages had missed at least one payment–that’s up slightly from 8.25 percent in the previous quarter. However, delinquency rates are improving: A year earlier in the first quarter of 2010, 10.06 percent of borrowers were late on their mortgage payments.
Loans that are more than 90 days late also were down compared to the previous quarter as well as the first quarter of 2010, MBA reports.
“Overall, it’s a picture of the market on the mend,” says MBA Economist Michael Fratantoni.
MBA says 4.52 percent of all residential mortgages were in foreclosure in the first quarter, which is down from 4.64 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 and 4.63 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
The percentage of homes entering foreclosure also dropped–1.08 percent in the first quarter compared to 1.27 percent in the fourth quarter.
Source: “Mortgage Delinquencies Rise; The Percentage of Home Owners Late on Loans Edges Up While New Foreclosures Fall,” The Los Angeles Times (May 20, 2011)
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Frank: Single Entity for Loan Assistance
Home owners behind in their mortgage payments shouldn’t think that investigations into lender paperwork flaws will bail them out of their financial troubles, U.S. Rep Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Thursday during a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing.
Frank, who is losing his seat as chair of the committee, is pushing for establishing a single entity to make decisions about home owner loan assistance instead of allowing multiple interests to hold up the process.
“There should not be important decisions that need to be made in the private sector and no one has the authority to make them,” Frank said. “We have a tangle that is very daunting.”
Source: Associated Press, Alan Zibel (11/18/2010)
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MBA Plan to Help Jobless Pay Mortgage
The Mortgage Bankers Association outlined a plan Wednesday that would help the unemployed pay their mortgages for up to nine months.
The MBA proposed that loan servicers reduce borrowers’ monthly payments to no more than 31 percent of their household income with the arrears added to the back-end of the mortgage.
The association asked the Treasury Department to underwrite the program by providing loans to loan servicers to cover the payments.
“Borrowers with such a precipitous drop in income can’t qualify for most loan modification programs, so we are looking for ways to allow those borrowers to keep their homes while they look for another job,” said John Courson, CEO of the association.
Source: CNNMoney.com, Tami Luhby (02/24/2010)
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