|
Digital News Report – Despite Republican plans to shut the government loan modification program down, the Obama Administration sill has high hopes for the beleaguered agency.
In their last assessment earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that “in recent month” the Making Home Affordable program has helped another 25,000 homeowners. Although the administration had hoped that millions would be helped, less than 700,000 applicants received permanent modifications.
Housing prices continued to fall. HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic says this makes the program more important than ever and we need to “remain steadfast in our efforts.”
The Assistant Secretary said that the government program helped set the standard which led to more than 2 million mortgage modifications “outside of the program”. They are also planning for additional help for states that were hardest hit.
The Making Home Affordable Program, which includes the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), has helped millions of families. This program and other efforts have helped American refinance their homes (2MP) and get out of their obligations without financial ruin (HAFA).
Since 2009 nearly 10 million homeowners were able to refinance. The Obama administration estimates that this has saved borrowers $18.1 billion. There were more than 1.5 million HAMP trial modification starts, and more than 776,000 FHA loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions made.
It is estimated that there were 2.2 million “proprietary modifications” under Hope Now. This program, which was created by the Bush Administration in 2007, is a cooperative effort between the US government, counselors, investors, and lenders. In February alone they estimated that 61,000 proprietary loan modifications were made for homeowners.
By Tina Brown
Digital News Reporter