I think the last 2-3 months has seen a big change in the mortgage industry with low-interest rates and the pandemic. Who would have imagined that we will see such high forbearance volumes? Of course, because of the pandemic, people should not be losing their homes. The good news is that 3.7 million of the foreclosure prevention actions have helped troubled homeowners stay in their homes.
The Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency  (FHFA) shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 26,910 foreclosure prevention actions in the first quarter of 2020, bringing to 4.4 million the number of troubled homeowners who have been helped during conservatorships.
Other report highlights include:
- Forbearance: newly initiated forbearance plans rose to 170,533 in the first quarter of 2020, up from 6,975 in the fourth quarter of 2019. A majority of the forbearance actions occurred as a result of the Enterprises’ response COVID-19 impacts.
- Loan Modifications: of the 16,773 loan modifications completed, 38 percent reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20 percent; 64 percent were extend-term only, and 23 percent were modifications with principal forbearance.
- Foreclose starts and sales:Â 7,704 third-party and foreclosure sales were completed, down 9 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2019.
- Foreclosure starts decreased 3 percent from 30,010 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 28,978 in the first quarter of 2020.
- Refinances: increased to 747,464 in the first quarter, from 728,842 in the fourth quarter of 2019
Through all this, Servicers have to do so many back and forth transactions with borrowers in forbearance and help them navigate this situation. We are sure servicers already have the technology to help with these interactions.
With our mailbox solution, we are helping their technology work together, to ensure that all the incoming forbearance requests are addressed, on time, and allocated to the right resource, who can address it.
We ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that every borrower is responded to, in time, to ensure that we are meeting CFPB guidelines.
Our technology solution is ready, and we can get a Servicer up and running in less than 2 weeks. With our system in place, servicers can see a significant difference in their operations within 2-3 weeks of going live.
Talk to us, Reach us on marketing@privocorp.com and we can walk you through how we can make a difference in your servicing operations.
