By Alan White
Trial mortgage modifications under the Home Affordable mortgage program (HAMP) have reached about the same levels that servicers were achieving voluntarily in the first quarter of 2009. Treasury's unhelpful data presentation in its second monthly report on mortgage modifications posted today touts 360,000 temporary mortgage modifications, but that is for the life of the program, i.e. since April. By comparing this report to the first one issued last month, we can infer that about 125,000 new trial modifications were concluded in August, a number about equal to the permanent modifications servicers reported each month in January, February and March.
To be fair, there were probably some voluntary permanent modifications done outside the HAMP program as well, although my data on securitized mortgages indicate a big decline in permanent modifications in the last two months. The Treasury report does not tally any permanent modifications under the program, or report the number of foreclosure sales, foreclosure starts, or delinquent mortgages, as the HOPE NOW reports do. It thus fails to provide meaningful yardsticks to evaluate the success or failure of the program.
While it is still early, the HAMP program to date has not made any significant impact on the number of foreclosures, and modifications are still well behind new foreclosure filings.
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