Loan Changes Lag Foreclosures in California
LOS ANGELES - Struggling homeowners in California are more likely to end up losing their homes to foreclosure than receiving a loan modification or other payment workarounds from lenders, according to a survey released Wednesday.The California Reinvestment Coalition, an umbrella organization for consumer advocacy groups, surveyed 42 out of about 80 independent counseling agencies in the state about home loan servicers working with clients to make payments more affordable. Servicers collect payments on loans.
The agencies, which served 11,062 borrowers in April, said they had noticed a modest rise in loan modifications involving reworked interest rates or other moves lower payments.
About 68 percent of respondents said the most common outcome for their clients was losing their homes to foreclosure, while less than a quarter of the respondents reported loan modifications were very common.
Respondents also reported that mortgage modifications covered periods of just one or two years.
“Whatever increases being made in the willingness to modify (loans) is being outgunned by a much larger increase in the number of people going into foreclosure,” said Kevin Stein, the coalition’s associate director. “The situation continues to get worse.”
The California Mortgage Bankers Association did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
About 33 percent of survey respondents said short sales were the most common outcome behind foreclosure.
Such sales involve selling a home for less than the amount owed on the mortgage, which can leave the owner without equity and bring a tax hit.
The group did not provide a margin of error on its survey.
California has seen a sharp increase in the number of home loan defaults and foreclosures since last year as the housing market tanked.
The state had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the U.S. behind Nevada in April, with one in every 204 California households receiving a foreclosure-related notice, according to Irving, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc.
Last year, major lenders signed on to a Bush administration-led effort dubbed Hope Now forged to help stem the rise in foreclosures by reaching out to distressed homeowners and working out ways to stave off foreclosure.
Stein said the initiative hasn’t done enough.
“You still see foreclosures two times higher than loan modifications,” Stein said. “And you see foreclosures increasing.”
A call to Hope Now was not immediately returned.
The group disclosed on Wednesday that loan modifications accounted for about 42 percent of total workouts nationwide in April and May, up from 35 percent in the January-March period.
It also said it was on pace to assist about 520,000 borrowers nationwide in the second quarter - the highest number in any quarter since the effort launched last year.
Stein said his group wants lenders to be more aggressive in modifying loan terms and to lower the principal amount owed by borrowers, particularly those with pay-option loans that may face sharp payment resets in the next couple of years.
Pay-option loans give borrowers the option to make a lower payment but can result in the unpaid portion being added to the principal balance.
With housing prices in many markets in downward trajectory, some borrowers with pay-option loans could end up owing more on their home than it is worth.
The group was also calling on California lawmakers to ratchet up oversight of the mortgage industry and beef up borrower protections.
The state Senate was expected to vote on a bill Wednesday that would provide additional notice to homeowners in danger of foreclosure, require lenders to keep foreclosed properties from becoming a blight on neighborhoods, and give renters more time to move out of a house being foreclosed.
Leaders of both houses say they are working to restore other protections for homeowners that failed to get out of a legislative committee last week.