The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today released its second quarter 2020 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report. The report shows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 252,014 foreclosure prevention actions in the second quarter of 2020, bringing to 4.68 million the number of troubled homeowners who have been helped during conservatorships. Of these actions, 3.98 million of the foreclosure prevention actions have helped troubled homeowners stay in their homes.
Other report highlights include:
- Forbearance: newly initiated forbearance increased significantly to 1.5 million in the second quarter from 170,533 in the first quarter of 2020. The total number of loans in forbearance plans at the end of the quarter was 1.39 million, representing approximately 4.95 percent of the total loans serviced. A majority of the forbearance actions occurred as a result of the Enterprises’ response to COVID-19 impacts.
- Loan Modifications: of the 13,991 loan modifications completed, 41 percent reduced borrowers’ monthly payments by more than 20 percent; 66 percent were extend-term only; and 19 percent were modifications with principal forbearance.
- Foreclose starts and sales: 1,028 third-party and foreclosure sales were completed, down 87 percent compared with the first quarter.
- Foreclosure starts decreased 74 percent from 28,978 in the first quarter to 7,551 in the second quarter of 2020.
- Refinances: increased to 1.5 million in the second quarter, from 747,463 in the first quarter of 2020.
The Enterprises’ serious (90 days or more) delinquency rate increased to 2.58 percent at the end of the second quarter. This compared with 7.96 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 3.98 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, and 4.26 percent for all loans (industry average).
FHFA’s quarterly report also includes data on the Enterprises’ mortgage performance, delinquency, home forfeiture actions and refinances by state. FHFA publishes the report data in an online, interactive Borrower Assistance Map on FHFA.gov.