Foreclosure sales fell to a five year low in February according to HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors while foreclosure starts jumped nearly 16 percent from the previous month and are up 71 percent since October.

Completed foreclosure sales fell from 62,395 in January to 49,135 in February, the lowest level of foreclosure sales since December 2007.

Meanwhile, monthly foreclosure starts continued to climb for the fourth consecutive month. Foreclosure starts jumped 15.9 percent from January, climbing from 167,232 to 193,860 in February.

Using a three month rolling average, a total of 81,351 homeowners received permanent, proprietary loan modifications in February, up 6.0 percent from the 76,755 loan modifications in January.

Of the proprietary loan modifications completed in February, eighty-six percent (56,637) included reduced monthly principal and interest payments, with 79 percent (52,145) receiving a reduction of more than 10 percent. In addition, ninety-two percent (60,845) of the loan modifications received fixed interest rate loans of five years or more.

Short sales fell by almost 11 percent from the previous month as a total of 26,388 short sales were completed in February compared to 29,648 in January.

The number of homeowners that were at least 60 days or more past due declined during the month, falling from 2.535 million loans in January to 2.482 million in February.

Tags: HOPE NOW, private sector alliance, mortgage servicers, loan modifications, fixed rate mortgages, delinquencies, proprietary modifications, foreclosure starts, foreclosure sales

Source:
HOPE NOW

Reported by Shirley Allen