rssThe Progress on Loan Modifications Isn’t Quite What It Seems
Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 9:29 am
- 91 Comments
The Treasury Department’s report on the progress — or lack of it — among servicers doing loan modifications makes it seem like the Obama administration is keeping a close eye on its Making Home Affordable Program. But Felix Salmon at Reuters takes a second look at Treasury report, and raises some important questions. Salmon notes that the purpose of the report is “to document the number of struggling homeowners already helped under the program, provide information on servicer performance and expand transparency around the initiative.” Treasury officials told The Wall Street Journal they were encouraged by the program’s early results, even though only about 9 percent of eligible borrowers have received trial loan modifications so far.
The bigger problem, Salmon writes, is that the Treasury’s report “seems to have more spin than transparency.” How so? Well, the graph accompanying the report refers to “cumulative” progress made on loan modifications. And that’s just not helpful, he explains.
Consider this graph:
Yay! It’s up and to the right! Things must be great, no? Except there’s that annoying word “cumulative”. Cumulative graphs are generally misleading: they can only ever go up, and can’t ever go down. In order to judge this graph, you really have to look very closely at the gradient, to see whether the rate of modification trials is increasing at all. And it seems that it isn’t.
What’s more, you’ll look in vain, in this report, for any indication of how the rate of new modifications compares to the rate of new foreclosures. That’s the key thing to look at: if the rate of foreclosures starts to fall, we might be getting somewhere. But that rate isn’t mentioned in the report.
Yes, the report does single out some servicers, such as Wachovia Mortgage, for their very low modification rates. But overall it seems to be determined to paint a rosy picture of the HMA scheme, rather than objectively reporting on whether it’s working or not.
In the meantime, the folks at the nonprofit advocacy group ACORN give Treasury its due for trying to single out servicers that aren’t doing their share. But Acorn doesn’t think that’s enough, Housing Wire reports.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), in response to the Treasury announcement, calls for a full stop to foreclosure on any HAMP-eligible property, whether the borrower is committed or not. Additionally, ACORN wants servicers to explore alternative methods of aiding ailing borrowers, for example by principal forgiveness as opposed to forbearance. Furthermore, servicers are unevenly applying the program, they say, with little adherence to regulatory hurdles, such as in the inappropriate levying of modification fees onto the borrower.
“There is a great incentive [for servicers] to take part,” says Brenda Muniz, legislative director at ACORN National. “Yet there are no consequences if [HAMP] is violated.”
There obviously are a lot of details to argue over here, both in Treasury’s report and in the loan modification effort itself. But Salmon makes the key point. What really matters is whether foreclosures are slowing down. They are not. Until that unfortunate reality changes, the loan modification initiative can’t be considered any kind of success, no matter how skillfully the data gets presented.
91 Comments
Pingback posted August 5, 2009 @ 9:54 am
[...] more from the original source: The Progress on Loan Modifications Isn’t Quite What It Seems Subscribe to comments Comment | Trackback | Post Tags: already-helped, costs-involved, country, [...]
Pingback posted August 5, 2009 @ 10:02 am
[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe Treasury Department’s report on the progress — or lack of it — among servicers doing loan modifications makes it seem like the Obama administration is keeping a close eye on its Making Home Affordable Program. But Felix Salmon at Reuters takes a second look at Treasury report, and raises some important questions. Salmon notes that the purpose of the report is “to document the number of struggling homeowners already helped under the program, provide information on servicer performance and [...]
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Great Blog post. I am going to bookmark and read more often. I love the Blog template
Pingback posted August 5, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
[...] The Progress on Loan Modifications Isn’t Quite What It Seems – The Washington Independent.comThe bigger problem, Salmon writes, is that the Treasury’s report “seems to have more spin than transparency.” How so? Well, the graph accompanying the report refers to “cumulative” progress made on loan modifications. And that’s just not [...]
Comment posted August 5, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
The Treasury will keep spinning the program as long as it can — its job is to make its programs look great. But you're right about reading between the lines and looking for the information that is missing from the report: namely, the foreclosure rate. Servicing companies can do all the modifications they want, but if they are not helping to reduce the foreclosure rate through modification programs, then the program will not be a success… no matter how many months of cumulative gains there are.
Pingback posted August 6, 2009 @ 9:52 am
[...] Read more: http://washingtonindependent.com/53808/the-progress-on-loan-modifications-isnt-quite-what-it-seems [...]
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
Can we all just forget about loan modifications? They aren't going to happen and even if they do, they aren't going to help. Prices are too high, and they have to come down. Let's all give up this notion that if only the banks write down enough mortgages, all our problems will go away. Then we can face reality and move on.
Pingback posted August 9, 2009 @ 9:47 pm
[...] job, on top of years of being unable to land steady work, getting crushed by credit card debt and a shaky mortgage, still waiting for the Recovery Act to kick in, noticing that all your neighbors are doing no [...]
Comment posted August 25, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
I thought that I needed to go though a service but I used these guys and it really worked out. You don't need to go through a law firm its easy enough to do it yourself at least it worked out for me. I paid $300 for another kit that wasn't worth the effort of reading, it was crap. But I found myloanmedic.com and these guys only charged $79 and they have a money back guarantee. I would totally recommend them. For what its worth this is not a paid endorsement, they just really helped me out and I thought I would recommend them to you. It really was an easy do it yourself loan modification process with instructions that made it easy
Comment posted August 26, 2009 @ 10:06 am
I hope that things get easier for homeowners that are struggling to avoid foreclosure. Regardless of the number of trial modifications, struggling borrowers really need aggressive loan modifications to avoid re-defaulting, otherwise there's really no point…
Comment posted March 19, 2010 @ 2:40 am
Lenders need to go a step further to correct the crisis they had a large part in creating. Loan modifications are the first baby step that needs to be accompanied by a mortgage balance reduction for upside down mortgages. Also, borrowers need to learn that inflation may in fact save them in the end, if they can just manage to avoid foreclosure while they wait.
Comment posted September 8, 2010 @ 1:24 pm
Any glimpse of good news would benefit a homeowner undergoing foreclosure. Loan modifications isn't the one-stop solution but may help some homeowners depending on their current situation
Trackback posted May 17, 2011 @ 10:34 am
white bedroom furniture…
Hello there! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure w…
Trackback posted May 17, 2011 @ 4:10 pm
nordstrom dresses…
Hi there, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so …
Comment posted July 26, 2011 @ 11:36 am
Its been a long time since i have read this professional explanation of foreclosed properties. To avoid foreclosures we have to be very careful and focused on things around. Sometimes a foreclosure freeze also works but not for everyone.
______________________________________________
stop foreclosure | foreclosure freeze | foreclosure fraud
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 4:08 am
used car dealerships…
I was wondering if you ever considered changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot o…
Trackback posted August 22, 2011 @ 10:13 am
BMW CARS…
Hey, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Safari, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, excel…
Trackback posted August 24, 2011 @ 7:32 pm
Visitor recommendations…
[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……
Trackback posted August 28, 2011 @ 8:31 am
Gems form the internet…
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]…
Trackback posted August 28, 2011 @ 10:28 am
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
Trackback posted August 28, 2011 @ 10:56 am
Online Article…
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Trackback posted August 29, 2011 @ 2:32 am
Cool sites……
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]………
Trackback posted August 29, 2011 @ 2:57 am
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Trackback posted August 29, 2011 @ 2:05 pm
Blogs you should be reading……
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]………
Trackback posted August 29, 2011 @ 3:47 pm
Gems form the internet……
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]………
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 3:54 am
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 4:16 am
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 5:34 am
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 8:47 am
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 1:39 pm
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 5:25 pm
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Trackback posted August 30, 2011 @ 11:17 pm
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Trackback posted August 31, 2011 @ 2:49 am
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Trackback posted August 31, 2011 @ 7:06 am
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted August 31, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
Top Site…
I Love this!!! However I’m not sure how squirrel is a tag for this, but oh nicely!!!…
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 1:48 am
Nice Site…
[…] … great article that everyone should read […]…
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 2:35 am
Best Blog…
Amazing new Site — search IRuLe official….
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 6:31 am
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 7:09 am
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 11:08 am
Best Blog…
Amazing new Site — search IRuLe official….
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 11:11 am
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 11:51 am
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Trackback posted September 1, 2011 @ 7:58 pm
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 2:03 am
Recommeneded websites…
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 7:33 am
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 2:41 pm
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 3:00 pm
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 6:39 pm
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Trackback posted September 2, 2011 @ 7:30 pm
Gems form the internet…
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 3:47 am
Website trackback Link…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 5:56 am
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 6:26 am
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 9:43 am
Our Trackback link…
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 10:21 am
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 3:31 pm
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]?…
Trackback posted September 3, 2011 @ 7:03 pm
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 4:02 am
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 5:19 am
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 11:17 am
Superb website…
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 1:58 pm
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 5:13 pm
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a Great Blog You Might Find Interesting that we Encourage You[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 6:11 pm
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Trackback posted September 4, 2011 @ 7:22 pm
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 2:13 am
Superb website…
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 2:57 am
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 5:13 am
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 6:20 am
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 9:16 am
Websites we like…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think would be of interest and in your niche [...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 1:26 pm
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 8:52 pm
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 5, 2011 @ 9:21 pm
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 3:58 am
Gems form the internet…
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 4:59 am
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 5:48 am
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 6:01 am
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 6:07 am
Gems form the internet…
[...]very few websites that happen to be detailed below, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 6:40 am
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 7:11 am
Websites you should visit…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 8:17 am
Online Article……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 12:56 pm
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Trackback posted September 6, 2011 @ 6:22 pm
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Trackback posted September 7, 2011 @ 6:15 am
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Trackback posted September 7, 2011 @ 12:26 pm
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
