The five largest mortgage servicers provided $10.5 billion in relief to struggling homeowners under the foreclosure settlement signed in March, according to the first progress report from monitor Joseph Smith.
Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Ally Financial signed a settlement with 49 state attorneys general and the Justice Department over past foreclosure abuses.
The $10.5 billion is a gross dollar amount and is not used to determine progress toward the $20 billion in relief committed to under the agreement. Different forms of relief receive different dollar amounts of credit.
Of the assistance given through June 30, nearly $8.7 billion was in short sales, an overwhelmingly majority. Through a short sale, servicers waive the difference for what the home sold for and the unpaid principal balance on the mortgage. The next closest was $750 million in completed first-lien modification forgiveness for about 7,000 borrowers.
Roughly 28,000 borrowers were in trial modifications for a principal reduction under the settlement, according to the monitor report. These active trials and the roughly $3 billion in additional relief to the reported $10.5 billion will be reflected in future reports and credited to the settlement with the mods are made permanent. BofA, for example, sent out 200,000 letters to borrowers who may have been potentially eligible for the write downs.
For a full breakdown of the relief given click the chart below.
Nearly 138,000 borrowers received some form of assistance in first five months of the program, either through short sale, modification, refinance, forbearance or other activity.
BofA provided relief to more than 50,000 borrowers the most of any other servicer.
As for the standards outlined in the settlement, Smith said the servicers implemented 56 of them, including single points of contact anti-blight policies.
“More hard work remains as the banks work to meet their obligations. My colleagues and I look forward to that work and to keeping policymakers and the public informed of our progress,” Smith said.
jprior@housingwire.com
