Paul Kiel at ProPublica reports: Chase and Other Servicers Leave Many in Loan Mod Limbo; Treasury Threatens Penalties About 97,000 homeowners in the government’s mortgage modification program have been stuck in a trial period for over six months. Most of … Read More

Jeff Collins, at the O.C. Register, has a Q&A with Wayne Yamano, vice president at John Burns Real Estate Consulting: Loan mods won’t halt foreclosures, study shows Register: Your study says that five million of the 7.7 million delinquent homes … Read More

From Treasury: Administration Releases January Loan Modification Report Click on graph for larger image in new window. Just over 116,000 modifications are now permanent. Here is the link at Treasury. See here for a list of reports . If there … Read More

In the most recent FOMC statement, the Fed removed all references to residential housing. This was in recognition that the housing sector is not as strong as it appeared in November or December. This makes the FOMC Minutes a little … Read More

From Diana Olick at CNBC: What Mortgage Modifications Say About the Housing Market Treasury officials today said they are still concerned about a coming wave of foreclosures, many from pay option ARMs and many from the prime jumbo basket, particularly … Read More

Note: any number under 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good. Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows the builder confidence index from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). … Read More

From BofA : Bank of America Becomes First Mortgage Servicer to Sign Contract for Home Affordable Second-Lien Modification Program Bank of America announced that it is the first mortgage servicer to sign an agreement formally committing to participation in the … Read More

S&P/Case-Shiller released their monthly Home Price Indices for November this morning. This monthly data includes prices for 20 individual cities, and two composite indices (10 cities and 20 cities). This is the Seasonally Adjusted data - some sites report the … Read More

From Treasury: Administration Releases December Loan Modification Repot, Update on Conversion Drive Click on graph for larger image in new window. Just over 66,000 modifications are now permanent, and this shows about a 43% failure rate (loans permanent divided by … Read More

Update: Why are so many examples “mortgage brokers”? But the part about extensions not doing favors for homeowners is correct. From Paul Kiel at ProPublica: Homeowners Say Banks Not Following Rules for Loan Modifications A few excerpts: Reynolds was a … Read More