A great drop in Loan Delinquencies

 

 
For the second month in in a row mortgage delinquencies fell, it’s down to 11%  from the year before. This could be signaling a major improvement for the housing market, according to Lender Processing Services. Loans that go past due 30 day or more made up 7.03% of home mortgage
Late payments on the decline is great news for the market beleaguered by the foreclosure crisi, LPS data shows 2-million homes are currently in foreclosure. These figures come from mortgage performance statistics that cover about 70% of the U.S market
Delinquencies hit a high of 9.37% in October 2009, but have gradually slipped as a result of better employment conditions and an increase in mortgage modifications by some lenders.
Another 3.5-million homes are 30 days or more past due, but not in foreclosure. States with the highest number of late mortgages are some of the hardest hit, including Florida, Nevada, Mississippi, New Jersey and Illinois.
The amount of short sales approved by lenders has increased, which is helping the housing market’s recovery. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nations largest mortgage lenders are allowing struggling homeowners who are current on their mortgage to qualify for short sales beginning November 1st.
Underwater homeowners whose loans are guaranteed by Fannie or Freddie could qualify for a short sale under a set of hardship criteria. Borrowers need to be unemployed, under going a divorce, suffer from long term disability or have changed jobs more than 50 miles from their primary residence to qualify.
There’s also another series of tough hardships that will qualify homeowners considering a short sale: a business failure, death of a wage earner or a natural or man made disaster such as a fire or flood in the case of mortgage holders in Louisiana, where Isaac flooded thousands of homes. Short sales are better for mortgage holders than foreclosures since they are able to rebuild their credit and qualify for another mortgage in a shorter period of time.
Homeowners who are behind on their mortgage will also be eligible for the new short sale program. A streamlined process involving less documentation and faster response times on contracts of sale should offer better solutions to the troubled process.