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Washington Home Prices and Foreclosure

Washington Home prices are likely to resume crashing because of 7 million properties soon to be seized by lenders that have not yet hit the market, according to Amherst Securities Group LP analysts. A “huge shadow inventory” of mortgages already being foreclosed upon or now delinquent and facing foreclosure compares with the 1.27 million foreclosures seen in 2005. Based on the current pace of existing-home sales, and assuming no other homes are on the market, it would take 1.35 years to sell the properties. [Bloomberg]

Laurie Goodman of Amherst Securities, a New York investment firm specializing in mortgage-related assets, explained, “Loans continue to transition into the delinquency/foreclosure pipeline at a rapid pace, but are moving out at a very slow pace.” Goodman warned, “That housing overhang is the single largest impediment to a recovery in the housing market."

As the clock is ticking down, troubled Washington homeowners are scrambling to qualify for the Obama Loan Modification Program in order to secure a successful home loan modification. Every Washington homeowner should immediately explore their options, and confirm whether or not they qualify for savings and assistance under the Obama HAMP.

While falling Washington home prices and government-induced perks like low interest rates and sizable tax incentives have helped sales activity and values bounce up from recent lows, real recovery hinges on how many additional properties from this “shadow inventory” eventually hit the market.

By analyzing data from the Mortgage Banker's Association, which tracks 80% of mortgages, Goodman discovered that 13.5% of home loans were in some stage of delinquency at the end of May; 4.3% were in foreclosure; 3.9% were considered “seriously delinquent.” After estimating the likelihood that those borrowers would somehow, perhaps through a loan modification, keep their homes, Goodman found that nearly 7 million homes will be lost to bank repossession, representing almost 18 months' worth of existing-home sales (currently at modest clip of 5.2 million annually). [Forbes]

Analysis by Amherst shows the amount of pending foreclosed-home supply has been escalated by more borrowers going into default, fewer being able to catch up once they do, and longer time periods to seize properties because of issues such as loan-modification efforts and changes to state laws. [Bloomberg]

Amherst cautioned that a change in the mix of foreclosure and traditional sales over different parts of the year lifted prices in the period, as the distressed share shrank. “The favorable seasonals will disappear over the coming months, and the reality of a 7 million-unit housing overhang is likely to set in,” they said.

Using additional data from First American Corelogic, which cover 29 million mortgages, Goodman estimated an additional 240,000 mortgages will become delinquent each month. At this rate, the Obama administration's $75 billion in loan modification programs, still slowly working through the system, has little time to help troubled homeowners.

Affordable Loan Modification, Washington

President Obama’s home loan modification program, created to help you save your home and avoid foreclosure, is a government program that was designed to allow every American home owner to access an affordable loan modification, and the current low mortgage interest rates. With mortgage interest rates now below 5%, it could make a huge difference in thousands of Washington homeowners' monthly mortgage payment.

By lowering your interest rate just one percent, distressed homeowners could save hundreds of dollars on your monthly mortgage payment. For this reason, many Washington homeowners are now hoping to take advantage of President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable Plan” and get a mortgage refinance or Loan Modification into a lowered fixed rate and monthly payments.

Nearly all Washington homeowners now qualify for an affordable home loan modification under the Obama Plan, which now demands that your payments cannot be higher than 31% of your gross income. Most borrowers now find themselves above this number and now qualify for mortgage assistance.

For those who now owe more on their home than it is worth, eligible loans include those where the first lien mortgage does not exceed 125 percent of the current market value of the property. According to the Making Home Affordable website, if your property is worth $200,000 but you owe $250,000 or less on your first lien mortgage you may qualify. The current market value of your property will be determined after you apply to refinance.

If you are at risk of foreclosure, participating servicers may not proceed with a foreclosure sale until you have been evaluated for a modification under HAMP, and, if eligible, offer you a trial modification. Every troubled Washington homeowner should immediately see if you qualify for an affordable loan modification under Obama's HAMP Program.

If your servicer is not participating in the HAMP Program, you should ask your servicer or a housing counselor about other workout options that may be available. Borrowers whose loans have been scheduled for foreclosure and all borrowers who have missed one or more mortgage payments should contact a mortgage mitigation service immediately.

Homeowners should never pay for information on or an evaluation for the Making Home Affordable Program. Beware of any person or organization that asks you to pay an upfront fee in exchange for mortgage mitigation information or a loan modification evaluation.

Online Loan Modification Help For Washington

According to recent reports, nearly 6 million Americans are now behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure while many more are spending their saving and retirement accounts just to stay afloat. Most of us in Washington are now feeling the growing pressure in these troubles times, and a growing number of websites are popping up to offer free online loan modification help to troubled homeowners who qualify for the Obama Plan.

Washington homeowners now struggling with financial crisis can get a loan modification in order to modify the terms of the loan to make it more affordable. The majority of homeowners in Washington state now qualify for savings with a mortgage loan modify under the Obama Plan, which demands that a borrower’s monthly payment cannot exceed 31% of your gross monthly income. Homeowners are recommended to qualify for help under the Obama Plan online, in order to explore your options. By modifying your loan, you can lower the interest rate; eliminate part of the principal; correct defaults, and other loan mitigation to avoid foreclosure.

The loan modification process involves heavy negotiation, large amounts of paperwork, accurate scheduling, and usually lengthy delays. Thankfully for homeowners, there are now a number of servicers offering to help borrowers through the loan modification application process, and provide free help online. Borrowers may acquire a submission-ready document, and supporting financial materials, which can be mailed or faxed to the lender to be considered for a modification.

Numerous companies offer “free” services, which are not actually free, billing themselves as an alternative to law firms and other companies offering to mediate between homeowners and their lenders for a fee. However, only a small percentage of borrowers facing foreclosure have been awarded a home loan modification, and homeowners attempting to modify alone are even less likely to succeed.

Mortgage servicers with experience in securing a successful loan modification are now the greatest chance for borrowers to get their modify done. These servicers, being linked between distressed borrowers and lenders, are in the best position to rework the terms of loans under the Obama administration’s $50-billion mortgage-modification program.

With Obama's HAMP Program, borrowers can immediately begin the process of saving their home and explore the options and benefits they now qualify for. Every Washington homeowner should immediatly confirm whether or not you qualify for the Obama Loan Modification Program!

Loan Modification Omak, Riverside, Okanogan, Washington

In order to save their homes from foreclosure, thousands of Omak, Riverside, and Okanogan, Washington homeowners are now exploring the possibility of a home loan modification. Most homeowners in Washington now qualify for benefits and savings with a loan modification under Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” plan.

Under Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) your mortgage payment cannot exceed 31% of your gross income. Since most loans exceed 31%, nearly all homeowners are technically eligible for HAMP assistance, including borrowers who have been denied a refinancing or home loan modification in the past. By qualifying for the Obama Plan Washington homeowners can explore all their options, understand the mortgage loan modification process, and begin saving their home from foreclosure.

Loan Modification:

• Lowers the homeowner's monthly payments;
• Lowers the loan's interest rate;
• Swaps a rising adjustable rate for an affordable fixed rate;
• Reduces the principle balance of the property;
• Corrects payment delinquencies and defaults;
• Adjusts the length of the loan terms
• Or any combination of the above!

With a loan modification, affordable payments are still possible for eligible Omak, Riverside, and Okanogan, Washington homeowners. Mortgage rates are now at historical lows, and mortgage lenders have more incentives than ever before to modify your loan. The Obama administration has been working hard to assist you with the mortgage loan modification process, and it would be beneficial to take advantage of this time.Understanding how the approval process works and how you can learn to meet the strict requirements is now the key to having a better chance in the approval process.

It is too late for many borrowers who gave up completely, letting their homes go into foreclosure, and now regret it. Once a borrower has let their home go into foreclosure, it can take at least 10 years for them to recover financially and acquiring an affordable rate will be even more difficult. For many who are now unable to buy anything on credit for a decade, this has become one of the worst financial decisions of their life. For many borrowers, it is often better to default on their loan payments and credit cards than to go into foreclosure.

A loan modification can get homeowners lowered interest rates which can prevent you from being foreclosed on, help those in the foreclosure process, and prevent mortgage defaults by saving hundreds of dollars per month on your home loan payments. Even borrowers who have been denied a refinancing or home loan modification in the past have been having success with Obama’s mortgage refinance bailout plan.

Omak, Riverside, and Okanogan, Washington homeowners can now save hundreds a month by getting a home loan modification or mortgage refinance using President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” plan. All homeowner now facing foreclosure, or about to be, should immediately begin exploring all the options available to them, including the new government programs designed to help you get a successful loan modification.

Obama Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in Washington

The Obama administration has devoted $75 billion of funding in effort to ease mortgage terms and is now helping thousands of Washington homeowners secure a successful loan modification and avoid foreclosures. Under Obama's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), only 235,000 loans have been modified, leading many homeowners with doubt and uncertainty. So far, the Fed’s plan to help around 7 million people modify their loan in order to afford monthly mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure.

Contrary to what many may believe, most Washington homeowners do qualify for home loan modification and government assistance. Under the Obama Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), your mortgage payment cannot exceed 31 percent of your gross income. Because most loans exceed this 31% number, nearly all borrowers are technically eligible for HAMP assistance.

Banks and lenders use numerous excuses for denying a loan modification, including the claim that new guidelines are too rigid or that they do not actually own the loan, but only service it, so are coincidentally unable to modify the loan. On the contrary, servicers are able to modify loans, regardless of these reasons.

Incentives are provided to banks and servicers for modifying borrowers’ loans to a more affordable payment if they qualify for a three-month trial period. There can be no late payments during the three month trial period in order to test if you are able to make the newly modified payments. Many lenders are putting distressed homeowners into a loan modification on a “trial basis,” however many end up simply defaulting later due to an inappropriate modification.

In order to receive financial incentives under the HAMP program, banks are required to collect statistics on how many customers in default they contact, however are not obligated to re-write any loans. Countless other servicers simply do not have the experience or expertise to get successful loan modifications done, resulting in thousands of Washington homeowners unable to acquire a loan modify. As a result, very few of the so-called loan modification specialists have consistent success modifying loans. [Examiner, 8/31/09]

Questions to assure the quality of a modification company:

1. How many loans have they successfully modified?
2. What is their success rate/percent?
3. Will they provide the borrower with three references of local homeowners they have helped in the past three months?
4. Did they write sub-prime loans prior to entering this new line of work? If they did, they are part of the problem and none of the solution.

While deferring delinquent payments and adding them to the principle, many lenders are swapping borrowers’ fixed rate mortgages for variable rate mortgages, leaving the homeowner to the mercy of the market. Other lenders follow through the foreclosure process while allowing the borrowers to live in their homes as renters. Though you may stay in the house, the bank owns the home and can evict you at any time they wish. Since there are renters to maintain the property and carry the debt, the bank doesn’t have to sell your home while market values are low. [Examiner, 9/1/09]

Washington homeowners exploring the options of Obama's loan modification program but that didn´t qualify because the value of their home dropped, as well as anyone on the brink of foreclosure, can get a loan modification if they comply with the programs requirements.

All Washington homeowners should immediately confirm whether or not they qualify for help under the Obama HAMP Program guidelines, and explore all the options now available to them.