Hope Now, an alliance of lenders, released figures Friday showing that 183,000 borrowers received some sort of loan workout in April. That’s the highest monthly number since the beginning of the program last summer.Loan modifications accounted for 42 percent of total workouts in April, up from 19 percent in the third quarter of 2007.
The alliance also claims 1.56 million home owners have received loan workouts since July 2007. Of those, 30 percent were permanent modifications.
“These numbers clearly demonstrate that Hope Now is succeeding at helping home owners avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes,” the group’s executive director Faith Schwartz, said in a statement.
Congressional lawmakers and consumer advocates still call the program inadequate.
“Unfortunately the foreclosure numbers continue to outpace their success,” says John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a consumer group in Washington.
Source: The Associated Press, Alan Zibel (05/30/08)
