Mortgage foreclosures up in fourth quarter

Homeowners continued to fall behind on their monthly mortgage payments in the last quarter of 2008, boosting delinquency rates and adding to the already bulging portfolio of foreclosures nationally, the Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday.

The number of mortgages at least 30 days past due stood at 3.6 million, or 7.88 percent of the country's 45.4 million home loans.

The data were announced one day after the Obama administration released details of its Making Home Affordable Program, designed to stem foreclosures by allowing as many as nine million borrowers to either refinance or modify their mortgages.

Mississippi had the fourth quarter's highest percentage of past-due mortgages, 13.11 percent, or 33,120 loans out of a total 252,638. It was followed by Nevada (11.12 percent, 63,027 loans out of 566,795 total) and Florida (11.09 percent, 396,903 of 3,578,000 total).

Pennsylvania's delinquency rate was 8.32 percent of all home loans, about 130,000 of the state's 1.561 million mortgages. Of New Jersey's 1.275 million mortgages, 7.68 percent, or 97,920 loans, were behind on payments.

The delinquency rate excludes loans already in foreclosure. At the fourth quarter's end, that figure stood at 1.5 million mortgages, or about 3.30 percent of all home loans.

"Foreclosure inventory jumped sharply in the fourth quarter, even though the rate at which loans were entering foreclosure remained unchanged," said the association's chief economist, Jay Brinkmann.

He attributed that primarily to state and local moratoriums on foreclosure sales, as well as the November decision by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to halt such sales, loan servicers' reluctance to proceed with evictions over the December holidays, and overburdened legal processes in some areas.

A flat foreclosure rate does not necessarily mean housing's downturn has hit bottom. The survey showed that the percentage of loans 90 days past due increased in the fourth quarter, but that foreclosure actions on a large number did not occur as servicers tried to modify loans and deal with investors who own securities of which these mortgages are a part.

Because loan servicers have been unwilling to talk with homeowners who are not behind in their payments, Brinkmann said, some "borrowers are running their accounts 90 days delinquent in order to qualify for certain modifications."

A provision of the Obama administration's plan to help cut the delinquency rate allows borrowers who are current on their mortgages to negotiate with servicers about modification.

Gibran Nicholas, chairman of the CMPS Institute, which certifies mortgage bankers and brokers, complained that the plan's guidelines lack a maximum total-debt ratio.

For example, modification might reduce a borrower's mortgage payment to the plan's target 31 percent of monthly income, but his or her total overall debt load, including car loans and credit cards, could be 75 percent.

"If the borrower defaults on the loan modification, taxpayers are on the hook for more money," Nicholas said.

Farah Jiminez, executive director of Mt. Airy USA, which counsels home buyers as well as borrowers in financial trouble, said she was still seeing first-time home buyers walk in with prequalified mortgages that require payments equivalent to 44 percent to 56 percent of the buyer's income.

"To really halt foreclosures, we need to stop those entering the revolving door, not just catch those that come out the other end," she said.

"The bailout plan is focused on the latter, but who is focused on the former?"