Foreclosures: 4.3M Homeowners Helped by Conservatorships

Florida is No. 2 after New York in the number of loans delinquent 365 days or more.

WASHINGTON – March 26, 2019 – According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) fourth-quarter 2018 Foreclosure Prevention Report, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) completed 41,062 foreclosure prevention actions in the fourth quarter of 2018, bringing the total number of foreclosure prevention actions to 4,283,836 since September 2008.

The number of Fannie and Freddie's deeply delinquent loans (365-plus days) continued to decline in the fourth quarter of 2018, but Florida still ranks at the top for its number of homeowners who have gone at least a year without paying their mortgage (16 percent of owners with a mortgage). It's second only to New York (21 percent) and followed by New Jersey (15 percent).

Still, the number of Florida's seriously delinquent loans declined 57 percent, and its number of seriously delinquent loans decreased 69 percent during 2018. Nationwide, delinquent loans fell 25 percent and seriously delinquent loans (loans that have missed three or more payments or are in foreclosure) continued to decrease.

The report also shows that 35 percent of loan modifications completed in the fourth quarter reduced borrowers' monthly payments by more than 20 percent.

Fannie and Freddie's serious delinquency rate dropped to 0.73 percent at the end of the fourth quarter compared with 3.8 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, 2.0 percent for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans and 2.1 percent for all loans (industry average).

Additionally, the Enterprises' Real Estate Owned (REO) inventory declined by 3 percent in the fourth quarter to 26,485 as property dispositions continued to outpace REO acquisitions.

The 4Q 2018 Foreclosure Prevention Report is posted online.

© 2019 Florida Realtors®. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Toby's Commentary:  Flagler County has averaged 25.6 new foreclosure filings per month over the past 12 months. There are currently 327 open foreclosure cases, down by half in less than four years. There have been only 14 foreclosure sales through MLS and no short sales in the past three months.