S. Fla. is No. 4 for home loan modifications

South Florida ranked fourth in the nation for home loan modifications, with 34,860 through November under President Barack Obama’s Making Home Affordable Program.

Nationwide, 24 percent of the nation’s 3.3 million homes with troubled loans have been modified, according to a U.S. Department of the Treasury report issued Thursday.

The program, which allows homeowners the ability to lower their mortgage rates, has saved them an estimated $150 a month, on average – more than $6 billion in the first year, according to the report.

Seventy-eight loan servicers have signed agreements to modify loans under the program.

Although many start the process, few actually take the modifications to completion. For example, West Palm Beach-based Ocwen Financial Corp., which entered the program in April, has 66, 351 loans that are 60 days or more late. Of them, 15,961 were offered modifications, 5,515 were in the process of being modified and just 4,252 (15 percent) have been modified.

Nationwide, of the 728,408 loans modified, only 31,382 have become permanent.

"Our focus now is on working with servicers, borrowers and organizations to get as many of those eligible homeowners as possible into permanent modifications,” said Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office.

On Tuesday, Condo Vultures reported that more than 7,000 foreclosure actions were filed last month in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Also on Tuesday, Florida snagged the No. 2 spot from California, posting the nation’s second-highest foreclosure rate in November, according to RealtyTrac.

And, on Wednesday, Zillow reported South Florida ranked among the five markets in the country with the biggest home value losses – down $45.9 billion in 2009.

Source: http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/12/07/daily44.html