Rebchook: Only 1,072 permanent loan modifications in Colorado
Only 1,072 permanent loan modifications have been made to homeowners in Colorado facing foreclosure, according to the latest government data.
“That is the proverbial drop in the ocean,” said Byron Koste, director of the Colorado Real Estate Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “That will have no impact at all. The only impact it has is that 1,000 families are better off.”
The latest report from the federal government shows that as of the end of December, there were 11,170 homeowners in “active trials,” for loan modifications. The trial modifications are required before the loan can be made permanent. Colorado ranked No. 19 in the nation for the number of active trials and permanent loan modifications. The 1,072 permanent loan modifications represents 8.8 percent of the trials, which is slightly better than the 8.4 percent ratio nationally. Nationwide, at the end of December there were 787,221 trial modifications and 66,465 permanent modifications. The goal of the program is to provide 3 to 4 million homeowners with lower mortgage payments through 2012.
Koste said he is surprised that there were even 1,072 permanent loan modifications in the state. Even though a focal point of the Obama Administration’s year-old $75 billion war on foreclosure is modifying loans to keep people in their homes, banks have no incentive to play along, Koste said.
“There is no bank in a hurry to write down a loan,” Koste said.
Read more at InsiderRealEstateNews.com
I smell a rat. It seems as if there are a few realtors, investors, picking up all the apples. Have they put restrictions in the way of “honest” folks who would be getting assistance, buying as first time buyers? It seems that the laws change just enough to let only the people who were already ok, to be the only ones allowed to buy. It almost seems as if people have access to information of “valuable” properties and those are being held back until? The people who whould be buying were told 2 years from bankruptcy, then 3, then 3 years from when their forclosed houses sold. Smells to me. I think the same people are being kept out of the market and that landlords and flippers are buying and adding suspicious value that wouldn’t have been there before. The day the interest rates go up will be about the last day that these hidden deals begin to stop and then, of course, the people ousted by this fraud will not be able to afford the “new” prices.