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Since the Administration's announcement on March 4 of the specifics of its original plan, 11 servicers, which handle some 75% of the mortgages in the U.S., have signed up to participate. The Administration expects those same servicers to sign up for the second-lien add-on as well. It should be up and running in about a month. (Read "Housing Takes Center Stage As Economy Looks for Signs...
While precise numbers don't exist, anecdote suggests that not too many loans have been restructured under the original plan thus far. That, though, could largely be due to the complexity of implementing a new process - it takes time to change computer systems and train employees. CitiMortgage, the home-lending arm of Citigroup, officially began offering government-backed modifications only on April...
During the first few weeks of April, Chase Home Finance, a division of JPMorgan Chase, initiated some 10,000 loan modifications under the Adminstration's plan. But that was at a slightly lower pace than what the company had been doing under its own modification initiatives. "We're working through the pipeline and we're going to see much bigger numbers," says spokesman Tom Kelly. "There are financial incentives now for everyone to make this work. It's a huge stride over what was already out there...
More concrete success can be seen in another part of the Administration's original plan. The government has made it possible for homeowners with little or no equity to refinance into cheaper loans - a particularly tough trick to pull off with tighter lending standards. Loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac qualify; the two government-sponsored entities cover more than half of mortgages in the U.S. In the first three weeks of the program, Freddie Mac closed about 1,000 of these refinances, though "that's a drop in the bucket compared to what's expected," says...
...first few weeks of April, Fannie Mae had 1.2 million homeowners check its website to see if their mortgages qualified. During that time, Fannie received some 22,000 refinance applications from people who owe between 80% and 105% of the value of their home - the group the plan targets. A Fannie spokeswoman couldn't comment on how many of those had closed...