More Taxpayer Looting: This Time for Mortgages

Yesterday Fitch ratings estimated that up to 75 percent of the modifications now being done through the administration's Making Home Affordable program will re-default in six months to a year. I'm not talking about the old modifications, which were largely repayment plans that could actually raise monthly payments. I'm talking about the new mods, which lower monthly payments to 31 percent of a person's income. I couldn't understand Fitch's reasoning, so I called them.

Diane Pendley, managing director at Fitch, said the problem is not on that "front-end" ratio, but on the back end, which is all of the borrowers other debt (credit cards, car loans, student loans, etc.). She said that in talking with servicers, she's hearing other debt is so high that most of today's troubled borrowers cannot afford any loan payment at all, even at a very modest debt-to-income ratio. 'Just getting the house payment done doesn't mean their lifestyle is sustainable,' she said.

"Another problem is that with home prices continuing to fall, more and more borrowers, who are essentially just renting their mortgages now because they will never see any home equity, are walking away. Even if the mortgage payment is low, the property taxes and home maintenance costs are padding that payment, and without an upside to the investment, there's simply no reason to pay. Suffice it to say, the foreclosure crisis, on the high and low ends, is not getting any better."

And it gets worse.
More Prime Foreclosures In Our Future

The Mortgage Bankers Association noted that a record 12%, or 1 in 8 homeowners, in the US are now behind on their payments or in foreclosure. 10.6% of the mortgages in Florida are now somewhere in the process of actual foreclosure. (My seatmate here on the flight says the prices on the condos where he lives are now back to 1998 levels. It would be scary, he said, if you had to sell. There are new developments that only have 10% actual occupancy, as the bulk of the condos were bought for speculation. Now those 10% of buyers are having to shoulder all the fees for upkeep. Nobody will buy, because the upkeep costs can be more than the mortgage. It is a vicious cycle.)

In Nevada foreclosures are 7.8%, Arizona 5.6%, and California 5.2%. 25% of subprime loans are now in foreclosure, 14% of FHA (government, taxpayer-guaranteed) loans and a growing 6% of all prime loans are now in foreclosure. (Note: the seasonal adjustments may overstate the actual numbers, as we are in new territory in terms of actual foreclosures.) Quoting from the MBA press release:

"In looking at these numbers, it is important to focus on what has changed as well what continue to be the key drivers of foreclosures. What has changed is the shifting of the problem somewhat away from the subprime and option ARM/Alt-A loans to the prime fixed-rate loans. The foreclosure rate on prime fixed-rate loans has doubled in the last year, and, for the first time since the rapid growth of subprime lending, prime fixed-rate loans now represent the largest share of new foreclosures. In addition, almost half of the overall increase in foreclosure starts we saw in the first quarter was due to the increase in prime fixed-rate loans."

Mish also points out that mortgage servicers will get the following incentives as outlined in the Home Affordable Modification Program Guidelines.

Servicers will receive an up-front Servicer Incentive Payment of $1,000 for each eligible modification meeting guidelines established under this initiative. Servicers will also receive Pay for Success payments –as long as the borrower stays in the program – of up to $1,000 each year for up to three years. Similar incentives will be paid for Hope for Homeowner refinances.

One-time bonus incentive payments of $1,500 to lender/investors and $500 to servicers will be provided for modifications made while a borrower is still current on mortgage payments.

So taxpayers will be on the hook through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA (hello Three Stooges). What the government is doing with these programs to refinance mortgages doesn’t make any economic sense. Our country is awash in debt at all levels. Household debt is at levels unseen since the Great Depression. What is needed is for the debt to work its way out of the system. This means personal pain for many of us. It means we need to learn to live within our means. Many of us can’t afford to live in our current home even if we have little or no monthly payment. We have too much credit card and other consumer debt. We have spent too much and saved too little. Instead of being honest with the public, the government prefers to blow smoke and give even more of our money (so long getting out of debt) to their cronies in the banking, mortgage, and home building industries. Meanwhile, we’re still losing jobs at an over 600,000 per month clip. Until the debt is allowed to work its way out and each household makes adjustments to get back on solid financial ground, the situation won’t improve. No matter how much of our money the government shovels at their buddies, that isn’t going to change.

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