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STATE OF AFFAIRS: SOUTH/WEST ยป Virginia rank: 48 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate october 2013 2.0% Unemployment Rate 0.8% 5.6% year ago 2.3% 1.4% 5.8% year-oVer-year change -11.7% -45.9% -3.4% Top County 90+ Day Delinquency Rate SuSSex county Foreclosure Rate october 2013 4.4% 3.0% year ago 5.3% 3.1% year-oVer-year change -17.2% -4.3% Top Core-Based Statistical Area WaShington-arlington-alexandria, dc-Va-Md-WV 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate october 2013 2.3% 1.9% year ago 1.5% 1.2% year-oVer-year change 50.6% 60.3% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the October 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary October 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. IN THE NEWS Freddie Mac's Mortgage Portfolio Shrinks at Fastest Rate in 2013 Freddie Mac's mortgage book of business contracted at an annualized rate of 6.4 percent in October, marking the fourth consecutive month of contraction. The book has registered declines in seven of the first 10 months of 2013, according to the McLean, Virginia-based GSE's monthly volume summary. October's pace of decline was the highest rate so far in 2013, outpacing the 4.3 percent annualized rate reported for September. Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio was valued at $1.9 trillion as of the end of October. New business at the GSE was also down, marking the fourth consecutive month of declining new business. Freddie Mac's purchases and issuances in October totaled about $22 billion compared to $28 billion in new business added in September. Totaling $12 billion, single-family refinance-loan purchases and guarantees made 132 up 58 percent of the GSE's total single-family portfolio purchases and issuances in October. Forty-two percent of that was comprised of relief refinance mortgages. While Fannie Mae reported a declining serious delinquency rate among both single-family and multifamily mortgages in October, Freddie Mac recorded a decrease for single-family mortgages but a slight increase for its multifamily business. The delinquency rate for single-family mortgages at Freddie Mac in October was 2.48 percent, down from 2.58 percent in September. The serious delinquency rate for multifamily loans increased from 0.05 percent to 0.06 percent. Freddie Mac completed 7,902 loan modifications in October, bringing the year-todate total to 68,333. Ex-Bank Chief Sentenced to 23 Years for Bank Fraud Edward J. Woodard, 70, of Norfolk, Virginia was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, false entry in a bank record, unlawful participation in loans, false statements to a financial institution, misapplication of bank funds, and bank fraud. The court further ordered Woodard to pay more than $333 million in restitution to the FDIC. "Motivated by greed, Woodard lied, cheated, and stole," said Christy Romero, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). "Greedy for aggressive growth, he made risky bank loans that violated industry standards and bank policies that he created. When the loans resulted in losses, he hid the losses through criminal accounting tricks and with lies to bank examiners, and he stole, lining his own pockets." Romero continued, "TARP is not an opportunity to finance banks failing under the weight of fraud, but Woodard used fraudulent bank books and records to try to cheat federal taxpayers out of $28 million in TARP bailout funds to fill the holes he caused in the bank's books." After a lengthy 10-week trial, a jury found Woodard guilty on May 24, 2013. Woodard was sentenced in November. Conspirators Thomas E. Arney, Eric H. Menden, and George P. Hranowskyj all testified at trial that, at the request of Woodard and EVP Stephen G. Fields, they performed favors such as buying bank stock, bailing out Woodard's son on bad investments, and purchasing bank-owned property with fully-funded Bank of the Commonwealth loans. In return, Arney, Menden, and Hranowskyj all received preferential treatment such as affording large overdrafts, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars, below-market interest rates, loans to make interest payments on other loans, and easy access to credit. Additionally, Woodard funded three loans totaling $11 million without the approval of the bank's board of directors to a troubled borrower who was in bankruptcy and the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. Later, Woodard made false entries in bank records to coverup the fact that he authorized the funding of these loans without proper approval. In addition to having a substantial impact on property values in the Hampton Roads area, Woodard's crimes were a significant factor in the failure of the Bank of the Commonwealth, where he served as president and CEO, on September 23, 2011. As a result of this failure, the FDIC sustained at least $333 million in losses. West Virginia rank: 31 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate october 2013 2.2% Unemployment Rate 1.4% 6.2% year ago 2.4% 1.7% 7.5% year-oVer-year change -6.8% -19.2% -17.3% Top County Wyoming county 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate october 2013 3.8% 3.1% year ago 1.9% 2.4% year-oVer-year change 106.9% 27.3% Top Core-Based Statistical Area huntington-ashland, WV-ky-oh 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate october 2013 2.2% 2.5% year ago 2.3% 1.5% year-oVer-year change -6.0% 63.4% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the October 2013 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary October 2013 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics.