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46 RETENTION ACTIONS DOWN OVERALL, BUT UP AS SHARE OF SERIOUS DELINQUENCIES Nearly 62 percent of the approximately 952,000 homeowners who are 90 or more days delinquent on their mortgage loans but not in foreclosure have been through a home retention program such as a trial or permanent loan modification or a repayment plan, according to Black Knight Financial Services' April 2015 Mortgage Monitor released in early June. While home retention actions declined by 42 percent over the last two years, the share of home retention actions as a percentage of seriously delinquent inventory has increased by 9 percent during that same time frame, Black Knight reported. Of the approximately 764,000 loans in active pre-sale foreclosure in April, 53 percent have been through a home retention program, according to Black Knight. Nearly 20 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers are in an active trial modification or repayment plan as of the end of April. Also, about 70 percent of all new trial modification and repayment programs have previously been through one or more home retention actions, indicating a redundancy in retention actions. e percentage of repeat trial modifications and repayment plans was only 45 percent four years ago in 2011, right after the height of the foreclosure wave. In Q1 2015, Black Knight found about 15 percent of seriously delinquent mortgage loans participated in a home retention program each month, while nearly 20 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers were in an active trial modification or repayment plan at the end of April. Home retention actions included permanent proprietary modifications and permanent modifications through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). "In analyzing the data around home retention initiatives, we found that nearly one in five seriously delinquent borrowers are currently taking part in an active trial modification or payment plan," Black Knight Data & Analytics SVP Ben Graboske said. "With 62 percent of loans 90 or more days delinquent but not yet in foreclosure having been through some form of home retention action, we're currently seeing the highest level of saturation yet, but that's only marginally up from last year—in other words, that saturation level is beginning to flatten." Washington, D.C., led the nation in share of seriously delinquent inventory having gone through a home retention program with 67 percent, though only 26 percent of those are currently in an active trial modification or repayment plan. Maryland, Georgia, Texas, and Connecticut all tied for second place with 66 percent of seriously delinquent inventory having gone through a home retention action. Meanwhile, about 480,000 of the 1.7 million residential mortgage loans that are either seriously delinquent or currently in foreclosure, about 28 percent, are located in three states— Florida, New York, and New Jersey. "Of these three states, Florida has seen the most improvement, with a 37 percent decline in inventory over the last year, and a 63 percent drop over the last two years," Graboske said. "On the other hand, low foreclosure completion rates in New York and New Jersey have contributed to lingering inventory in those states. Looking at pipeline ratios – the length of time it would take to work through the backlog at the current rate of foreclosure completions – we see New York and New Jersey with nearly 13 and nine years of inventory, respectively. Even though Florida peaked with 20 percent of the entire state being 90 or more days past due, its pipeline ratio was never longer than 10 years and is currently the lowest among all the judicial foreclosure states at just under three years." FED REPORTS HOUSEHOLD WEALTH ROSE TO $85 TRILLION IN Q1 Increases in home prices and the stock market pushed household wealth to nearly $85 trillion for the first quarter of 2015, accord- ing to the Federal Reserve's statistical release titled "Financial Accounts of the United States" released in June. e net worth of households and nonprofits increased by $1.63 trillion to $84.9 trillion during the first quarter of 2015. Meanwhile, the value of directly and indirectly held corporate equities increased $487 billion, and home values rose $503 billion. Stocks and pension-fund holdings values increased by $1.07 trillion in the first quarter among Americans and nonprofit groups, the Fed report said. e Standard & Poor's 500 Index experienced an increase of 0.4 percent for the first quarter. e index is already up 1.8 percent to begin the second quarter as of June. Household real estate assets increased by $472.5 billion, according to the data. Wwners' equity as a share of total household real estate holdings increased to 55.6 percent last quarter. Americans appear to be keeping borrowing to a minimum and evading debt as the report noted household borrowing was at its lowest rate since the end of 2013. Household debt increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the first quar- ter of 2015, totaling $13.6 trillion. Recent mortgage rate and home price increases have many Americans saving the wealth for themselves and being cautious of an ever-changing housing market. In early June, CoreLogic, Inc. released its April 2015 Home Price Index (HPI), which showed home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 6.8 percent in April 2015 compared with April 2014. Month-to- month home prices also increased by 2.3 percent. ese rises will mark 38 months of consecu- tive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally, according to the index. Home prices increased by 2.7 percent from last year, and 30 states plus the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak prices in April. "Old fashion supply and demand, fueled by historically low mortgage rates and improving consumer finances and confidence, continue to push home prices up," said Anand Nallath- ambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "We expect continued price appreciation throughout 2015 and into next year. Over the longer term, household formation, up by more than one million over the past year alone, will drive down vacancy rates and create tighter housing markets in many metropolitan areas. is should provide the necessary underpinning for rising prices for the foreseeable future."

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