Studies Show HAMP Promotes Strategic Default on Mortgages

The current state of the mortgage market is promoting owner-occupants to default, according to research released today, in an indication of the growing moral hazard behind government-led homeowner rescue programs claims an article in Housing Wire.

The changes will encourage servicers to write-down a portion of mortgage debt as part of a HAMP modification, allow more borrowers to qualify for modification and help borrowers move into more affordable housing when modification is not possible, according to a fact sheet on the improvements provided to HousingWire.

Most notable among the new initiatives is the requirement that servicers consider “principal relief” including write-downs.

“This alternative modification approach will include incentive payments for each dollar of principal write-down by servicers and investors,” Treasury said in a statement today. “The principal reduction and the incentives will be earned by the borrower and lender based on a pay-for-success structure.”

The principal reduction initiative is geared toward borrowers with excessive negative equity.

The write-downs will apply only to borrowers with 115% or higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios. Servicers will initially forbear some or all of the balance exceeding 100% of the home’s value, down to a 31% debt-to-income ratio. Then, the servicer will forgive the forborne amount in three equal installments over three years, contingent on the borrower’s ability to remain current on payments.

Borrowers faced with unemployment – therefore, a lack of income to calculate the debt-to-income ratio targeted under HAMP – will be able to have payments temporarily reduced to an affordable level for three to six months.Treasury is also clarifying borrower outreach and communication requirements, increasing incentives available to servicers and extending those incentives to borrowers with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)