Banks had made 170,207 permanent modifications as of the end of last month under the administration's foreclosure prevention program, the Treasury Department said Friday.
Under the Making Home Affordable Program, servicers increased permanent modifications by 45% in February, up from 117,302 permanent modifications in January. The Treasury also reported that 32% of trial modifications started at least three months ago have been approved for conversions to permanent.
Servicers have started 1.1 million trial modifications under the program, but 88,663 trial plans have already been canceled and 1,499 permanent modifications were later canceled. There were approximately 835,200 active trial modifications by Feb. 28.
Under the program, a borrower must be current at least three months in a trial modification to receive a permanent workout.
All the permanent modifications included an interest rate reduction and 40.8% included a term extension, but only 27.8% included principal forbearance.
