All we can say is “ouch.” Dow Jones reports that Thursday’s hearings held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee designed to assess HAMP’s progress resulted in what amounted to a criticism of the changing rules and bureaucratic hurdles of the government’s foreclosure prevention program:
Real-estate financial services consultant Edward Pinto described the Home Affordable Modification Program in two words: “numbing complexity.”
“At last count, HAMP had 800 requirements and servicers are expected to certify compliance,” he said. “With ever changing regulations, a constant need to re-evaluate past decisions in light of new regulations, and multiple appeals, it is no wonder that the HAMP pipeline became clogged through no substantial fault of servicers.”
According to Treasury and HUD’s most recent April data, HAMP, short for Home Affordable Modification Program, accounted for almost 300,000 permanent modifications, constituting an increase of 68,000 or almost 13 percent over March.
