Foreclosure lawsuits against Hawaii property owners were filed in relatively light numbers in January, continuing a trend of subdued volume that began last year.
The latest statistics from the state Judiciary show that 215 new foreclosure cases were filed in Circuit Court statewide in January.
The January count represented a 45 percent decline from 392 cases filed in the same month last year. It also was the eighth straight month that the number of new cases hovered close to 200 after being close to or more than 400 in eight months over the last two years.
A longer historical perspective isn’t discernable from the Judiciary data because of changes that state lawmakers made to Hawaii’s foreclosure law in mid-2011 and mid-2012 that affected the volume of new cases.
However, some local foreclosure attorneys say mortgage troubles of Hawaii homeowners appear to be declining in concert with the improving local economy where unemployment is falling along with bankruptcies and real estate values are rising.
Lenders also have stepped up efforts to resolve delinquencies outside of foreclosure as part of a settlement with the federal government.
On Tuesday the federal Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight confirmed that the five largest U.S. mortgage lenders fulfilled their obligations under a national foreclosure abuse settlement by delivering relief including about $11 billion in loan debt forgiveness, refinancing valued at almost $4 billion and about $6 billion in benefits after short sales and accepting deeds in lieu of foreclosure.
About 1,600 Hawaii borrowers received about $176 million in benefits through the settlement, according to a report from the Office of Mortgage Settlement last year.
Relief under the settlement was largely delivered between March 2012 and March 2013 by the five lenders: Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and GMAC Mortgage parent Ally Financial Inc.
In December another national foreclosure abuse settlement was announced with Atlanta-based mortgage services firm Ocwen Financial Corp. in a deal that will provide Hawaii borrowers with $24 million in principal loan reductions.
