On Friday the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) reported that 17,590 loans were converted to permanent modifications during May.  Today the May report from HOPE NOW, the voluntary private sector alliance of mortgage servicers said that servicers, investors, mortgage insurers, and non-profit counselors effected 45,000 proprietary modifications in addition to those under HAMP for a total of 63,000 modifications during the period.

HOPE NOW also completed approximately 38,000 short sales during the month, bringing the total number of such sales to 906,000 since the organization began tracking them in December 2009.  Non-foreclosure solutions including modifications done under all programs and short sales now total 6.43 million since the alliance began in 2007.

Faith Schwartz, Executive Director of HOPE NOW said "We have been tracking short sales for almost two years and we now have meaningful data that shows the impact of short sales on the housing market. Since 2007, the industry has completed 6.43 million permanent solutions, which includes short sales and loan modifications.

This figure compares to 4.5 million foreclosure sales in the same period of time - and shows that real progress has been made by the industry, non-profits and government on behalf of at-risk homeowners since the housing crisis began.

Both foreclosure starts and foreclosure sales were up in May.  Starts increased 15 percent to 204,000 from 177,000 in April and 65,000 foreclosures were completed, 5,000 or 9 percent more than the month before.