Foreclosure mitigation attempts have little result

Increased efforts to help borrowers stay in their homes had little
effect on the number of foreclosures in the third quarter, according to
a new report by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
and the Office of Thrift Supervision. The number of newly started
foreclosures fell 2.6 percent in the third quarter from the second
quarter as states imposed foreclosure moratoriums and lenders made more
of an effort to modify mortgages. But the total number of foreclosures
underway rose 11 percent between the second and third quarters, and the
number of foreclosures completed increased 8 percent. More than half of
the loans modified in the first quarter had slipped back into
delinquency, the report found.