Mortgage Re-Defaults Need Treasury’s Focus, Audit Finds

The U.S. Treasury Department needs to do more to learn why more than a quarter of the borrowers in a federal mortgage workout program have re-defaulted, costing taxpayers at least $815 million, according to an audit report released today.

“You have, right now, a situation where Treasury does not understand and the servicers do not understand why homeowners are falling out” of the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, Christy Romero, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “That has to change so that action can be taken to prevent that from happening.”