Hope Now, a consortium of mortgage servicers, investors, insurers and housing non-profits, recently released a report showing that 850,034 mortgages were modified in 2012 as the number of foreclosures and delinquencies declined. That is a decrease from 2011, when there were 1.05 million loan mods.

Of the modifications that were completed last year, 661,362 were proprietary loan modifications and 188,671 were completed through the Home Affordable Modification Program. Over the past five years, 6.06 million loan mods were issued, with 1.12 million handled through HAMP.

In order to stave off foreclosure, 1.15 million short sales were executed since 2009. Combined with loan modifications, 7.21 million non-foreclosure plans were put into place to save troubled homeowners.

Hope Now also reported that foreclosure starts and sales fell 14.8% year over year, from 2.259 million in 2011 to 1.923 million last year. In addition, completed foreclosure sales in 2012 were at 779,200, which is 7.3% lower than the 840,186 sales that were completed the previous year.