Hundreds of housing counseling agencies nationwide will receive the HUD grants, which will assist families who are buying their first home, attempting to locate affordable rental housing, or trying to avoid foreclosure.
Read More »Freddie Mac’s ‘Take Root’ Programs Have Been Successful in Hardest Hit Areas
Freddie Mac launched Take Root Milwaukee five years ago, at the height of the foreclosure wave, with the idea that government agencies, financial institutions, and the real estate industry could unite to protect residential neighborhoods by forming a single network that residents can contact with one click or phone number.
Read More »HUD Awards $36 Million in Housing Counseling Grants to Prevent Foreclosures
HUD estimates that the money they provide in grants, combined with other funds they plan to leverage, will assist more than a million and a half individuals and families with finding housing, making more informed choices with regards to housing, and staying in their current homes.
Read More »HUD Awards Housing Counseling Grants
In an ongoing effort to improve housing education for consumers, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it has awarded $40 million in grants to hundreds of national, regional, and local organizations to bolster housing counseling programs.
Read More »FHA Program Aims to Expand Credit; Lower Risk
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued its "Blueprint for Access," which aims to expand credit access for underserved borrowers by utilizing housing counseling as a means to reduce the possibility of loans becoming seriously delinquent. The announcement highlights a new pilot program, Homeowners Armed with Knowledge (HAWK), which incorporates housing counseling into the home buying process.
Read More »Feature: New World Order
The veterans of this business can remember when REOs ran in the neighborhood of 150,000 a year, delinquency rates were just around 4 percent, and you only needed a credit score of 620 to qualify for a prime mortgage loan. But the housing finance industry, and default servicing especially, has changed. In the cover story of it's September issue, DS News looks at the many factors--from a slew of new regulatory mandates to an altered public perception of debt obligations--that have altered the business into something far from customary.
Read More »Unemployment, High Rates Still Obstacles for Many Facing Foreclosure
The National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program has provided counseling to almost 1.6 million homeowners across the country since the program started in 2008. According to an NFMC congressional report released this week, common attributes of struggling homeowners include unemployment or underemployment and high mortgage rates. The report also indicates a homeowner who seeks counseling is 97 percent more likely to obtain a loan modification and avoid foreclosure.
Read More »CFPB Offers Additional Guidance on Mortgage Servicing Rules
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a bulletin and interim final rule Tuesday to provide greater clarity to the market concerning mortgage servicing rules that take effect in January 2014. The clarifications address contact with delinquent borrowers, communications with family members after a borrower dies, and treatment of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy.
Read More »Borrowers Find Holistic Financial Advice Through Post-Mod Counseling
More than 11,000 homeowners have participated in Fannie Mae's post-modification counseling since 2011. Recognizing that many homeowners continue to struggle with their finances after receiving loan modifications, Fannie Mae developed the post-modification counseling program to take a holistic approach to individual finances and set borrowers on a sustainable path. Currently, there are 18 servicers that utilize the program.
Read More »NeighborWorks Receives Annual Housing Person of the Year Award
The National Housing Conference (NHC) awarded NeighborWorks America with the Annual Housing Person of the Year Award.
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