Tag Archives: HUD

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced the launch of a new website, hudhousingcounselors.com, that is designed specifically for HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, according to an announcement on HUD's website.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has named Richard K. Green, University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate director, as a senior advisor for housing finance, according to an announcement from HUD.

In an announcement regarding the letter to Castro, Waters said that many senior citizens have faced foreclosure or will face foreclosure due to "fraudulent lending practices" on the part of lenders surrounding HUD's previous protocol for the HECM program.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) responded in the Federal Register on Wednesday to comments on the alternative path to claim payment (the Mortgagee Optional Election Assignment) for certain Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs), which centers on the delaying of foreclosure on a non-borrowing spouse following a borrowing spouse's death.

Grassley was referring to the March 26 appointment of Edward Golding as principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Housing to essentially fill the duties performed by the office FHA commissioner, and the February 27 appointment of Lourdes Castro Ramirez to the position of principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) at HUD.

Under the new rules, loan servicers are required to delay foreclosure on a home for a year and evaluate all borrowers facing foreclosure for participation in the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) or a similar loss mitigation program. Loan servicers could previously foreclose on a home six months after they received the loan and were not required to evaluate borrowers for loss mitigation programs, though they were encouraged to do so.

Less than a week after Quicken Loans sued the Department of Justice and HUD, accusing them of coercing the Detroit-based lender into making false statements, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Quicken accusing the lender of improperly originating and underwriting FHA-insured mortgages, according to an announcement from the DOJ on Thursday afternoon.

The Detroit-based lender claims the government has enjoyed “extraordinary profitability for FHA's insurance program” through its efforts, saying the company’s participation in FHA's program will proved the government more than $5.7 billion in net profits “from the insurance premiums collected above and beyond claims made from over $40 billion in FHA home loan volume closed by Quicken Loans during the 2007 to 2013 timeframe.”

Housing counselors‒‒which can be the lenders themselves‒‒can provide advice on buying a home, renting, defaults, foreclosures, and credit issues at little or no cost to consumers. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 included a requirement that mortgage lenders provide applicants with a list of local housing counselors, which consumers are to receive shortly after they apply for a mortgage.

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.