Government

President Barack Obama signed two housing bills into law on Wednesday afternoon – one that provides additional foreclosure relief and a second that targets mortgage fraud and other criminal activity related to federal assistance programs.

The Treasury announced new initiatives under the administration’s Making Home Affordable program late last week to provide additional options for homeowners facing foreclosure. The first of the two new program components is intended to help borrowers obtain modifications in those markets experiencing severe home price declines.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley have applied to repay the federal funding they received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), according to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg News:http://www.

Huntington Bank and Columbus Housing Partnership have joined forces to stabilize homeownership in Central Ohio. The two have formed the Huntington Homeownership Alliance, a three-year, $10 million project that will provide the area’s residents with homeownership counseling, foreclosure avoidance services, and more affordable mortgages.

According to recent analysis released by Subsidyscope , an initiative of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit advocacy group The Pew Charitable Trusts , federal subsidies to the government-controlled housing financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach $290 billion in fiscal year 2009.

Timothy M. Morrison, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced late last month that seven Indiana residents have been charged with multiple crimes – including conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering – related to an alleged $20 million mortgage fraud scheme.

More than 4,000 foreclosures were prevented in Minnesota last year as a result of the state’s nonprofit foreclosure counseling network, according to a study released by the Minnesota Home Ownership Center.

Marix Servicing LLC www.marixservicing.com, a specialty default servicer located in Phoenix, Arizona, recently announced that the company has been approved by Freddie Mac:http://www.freddiemac.com as a servicer for the GSE’s home mortgage (1-4 unit) program.

In late April, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster launched a zero tolerance campaign against mortgage scams in his state, pledging he will aggressively investigate any suspicion of mortgage deception and use all means in the legal system to prosecute and shut them down or end their deceptive practices.

Two more servicers have been added to the government’s list of mortgage companies officially under contract to provide federal loan modifications through its Home Affordable Modification Program — Carrington Mortgage Services, of Santa Ana, California, and Aurora Loan Services of Littleton, Colorado.