Loss Mitigation

The Oklahoma-based technology developer a la mode has teamed up with Real Property Insight to bring the industry a new valuation service for distressed assets. Real Property Insight is a specialized integrator of information and services focused on distressed asset disposition, and the company has selected a la mode's Mercury Network Vendor Management Platform to manage the valuation portion of its new product, the Real Property Insight (RPI) Report. a la mode estimates this valuation service will save the industry approximately $72 billion.

Mortgage servicers had been completing over 100,000 loan modifications per month since late 2009, but that streak came to an end in February. HOPE NOW reports that 87,083 homeowners received permanent loan modifications - through both proprietary and government programs - during the month of February. That's about 14 percent fewer than the previous month and the first time the organization's modification tally has fallen below the 100K mark in nearly a year and a half.

Unemployed or underemployed homeowners in Florida having difficulty paying their mortgages can apply for financial assistance from the Florida Hardest-Hit Fund beginning April 18. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation has been conducting a pilot of its Hardest-Hit foreclosure prevention program since October, and is now opening them up statewide. The agency has made several changes to the program, which is now expected to provide assistance to twice as many homeowners as previously estimated.

The Washington Attorney General's Office says it has uncovered another problem that jeopardizes homeowners' chances of stopping a foreclosure - difficulty contacting trustees. Washington law requires foreclosure trustees maintain offices in the state and local phone numbers, but officials have discovered that some of the largest trustees are not in compliance, making it difficult for borrowers to legitimately stop foreclosure actions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has some pretty direct words for the American government and its handling of the U.S. housing crisis. In an annual report that will be released next week, IMF says the origins of the global financial crisis can be found in the U.S. housing finance system. The agency says government participation in the U.S. housing market has been ""pervasive"" but has not yielded the expected benefits to prospective or existing homeowners.

Treasury has released updates to the policy guidelines for the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program. Among the changes is a requirement that servicers provide written confirmation to the borrower within 10 days acknowledging their request for a short sale or deed-in-lieu, and an amendment to the ""arm's length"" restriction that gives servicers discretion to approve short sales to non-profit organizations that plan to rent or resell the property to the borrower.

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) expanded eligibility criteria for several of the Keep Your Home California programs to make them available to a larger number of families at risk of losing their homes, including those with home equity loans and recently originated mortgages. Keep Your Home California is a $2 billion federally funded initiative. Implemented statewide in early February, the programs are part of the U.S. Treasury Department's Hardest Hit Fund.

The California-based NID Housing Counseling Agency now requires its counselors to use HOPE LoanPort as the primary tool for submitting home retention applications to mortgage servicers. HOPE LoanPort, developed by the HOPE NOW Alliance, is a Web-based tool that streamlines home retention applications on behalf of borrowers at risk of foreclosure.

CitiMortgage Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly denying borrowers a permanent loan modification through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The complaint was filed with a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania on behalf of homeowners in the state who have entered into a trial modification plan, made all payments as required, and complied with CitiMortgage's requests for documentation, but have not received or have been denied a permanent HAMP mod, according to the lawsuit.

Mortgage servicers have reportedly reached an agreement with federal regulators to change their foreclosure procedures as part of a settlement for the robo-signing transgressions that were uncovered last fall. The arrangement includes no fines, but monetary penalties have not been completely ruled out. In early March, federal regulatory agencies and state attorneys general together crafted a 27-page settlement proposal, however, the states have not been part of this latest development.