Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

Foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies may be declining, but that doesn't mean the industry should let its guard down. In the Obama Administration's latest housing scorecard, which provides an overview of the housing market based on private and public sector data, officials continued to warn of a ""fragile"" recovery despite improvements. ""[W]e remain cautious because although mortgage delinquencies are trending down, they still remain quite high compared to historic norms,"" said Kurt Usowski, assistant secretary for economic affairs at HUD.

The city of Las Vegas partnered with Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto in addressing the state's housing crisis by contributing $100,000 for a homeowner relief program initiated by the attorney general. The contribution came from the city's HUD grant funds and will be used to increase awareness of Home Again.

So far, efforts from the GSEs have led to nearly 2.8 million foreclosure prevention actions since the start of the September 2008 conservatorship, the FHFA reported Monday. The agency also found the serious delinquency rate for GSE borrowers decreased to 3 percent compared to 8 percent for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. However, more than half of the GSEs' seriously delinquent borrowers were past due by at least a year in the first quarter.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced proposed revisions to its ability-to-repay rule, mortgage servicing rules, and rules regarding consumer protections. One of the clarifications specified in the announcement is the definition of a loan originator. The CFPB also clarified rules relating to loss mitigation.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill Thursday extending a state law that provides a grace period of up to 90 days for homeowners facing foreclosure. More specifically, the act provides homeowners with a grace period of up to 90 days when homeowners who are facing foreclosure seek housing counseling.

As the foreclosure process drags on in certain states, sometimes the homeowner will beat the lender and leave before a foreclosure sale date is set. According to RealtyTrac's estimate, 167,680 properties in foreclosure have been abandoned by their owner. The total represents 20 percent of all foreclosures. Adding to this total are the more than 540,000 banked-owned properties still waiting to be sold to a third party.

After testing compliance among the five servicers part of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, monitor Joseph A. Smith concluded more work needs to be done since issues with the loan modification process, providing a single point of contact, and customer records still persist. Under the settlement, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial agreed to adopt some 300 servicing standards. To verify compliance with the servicing standards, the monitor retained outside firms to test the servicers in 29 metrics.

For homeowners facing a financial hardship, sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what options might be available. To help homeowners get a better idea of what is out there, Freddie Mac released the Mortgage Help Navigator, a new online tool that assists homeowners with finding out what relief options might be applicable for them in their specific situation.

Foreclosure sales decreased in all five Western states tracked by PropertyRadar--Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington--over the month of May. PropertyRadar attributes the decreases in foreclosure sales to new guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The guidance established minimum standards for handling borrower files subject to a foreclosure sale within 60 days. In California, foreclosure sales from Citi were down 50 percent, and foreclosure sales from Wells Fargo were down 75 percent over the month of May in California, according to PropertyRadar.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) labeled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as critical concerns in the composite rating category for 2012. The assessment, which was part of the agency's fifth annual Report to Congress, was unchanged from the rating assigned in 2011. In the earnings category, the GSEs were rated as ""significant concerns,"" an upgrade from the ""critical concerns"" rating in 2011.