Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

When federal regulators announced the abrupt ending of the Independent Foreclosure Review in place of a new agreement, the conclusion to the review process led to more questions than answers. To identify challenges in the foreclosure review process, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) undertook its own investigation. In a report, the GAO identified three hurdles that prevented federal regulators from achieving their goals through the foreclosure review: complexity of the reviews, overly broad guidance, and limited monitoring.

Since the housing crisis, many large banks have sold off servicing portfolios to smaller, emerging companies. According to a recent study, these portfolios often begin to perform better after the transfers. Opera Solutions found faster liquidations and better long-term performance for modified loans after portfolios were sold. According to the study, two servicers stand out for acquiring the ""lion's share"" of servicing rights--Ocwen and Nationstar. At Ocwen, which acquired the most loans, the study detected higher levels of foreclosures and REO rates immediately following acquisitions. However, after a period of months, Ocwen's portfolios stabilized and improved.

Since December 1, 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has handled more than 63,700 mortgage complaints, according to a report from the bureau. Most of the mortgage complaints were a result of issues borrowers faced when they were not able to make their mortgage payments. Overall, 61 percent of the mortgage complaints dealt with issues related to loan modifications, collections, or foreclosures. The second most common mortgage complaint fell into the ""making payments"" category, which covers issues with loan servicing, payments, or escrow accounts.

The California Attorney General's office awarded a $1 million grant to the National Housing Law Project (NHLP) for assistance in implementing the California Homeowner Bill of Rights.

As of the end of December, 89.4 percent of mortgages were still current and performing, an increase from 88.6 percent in the third quarter and an improvement from 88 percent during the same quarter a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported. Servicers also began a fewer number of foreclosures after initiating 156,773 new foreclosures in Q4, the the lowest number since Q1 2008, which is when the OCC began the report. In addition, servicers helped borrowers remain in their homes by implementing more home retention actions than home forfeiture actions.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to administer foreclosure prevention efforts while experiencing declines in delinquencies, foreclosures, and REO inventories, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The GSEs enacted 541,219 foreclosure prevention actions in 2012, contributing to a total of 2.7 million foreclosure prevention efforts since the enterprises came under government conservatorship in 2008, according to the report. Over the year, delinquencies also fell by a substantial 14 percent with the FHFA reporting declines in every state except New Jersey and New York.

There's no question that the housing market is well along the road to recovery. Sales are going up, prices are increasing, and that's good news for all of us. But for some folks, the nightmare is not even close to over yet. Instead, an estimated 2 million homeowners are in the land of the zombie foreclosure. Zombie foreclosures happen when the homeowner assumes they have lost their home and moves when the bank begins foreclosure, but the foreclosure process is never completed. Homeowners can take steps though, as well as anyone else adversely impacted by a zombie foreclosure, such as HOAs or municipalities.

A new report from a government watchdog accused Freddie Mac, its servicers, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) of not meeting requirements when handling and resolving escalated consumer complaints. According to a report from the FHFA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Freddie Mac and eight of its largest servicers, which service 70 percent of the GSE’s mortgages, received over 34,000 complaints that became escalated cases during a 14-month time period ending November 30, 2012. After tracking the escalated cases, FHFA OIG found seven out of the eight Freddie Mac servicers did not resolve all escalated cases within the 30-day requirement.

A coalition of nine state attorneys general is petitioning the national government to replace Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Edward DeMarco. The coalition charged DeMarco with positioning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a ""direct impediment to our economic recovery"" and called for his replacement in a joint letter to the president, the Senate majority leader, and the Senate minority leader Friday. The attorneys' general complaint stems from DeMarco's refusal to allow the GSEs to engage in principal reductions for struggling and underwater homeowners.

Foreclosures are declining in most of the Western states tracked by ForeclosureRadar, but some experienced anomalous upticks in February. For example, in California notices of default and notices of trustee sale together increased 10 percent--a sharp about-face from the previous month's 43.3 percent decline. ForeclosureRadar anticipates a return to the recent trend of declining foreclosure activity in the state. While positive for homeowners, ForeclosureRadar points out an unintended consequence of such market conditions: decreased REO inventory, which is ""still very much a part of the California real estate landscape,"" the firm said.