Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

In January, servicers completed about 78,400 modifications, bringing the total since 2007 to 6.15 million, according to data from HOPE NOW. The number of completed short sales in January slowed to 29,244, down from 34,909 in December 2012. As of December 2009, the industry has completed 1.18 million short sales. When combining foreclosure prevention solutions through loan modifications and short sales, the cumulative total is about 7.33 million.

About 4.2 million eligible borrowers should expect to receive a check ranging from hundreds of dollars to $125,000 in the next few months as part of the new agreement that replaced the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR), regulators announced during a call Wednesday. Suzanne Killian of the Federal Reserve and Ted Wartell of the OCC explained Rust Consulting, the paying agent, will send the 4.2 million borrowers a postcard notifying them of eligibility at the end of this month, and then additional correspondence and a check should follow in 4-8 weeks.

Freddie Mac announced it is offering mortgage relief to homeowners who were victims of the storms that swept through Mississippi in February. Only Freddie Mac borrowers in locations declared major disaster areas are eligible for additional relief.

The housing market showed signs of progress across the board, but the overall recovery is still fragile, hence the need for efforts to prevent avoidable foreclosures, according to the Obama Administration Housing Scorecard for February. ""House prices are steadily rising above the mid-crisis lows in markets throughout the country, while inventories of new and existing homes are further tightening, and even estimates of the 'shadow inventory' are down,"" said HUD deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs Kurt Usowski. ""That said, we still remain considerably below long-term normal levels of home sales and production.""

NeighborWorks America announced Thursday that borrowers who receive pre-purchase mortgage counseling and education from the organization are about one-third less likely to become seriously delinquent within the first two years of obtaining their mortgage loan compared to borrowers who do not receive counseling. Analysis from Neil Mayer and Associates and Experian found the probability of a homeowner becoming seriously delinquent within the first two years of their mortgage loan declined by about one-third for those who received pre-purchase counseling, with almost no difference between first-time and repeat buyers.

Fannie Mae unveiled 2012 program results for the Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards (STAR) scorecard. The STAR program was introduced to recognize Fannie Mae servicers and establish servicing standards. ""STAR is one of the many ways that we are helping servicers improve their work with homeowners,"" said Leslie Peeler, SVP of Fannie Mae's national servicing organization. The final STAR Program designations, set to be released in April, will evaluate customer service and foreclosure prevention, as well as operational assessments of the servicer's processes, policies, and capabilities.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco released his 2013 priorities for the GSEs Monday. DeMarco anticipates the gradual reduction of the GSEs' presence in the market, and this year's goals largely build on last year's. ""Despite some signs of normalization in the housing market, our Nation finds itself in the uncomfortable position of having over 90 percent of new mortgage originations supported by the Federal government,"" DeMarco said. As such, FHFA's goals for this year expand on last year's three main goals of building an infrastructure for the future of the secondary market, contracting the GSEs' role in the market, and maintaining the GSEs' foreclosure prevention and credit availability efforts.

In recognition of National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW), Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto released a list of the top five most common mortgage fraud consumer complaints addressed by the state's Mortgage Fraud Unit (MFU). In 2012, complaints related to loan modification and loss mitigation issues were No. 1.

Bank of America announced it has completed or approved nearly $30 billion in relief to more than 330,000 homeowners as of the end of 2012.

A year after the nation's largest mortgage servicers reached a monumental settlement with 49 state’s attorneys general and several federal agencies, the five servicers have reportedly provided assistance in the amount of $45.83 billion to 550,000 homeowners, according to the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight reported. The greatest portion of the total $45.83 billion distributed since the settlement went to ""relief to support home ownership."" About $24.7 billion went to these efforts. Short sales made up another significant portion of servicers' efforts, totaling $19.5 billion.