Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

Foreclosure starts fell dramatically in all five West Coast states tracked by Foreclosure Radar, further confirming suspicions that a foreclosure wave may not arrive. ""The continued decline in Foreclosure Starts clearly shows that even though servicers are now apparently in compliance and clear to move forward with foreclosures, they are still in no rush to foreclose on the majority of delinquent borrowers,"" said Sean O'Toole, CEO of ForeclosureRadar.

Three mortgage relief companies are in hot water after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged them with using deceptive tactics to prey on distressed homeowners. The FTC filed three separate suits against Prime Legal Plans, American Mortgage Consulting Group, and Expense Management America for allegedly violating its Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Rule, which prohibits certain practices commonly used by fraudulent mortgage assistance companies.

After rounding out its fourth military homeowner event, HOPE NOW announced more events are to come. In September, HOPE NOW hosted an event in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which attracted 60 attendees, and another event at joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, where 142 military families were able to receive assistance.

Federal officials jointly announced Tuesday the results of the Distressed Homeowner Initiative, which is the first nationwide effort focusing on fraud schemes that target struggling homeowners. Led by members of the Mortgage Fraud Working Group of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, the initiative spanned from October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2012. Federal officials revealed the efforts have led to 530 criminal defendants charged in 285 federal criminal indictments or informations filed throughout the U.S.

Completed foreclosures continued their progressive decline, and foreclosure inventory fell to its lowest level since April 2010, CoreLogic reported Thursday. In August 2012, 57,000 homes were lost to foreclosure, down from 58,000 in July and 75,000 a year ago. The yearly decrease represents a 24 percent decline. While the national numbers are down, certain states are still seeing a high number of foreclosures, with five states accounting for 48.1 percent of all completed foreclosures.

In her first monthly report as California Monitor, Katherine Porter described the servicers' efforts to reform their practices before the October 2 deadline outlined in the national mortgage settlement. Porter's first evaluation examined the practice of dual tracking. The companies in the settlement were given 180 days to reform their dual tracking procedures, in addition to more than 300 additional servicing standard requirements.

The nation's five largest mortgage servicers had 180 days to implement the 320 servicing standards outlined in the settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice and 49 state attorneys general. The standards address such areas as borrower communication, single point of contact, training for loss mitigation staff, and document execution related to foreclosure actions. And as described by the attorneys general's own negotiating committee, to put all the required changes in place involved ""a massive undertaking.""

As part of Bank of America's deal in the national mortgage settlement, the bank announced Friday it plans on offering full forgiveness for second liens to certain homeowners. The bank is in the process of mailing about 150,000 letters to pre-qualified homeowners with offers to wipe out their second liens.

Mortgage performance for loans serviced by large national and federal savings banks weakened in the second quarter of 2012, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported Thursday. The percentage of current and performing mortgages stood at 88.7 percent at the end of Q2, a slight drop from Q1, when 88.9 percent of loans were current and performing. However, the share of seriously delinquent mortgages fell 0.8 percent from Q1 to 4.4 percent, the lowest level in three years.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced his state will spend $60 million on housing counseling and legal services for struggling homeowners. A portion of the funds are a result of the historic $25 billion national mortgage settlement, which was reached in February between the five largest mortgage servicers and state and federal officials and 49 states.