Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

Bank of America is making changes to its short sale procedures and introducing an improved task flow within the short sale technology module from Equator, BofA's short sale management platform of choice. The goal: to reduce the timeframe for a short sale decision to less than three weeks. Starting Saturday, April 14, real estate professionals working with BofA will be required to submit five documents for short sales initiated with an offer, and they will be able to complete tasks such as document collection, valuations, and underwriting at the same time.

The Obama Administration released its March Housing Scorecard Friday, which showed delinquencies on a downward decline, while modifications continue to help struggling homeowners through reduced monthly payments. Foreclosure completions were down though, but delays are expected to pick up due to the mortgage settlement, which just received approval from a federal judge Friday.

The $25 billion settlement received approval from a federal judge Wednesday, but the announcement was not made public until Thursday, according to a Reuters’ article published Thursday evening. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer approved the national, historical settlement, which was brought on by federal officials and 49 state attorneys general against the top five largest servicers – Bank of America; Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo and Ally Financial. Oklahoma was the only state to opt out of the agreement. In a statement Friday, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan called the the approval ""a victory for American homeowners.""

With numbers from a CoreLogic report revealing 22.8 percent of borrowers are underwater, principal reduction has been eyed as a key solution to keep borrowers in their homes. The Center for American Progress has released a report detailing solutions to the ""moral hazard"" issue. One is to make principal reduction a one-time program open to borrowers already delinquent; another is to open the program only to current borrowers who are at-risk of default; and the third is ""shared appreciation"" modifications.

Overall, little change was reported in the performance of first-lien mortgages serviced by national and federal savings banks during the 2011 fourth quarter, but the percentage of initiated foreclosures did see a steep drop, according to the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Mortgage Metrics report. The percentage of current and performing loans decreased to 87.9 percent, a mere 0.1 percentage point drop from the previous quarter, but a 0.4 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago.

NPR reported Friday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might consider principal reduction as a means to help underwater homeowners. Edward DeMarco, acting director of the FHFA, has stood firm in his decision to not allow for principal reduction, despite mounting criticism from Democrats and petitioning from organizations to have DeMarco fired. ""NPR and ProPublica have learned that both firms have concluded that giving homeowners a big break on their mortgages would make good financial sense in many cases,"" NPR stated in its story.

NeighborWorks America announced $73.8 million in awards for foreclosure counseling efforts this week, which followed HUD's recent revelation of $42 million to support housing counselors. This latest round of funding will go to 32 state agencies, 18 HUD-approved intermediaries, and 86 community-based NeighborWorks organizations to provide counseling to those facing foreclosure. About 190,000 homeowners are expected to receive help. NeighborWorks also expects to train more than 2,000 counselors with what is now the sixth round of its program funding.

In response to the need for in-depth portfolio analysis, DataQuick announced the introduction of PortfolioQ in a company release. The hosted solution provides equity lenders with an in-depth analysis of outstanding liens against the property to accurately calculate current equity position and related risk.

State and local governments across the nation responded to the foreclosure crisis by introducing a wave of new laws aimed at protecting homeowners. Unfortunately, according to Alfred M. Pollard, general counsel for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), some of these laws are hurting more than helping as the housing market struggles toward recovery. Pollard, speaking before a House of Representatives committee this week, cited estimates that state governments have introduced 550 bills related to mortgage servicing since 2009.

Katherine Porter, a professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law was appointed as the California monitor to ensure compliance from the five largest servicers - Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial - as stated in the $25 billion settlement, announced Attorney General Kamala D. Harris. Upon federal court approval of the settlement, Porter will verify if the lenders are meeting their obligations to California homeowners.