Tag Archives: Foreclosure Prevention

An estimated 1.05 million homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers in 2011, according to year-end data released Tuesday by HOPE NOW. That tally includes both proprietary and government-program mods, and represents a 40 percent decline from the 1.76 million modifications granted in 2010. At the same time, HOPE NOW reports loan modifications outpaced foreclosure sales for the fourth consecutive year. In 2011, there were approximately 843,000 foreclosure sales completed, down from 1.07 million in 2010.

The deadline for the 50 state attorneys general to sign onto the settlement negotiated between the committee headed by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and five large servicers was extended from Friday to Monday. Late Monday evening, Miller's office issued a statement saying more than 40 states have agreed to participate. For the past few months, the number repeated from various sources is $25 billion. That's $25 billion that Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial would pay for a clean slate regarding robo-signing misdeeds of the past.

More than 930,000 homeowners have received a permanent modification through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), saving an estimated $10.5 billion in monthly mortgage payments, according to Treasury. While this tally - nearly three years after the program's launch - falls well short of the results initially promised by President Obama of helping 3 to 4 million homeowners restructure their loans, federal officials continue to tout a key success of HAMP as improving standards and processes within the industry.

A New York housing counselor has been sentenced to 72 months in jail and three years supervision by a U.S. District Court judge after defrauding 136 homeowners who reached out for help as they attempted to avoid foreclosure. The judge also ordered Lori J. Macakanja to pay $298,639 in restitution to the homeowners affected. Macakanja reportedly required upfront fees from homeowners and promised in return to help them achieve mortgage modifications in order to stave off foreclosure.

It will be at least three more days before the industry learns how many and which states have agreed to the robo-signing settlement that was proposed last week. The deadline for state attorneys general to opt in has been pushed from February 3 to February 6. A spokesperson for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says at least one state requested an additional business day to come to a decision, so Miller, who is head of the states' negotiating committee, moved the cut-off date to Monday.

The mortgage servicing system is badly broken and would benefit from a single set of federal standards, according to White House officials. President Obama on Wednesday introduced what he's termed the Homeowner Bill of Rights - principles that he says will ensure borrowers and lenders are playing by the same common-sense rules. These rules address disclosures, conflicts of interest posed by investors and junior lien holders, assistance for at-risk homeowners, and safeguards to prevent wrongful foreclosures.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has seen mortgage and foreclosure-related complaints quadruple in her state over the past two years. In fact, the category now overshadows all other types of consumer complaints. Coakley's office counted 983 mortgage and foreclosure-related complaints last year, a 431 percent increase over 2009. Coakley says the data confirms that the subprime lending and foreclosure crisis is a top concern for homeowners who face losing their most valued possession.

State attorneys general have until Friday to sign on to a settlement that would resolve claims against the nation's top five mortgage servicers surrounding documentation errors in foreclosure processing, according to a widely circulated media report. The year-long back-and-forth between state counsels and the largest servicers may be in its final days ... possibly. Attorneys general in Delaware and California have already rejected the proposal, and some say without California, in particular, the settlement may not be of interest to the banks.

IndiSoft announced Tuesday that the company has enhanced its RxOffice Premium Counselor Edition. The updated module has been approved by HUD to meet the reporting requirements of agencies participating in its Housing Counseling Program. It was created to address the surge in the number of homeowners needing counseling to make informed housing decisions, and gives counseling agencies a scalable and flexible web-based case management tool to manage their internal business operations.

The default servicing industry is in a state of transition, according to Larry B. Litton Jr., CEO of Selene Finance, and it's the smaller, more nimble servicing operations that will have the advantage in reacting quickly to the new rules and the changes that are in store. Litton says many of the bigger servicing shops are still set up to do what he considers commoditized types of processes and aren't able to adapt quickly to the regulatory changes coming down the line, while smaller special servicers are already built for single point of contact and to be highly responsive to consumers.