Tag Archives: Housing Counseling

Struggling Minnesota homeowners with loans owned by Fannie Mae can now expect faster response times to their mortgage situations. The Minnesota Home Ownership Center recently partnered with the GSE to accelerate the mortgage resolution process. The Center's counselors will work directly with Fannie Mae staff on behalf of borrowers to find solutions. Assistance is free of charge.

Homeowners who participate in default counseling are more likely to have their loans modified, according to a study from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Policymakers have increasingly turned to education and counseling to remedy problems that impede borrowers' ability to make their mortgage payments, but the trade group's report comes on the heels of federal budget cuts that have eliminated $88 million to fund HUD's counseling program.

NeighborWorks America has received a $2 million grant from Bank of America to support the organization's foreclosure counseling efforts and fund training for local nonprofit professionals. NeighborWorks says the funding will help its network of community-based counselors create and preserve homeownership assets for 250,000 families.

Real estate executive John T. Price has been named director of operations for HouseSavvy, a national online real estate resource that offers advice from industry experts to educate homebuyers, as well as sellers, about what to expect and how to prepare for transacting in today's real estate market. In this role, Price will work with HouseSavvy CEO Joe Benevides to expand the no-cost services of the online site to the national level.

On Monday, HUD launched a new campaign in Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles called ""Know It. Avoid It. Report It."" The targeted operation aims to direct distressed homeowners to trusted resources and counselors for help to avoid foreclosure. It also solicits the support of homeowners in shutting down scammers who target the elderly, Hispanics, and African Americans.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed the Foreclosure Fairness Act of 2011 into law Thursday. The new law goes into effect July 13. It gives homeowners facing foreclosure access to housing counselors, including meeting with the bank and an independent mediator to review options to keep their homes. Support for such mediation will be funded, at least in part, by lenders, who will pay a $250 fee for every new notice of default they file.

Mortgage servicing practices have taken center stage on Capitol Hill, with a flurry of bills being penned to make servicing reforms the law of the land. Rep. Maxine Waters of California has revised a bill she's brought to the table several times before that would compel lenders to engage in what she says are ""reasonable loss mitigation activities"" for all delinquent homeowners. The legislation would place responsibility for modifying first and second liens with the servicer of the primary mortgage and would institute several reforms outlined in recent settlements with regulators.

The budget resolution approved by Congress to keep the federal government running through September includes a package of cuts to federal agency budgets, one of which is HUD's Housing Counseling Program. In lawmakers' efforts to trim agency expenditures, $88 million slated to fund counseling efforts on foreclosure and reverse mortgages has been zeroed out. A HUD spokesperson described the curtailment as ""painful cuts,"" noting that the program provides grant funding to about 2,000 agencies across the country.

Fannie Mae announced the opening this week of two facilities in Florida to provide free education and counseling services to struggling homeowners - the Tampa Mortgage Help Center and the Jacksonville Mortgage Help Center. Available to borrowers with Fannie Mae loans, the centers offer one-on-one consultations with experienced housing counselors to review mortgage loans and financing options, explain the range of options available, and help borrowers apply for loan workouts and other alternatives to foreclosure.

The California-based NID Housing Counseling Agency now requires its counselors to use HOPE LoanPort as the primary tool for submitting home retention applications to mortgage servicers. HOPE LoanPort, developed by the HOPE NOW Alliance, is a Web-based tool that streamlines home retention applications on behalf of borrowers at risk of foreclosure.