Archives

WASHINGTON, DC - April 13, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today announced formal enforcement actions against eight national bank mortgage servicers and two third-party servicer providers for unsafe and unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.

April 13, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced formal enforcement actions requiring 10 banking organizations to address a pattern of misconduct and negligence related to deficient practices in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing. These deficiencies represent significant and pervasive compliance failures and unsafe and unsound practices at these institutions.

LITTLE ROCK, AR - April 13, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Dustin McDaniel joined Rep. Tiffany Rogers of Stuttgart today to applaud a new state law that equips homeowners with necessary information prior to a foreclosure and encourages ...

Washington, DC - April 121, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) is the recipient of a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program grant to assist seniors who have taken out a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) and who are delinquent on their property charges, such as taxes and insurance, thus putting their home in danger of foreclosure.

April 11, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- A new program that allows housing lenders and borrowers to easily exchange information is aimed at helping both sides work out a settlement agreement in foreclosure cases. The program centers on the launch of a secure online network that enables parties to more efficiently exchange documents during mediation. Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard explained the importance of the network. “The success of settlement conferences can depend on whether all the necessary paperwork is in place. We are giving both sides another tool to collect and review all the information needed to work out an agreement.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 11, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, two companies and three individuals are banned from the mortgage relief services business and must relinquish $2.2 million in assets for consumer refunds. The action is part of the FTC’s ongoing effort to stop scams that target financially strapped homeowners seeking mortgage relief.

Harrisburg, PA - April 5, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Governor Tom Corbett today announced that Pennsylvania has been approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to receive $105 million to aid homeowners facing foreclosure through the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program.

IRVINE, CA - April 5, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- RealtyTrac® (www.realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today unveiled new site features that help users quickly see the amount of equity — or negative equity — in a property based on its estimated market value and total outstanding loans, along with a simple list showing the position of those loans.

WASHINGTON, DC - April 4, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTC) today launched "Las Opciones de los Casas," a teleseries for the Spanish-speaking community designed to educate homeowners about their options to avoid foreclosure, empower them to make informed decisions and motivate them to take action and seek help. Through a partnership with Univision, the teleseries debuted as a television broadcast in Miami on March 28, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center. Las Opciones de Los Casas, part of the Company's "Know Your Options™" initiative to help struggling homeowners, is now available on www.conozcasusopciones.com.

WASHINGTON, DC - March 30, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) issued the following statement today after the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 839 to eliminate the failed Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which is funded by $30 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money.

MIAMI, FL - March 24, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today Fannie Mae and Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) celebrated the one-year anniversary of Fannie Mae's South Florida Mortgage Help Center. Since opening its doors in March 2010, the South Florida Mortgage Help Center has reached out to more than 5,000 South Floridians and worked with more than 1,000 struggling families with loans owned by Fannie Mae. The South Florida Mortgage Help Center was the first of six Help Centers Fannie Mae opened in hard-hit cities across the country. Additional Help Centers are expected to open this year.

March 23, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- New research by the Center for Responsible Lending finds that banks and other loan servicers often foreclose when investors have more to gain from a loan modification. The study—“Fix or Evict? Loan Modifications Return More Value than Foreclosures”—also finds that the industry’s poor track record on loan modifications can’t be blamed on homeowners who re-default.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 17, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to terminate the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), one of the Administration's key foreclosure response programs. This vote came despite the devastating impacts the recession and foreclosure crisis continue to have on neighborhoods across the country -- including increased homelessness.

Dover, DE - March 17, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Beau Biden and bipartisan coalition of legislators unveiled five bills today to respond to the home foreclosure crisis in Delaware and help the economy grow . Recent years have seen a re...

WHAT: Deputy Attorney General Lisa Wolf will lead a Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention workshop at the Hamilton County Resource and Information Fair on Thursday, March17th from 4:30-5 p.m. The workshop will provide information on the alternatives to foreclosure, settlement conferences, and important foreclosure prevention contacts in Indiana.

WASHINGTON, DC - March 11, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- HOPE NOW, the voluntary, private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, investors, mortgage insurers and non-profit counselors, released its January 2011 loan modification data, which shows that an estimated 101,000 homeowners received permanent, affordable loan modifications from mortgage servicers in the first month of the year.

Washington, D.C. - March 10, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) issued the following statement today regarding the release of the state attorneys general foreclosure settlement term sheet. "While much of Wall Street has already recovered from the financial fallout, many of America's Main Street communities continue to struggle with its harsh effects. The last thing these communities need is further deterioration of their already fragile housing markets and economies caused by these proposed settlement terms that would delay legitimate foreclosure actions and permit bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage balances.

Destin, FL - March 9, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Driven by swelling local job markets, the best housing markets for investors in 2011 are spread across the U.S. with many markets located in areas that have a huge number of government jobs. The nation’s capitol, Washington, D.C. leads the annual just released list by Housing Predictor.

PORTLAND, OR - March 7, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley joined Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in an effort to strengthen mortgage protections for servicemembers once they return home from duty.

WASHINGTON, DC - March 7, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- In an effort to protect consumers, increase transparency in the foreclosure process, and hold banks and servicers accountable for providing relief to qualified homeowners, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) today introduced the Preserving Homes and Communities Act of 2011 based on similar legislation Reed introduced in 2009