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The Justice Department announced today that an additional 1,461 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $186 million for home foreclosures under the department’s settlements with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.  Those settlements implement the protections of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).  Together with other foreclosure-related compensation announced by the department in February, a total of 2,413 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $311 million. 

Housing counselors across the country working with homeowners to find an alternative to foreclosure for thousands of homeowners cite improving communications with servicers, but note that more needs to be done, according to the latest report on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program (NFMC). NFMC is a congressionally funded effort that has helped more than 1.9 million homeowners understand their foreclosure prevention options

Two US-based organizations joined the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Lighthouses initiative today to help island nations accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and transition away from fossil fuels. The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, and the Rocky Mountain Institute-Carbon War Room (RMI-CWR), through their island partnership, will jointly work to achieve Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Lighthouses Initiative objectives and explore opportunities for coordinated assistance to SIDS with other partners of the initiative.

Household debt balances were largely flat in the second quarter of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Household Debt and Credit Report. Total indebtedness increased just $2 billion from Q1 2015. Foreclosures hit their lowest point in the 16-year history of the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.30 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2015. This was the lowest level since the second quarter of 2007. The delinquency rate decreased 24 basis points from the previous quarter, and 74 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.

Alberic Okou Agodio, age 30, of Bethesda, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, arising from a mortgage fraud scheme in which he used the names of immigrants and students, along with false financial information, to obtain approximately $3.8 million in home mortgage loans to buy approximately three dozen row houses in Baltimore, all of which are in default or foreclosure

About 1,000 Washington State homeowners facing foreclosure will receive financial counseling to help resolve their mortgage issues, thanks to a grant awarded this week by Attorney General Bob Ferguson to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced it will escheat at the end of 2015 any remaining uncashed payments made pursuant to the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) Payment Agreement so eligible borrowers and their heirs may claim the funds through their states’ escheatment processes

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an updated policy that gives reverse mortgage servicers the ability to allow a surviving spouse to stay in their home if the mortgage was originated prior to August 4, 2014.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today unveiled a new website specifically designed for HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, offering free on-line training covering a broad range of topics including responsibilities of homeownership and tenancy; avoiding foreclosure and eviction; financial management; and fair housing. The training is designed to help prepare housing counselors for the upcoming, mandatory HUD-certified counselor examination.

Your house is among the most important investments in your life. It’s where your children will be raised, where you will grow old, and where your grandchildren will play. You researched schools and neighborhoods to choose the house you will eventually call home. It’s most likely the largest financial commitment (investment) you’ve ever made, but when misfortune strikes your home is more vulnerable than any other asset

Among the Dodd-Frank regulatory requirements that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee plans to address through legislation unveiled earlier this week is a small clarification that will provide significant savings for the more than 1,400 Habitat for Humanity affiliates operating locally across the United States.

At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court halted a sham operation that allegedly told financially distressed homeowners it would help get their mortgages modified, but instead effectively stole their mortgage payments, leading some to foreclosure and bankruptcy. The FTC seeks to permanently stop the scheme and its participants’ illegal practices. It also filed a contempt action against one of the scheme’s principals, Brian Pacios, who is under a previous court order that prohibited him from mortgage relief activities

“We applaud the FHA for taking these significant steps to improve homeownership opportunities in neighborhoods hard hit by the foreclosure crisis. NCRC and its member organizations have advocated to the FHA for improving the number and quality of Neighborhood Stabilization Outcome (NSO) targeted loan pools. We’re pleased that the FHA listened to these concerns and adopted several of our key recommendations

Continuing to crack down on phony mortgage relief programs, a federal court has temporarily halted Los Angeles-based Wealth Educators, Inc. and its president from offering mortgage relief services at the Federal Trade Commission’s request. The agency charged the defendants with failing to provide the help they promised homeowners, while charging a hefty up-front fee. The company also told consumers to stop making their monthly mortgage payments, leading some facing the prospect of foreclosure.

In Tung Q Lam, v. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA et al, the borrower argued that Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (“MERS”) lacked authority to assign the deed of trust because MERS lost its status as agent of the promissory note holder when the note was assigned to subsequent entities.

Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management, Inc. (“Springboard”) announced that it has received more than $2.6 million in federal dollars awarded through the Congressionally funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program.

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) is pleased to announce that it has received a grant award totaling $2.3 million from NeighborWorks® America to support foreclosure prevention efforts through its Member Agencies.

NeighborWorks America today announced that $44.8 million has been awarded to 25 state housing finance agencies (HFAs), 18 HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, and 68 community-based NeighborWorks organizations to provide counseling to families and individuals facing the threat of foreclosure. Although fewer new households face foreclosure than just a couple of years ago, the rate has begun to increase again, and many hundreds of thousands of homeowners remain seriously delinquent and face the prospect of foreclosure this year

The National Housing Law Project (NHLP), the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP), and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) applaud Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) for introducing legislation to permanently extend the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA).