Archives

WASHINGTON, D.C. - May 12, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee) and its coalition partners in the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network (LMSPN) will host an important town hall discussion about the impact of attorney involvement in foreclosure rescue options for distressed homeowners on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Lawyers’ Committee’s offices, 1401 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. This event is a follow up to the Lawyers’ Committee’s April 15, 2014 release of a comprehensive national report“Foreclosure Rescue, Inc.”, which examines the foreclosure rescue fraud epidemic, scam trends and efforts to combat these fraudulent activities

WASHINGTON, D.C. - May 8, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- If regulators had conducted a comprehensive review of bank foreclosure files, they could have netted an additional $1.5 billion in cash payments, the Government Accountability Office reported April 29, The Wall Street Journal reported

WASHINGTON, D.C. - May 1, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement in response to today’s GAO report on the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR). The study was conducted as the result of a 2012 request by Congresswoman Waters, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Reps. Brad Miller (D-NC) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). Waters released the following statement:

Albany, NY - April 30, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced today the deployment of the Department of Financial Services’ (DFS) Mobile Command Center (MCC) to Long Island to provide foreclosure prevention assistance to homeowners. DFS representatives will be available to meet homeowners in the MCC from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 30 at Town of Hempstead Municipal Lot, 400 Uniondale Avenue, across from the Uniondale Library, in the Town of Hempstead.

BOSTON - April 29, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- On the second anniversary of the first-in-the-nation foreclosure prevention program HomeCorps, Attorney General Martha Coakley once again urged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to engage in principal reduction as a means to keeping people in their homes. AG Coakley also released the report Rebuilding the Commonwealth: Recovering from the Foreclosure Crisis and Setting the Foundation for Future Success , offering a transparent record of the actions taken during the crisis and documenting the ways more than $850 million was recovered and provided to Massachusetts homeowners and investors since 2007

LANSING, Mich. - April 29, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Michigan’s housing industry is bracing for its best year since the start of the Great Recession in 2008, including projected increases in new housing starts, rising home prices and a decline in foreclosures, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) announced today during the kickoff of the 16th annual Building Michigan Communities Conference.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 28, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, in advance of the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of housing finance reform legislation, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) filed several amendments that would help protect homeowners and improve local neighborhoods. Following the introduction of his amendments, Brown offered the following statement

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 3, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Office of Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency released a report claiming that pre-foreclosure inspections for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac showed major quality control issues, including potentially fraudulent or manipulated data, HousingWire reported March 25

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 3, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed more than 3.1 million foreclosure prevention actions since the start of conservatorship in 2008. These actions have helped more than 2.5 million borrowers stay in their homes, including nearly 1.6 million who received permanent loan modifications. During 2013, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed nearly 448,000 foreclosure prevention actions, 99,700 of these in the fourth quarter. The majority of these allowed troubled borrowers to save their homes. The results are detailed in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s fourth quarter 2013 Foreclosure Prevention Report, also known as the Federal Property Manager’s Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 3, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced HUD will speed federal disaster assistance to the State of Washington and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes following flooding and mudslides beginning on March 22, 2014, and continuing

WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- The new Senate proposal to reform the housing finance system would needlessly make mortgages more expensive and less available, announced civil rights groups today. The goal of housing finance reform is to create a safe housing finance system that provides affordable mortgages to all creditworthy borrowers, including people of color and families with modest incomes and lower wealth. We have serious concerns that the legislation proposed this week does not achieve that goal, the groups said, and we look forward to working with the co-sponsors to improve the bill.

SAN DIEGO, - March 5, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- DataQuick®, a provider of advanced real estate information solutions powered by data, analytics and decisioning, reports that foreclosures have decreased in 31 of the 42 reporting markets presented in the company’s monthly Property Intelligence Report (PIR) over the last month, quarter and year

Washington - February 21, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- NeighborWorks America today announced that foreclosure prevention counselors from three nonprofit organizations funded in part by the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program received awards for excellence in service to homeowners facing foreclosure. Maru Cham at Neighborhood House Association in San Diego, CA was named the Counselor of the Year; Elizabeth Caton, at Northwest Side Housing Center was named Counseling Innovator of the Year, and Gercide Luc at Urban Edge Housing Corporation in Roxbury, MA, won the Excellence in Counselor Perseverance award. Nominations and voting are done by members of the housing counseling community.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 4, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Metropolitan housing markets have not yet emerged from the foreclosure crisis, according to a new report from the Urban Institute, National Housing Conference (NHC), and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Foreclosure activity has declined in recent years, but metropolitan foreclosure rates are still well above historic norms and there is substantial variation across the country. Among large metro markets, foreclosure rates are falling slowly and steadily in some, but foreclosure activity may not yet have peaked in others.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 28, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Join a phone briefing today on Woodstock Institute’s new report, Unresolved Foreclosures: Patterns of Zombie Properties in Cook County. The report examines the extent to which servicers are walking away from foreclosures in Cook County, Illinois, creating zombie properties, and how that practice may vary by the characteristics of the neighborhood in which the property is located.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 24, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Boston Community Capital's (BCC) SUN Initiative has prevented the eviction of over 450 families facing foreclosure across Massachusetts and Maryland. BCC also advocates for policies that benefit low-income homeowners who are impacted by predatory lending and foreclosure

WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 22, 2014 - (RealEstateRama) -- Thanks to the Structured Finance Industry Group for giving me this opportunity to discuss the Administration's housing priorities for short-term action and comprehensive housing finance reform.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 10, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- When people are making decisions about buying a home, they deserve the best possible guidance. Housing counselors and legal aid lawyers provide that sort of impartial advice, and you also offer much-needed help with rental and credit issues. But you also have been invaluable advisors to many homeowners in trouble. In fact, you are, to my mind, the unsung heroes of the foreclosure crisis, which would have done much greater damage to American consumers and American communities if not for your persistent service to those in need.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 24, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have reached a significant milestone, completing more than 3 million foreclosure prevention actions since the start of conservatorship in September 2008. FHFA noted this milestone in its third quarter Foreclosure Prevention Report (also known as the Federal Property Manager’s Report), which details results of foreclosure prevention programs.

DES MOINES - December 20, 2013 - (RealEstateRama) -- Wells Fargo, the nation’s leading home mortgage lender today announced that 59 nonprofits were awarded grants totaling $11.4 million from the UrbanLIFTSM Community Grant Program to help strengthen neighborhoods in 25 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs)