President Obama's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program has been under intense fire this week. On Thursday, the chief foreclosure expert at Ushud.com and its parent company Heavy Hammer Inc. warned that this new program is 'rife with problems that will adversely impact real estate professionals and consumers alike.'
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Foreclosure filings issued to U.S. homeowners have fallen for the second straight month.
According to new data released by RealtyTrac Thursday, default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions were reported on 308,524 properties in February. That's a 2 percent decrease from January, when foreclosure activity dropped by 10 percent.
February's numbers are still 6 percent above the level reported one year earlier, but RealtyTrac says it's the smallest annual increase the company has tracked since January 2006.
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At a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 16, 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court will consider amendments to the rules governing the state's Foreclosure Mediation Program (FMP). If the amendments are approved, this will be the third set of rule changes since the FMP was enacted on July 1, 2009.
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Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) recently announced that its LPS Auction Solutions division will conduct an online auction of foreclosed homes from the hard-hit states of Arizona, California, and Nevada.
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Economists believe the nation's subprime mortgage meltdown and foreclosure crisis will continue to worsen unless innovative thinking reinvents the system. RebuildUS LLC says it's operating under precisely this premise by bypassing the banks and auctions to move Americans back into affordable homeownership through its newly-launched online foreclosure marketplace.
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Foreclosures continue to drive down home prices in hard-hit states like Michigan, but according to the auction company Hudson & Marshall of Texas, this is good news for buyers and investors looking for bargains on homes.
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National Quick Sale announced Tuesday that it has entered into a business partnership agreement with real estate and mortgage services provider Hollander Financial Holding Inc. Through this venture, National Quick Sale plans to promote the use of its short sale platform's capabilities through Hollander's nationwide network of real estate professionals.
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Several appraisal organizations, representing more than 35,000 real estate appraisers, are voicing their opposition to the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program, set to take effect April 5, 2010. The program allows broker price opinions (BPOs) to be used to determine the value of properties to establish a minimum offer for a short sale. The trade groups argue that the use of BPOs will not protect all parties interests and is likely to open the door for fraud.
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As servicers step up efforts to modify loans and keep borrowers in their homes, many are tripping over stumbling blocks in the form of home equity loans and other second lien mortgages.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has sent out a petition to some of the nation's largest junior lien holders demanding that they take "immediate steps to write down second mortgages" to create a clear path for sustainable loan restructurings, especially since the prospect for any real return on these seconds is negligible, Frank says.
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The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) will receive nearly $700 million in new federal funding to help the state's most troubled homeowners stay in their homes. CalHFA is one of five housing agencies slated to receive a total of $1.5 billion in aid for states where unemployment is high and home prices have fallen more than 20 percent. CalHFA says it will submit its program plans to the federal government by April 16 and expects the new initiatives to be ready for implementation by mid-year or sooner.
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