Housing Counseling
By Esther Cho | 03/20/2012
NeighborWorks America announced $73.8 million in awards for foreclosure counseling efforts this week, which followed HUD's recent revelation of $42 million to support housing counselors. This latest round of funding will go to 32 state agencies, 18 HUD-approved intermediaries, and 86 community-based NeighborWorks organizations to provide counseling to those facing foreclosure. About 190,000 homeowners are expected to receive help. NeighborWorks also expects to train more than 2,000 counselors with what is now the sixth round of its program funding.
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By Krista Franks Brock | 03/16/2012
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced Friday the distribution of $42 million in grants to 468 housing counseling agencies nationwide. In his announcement Friday, Donovan called housing counseling programs nothing less than indispensable. After national funding for housing counseling was cut last year, Donovan said, "We fought hard to persuade Congress to restore funding for housing counseling in HUD's budget and now we're working to make these important resources available as quickly as possible."
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By Carrie Bay | 02/24/2012
The National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inc. (NAREB) announced the launch of a 25-city, $1.2 billion REO and foreclosure mitigation initiative called the Homeowner's Assurance Program (HAP). NAREB, through is network of industry professionals, will provide the agent infrastructure to manage, market, and dispose of nonperforming loans and REO assets acquired under the program. Targeted buyers include first-time homebuyers and others who are caught in the credit crunch and having trouble purchasing a home.
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By Carrie Bay | 02/20/2012
Treasury is heading to the coastal cities of Miami and Tampa, Florida, this week in order to offer assistance to homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments. Treasury will host a "Help for Homeowners" outreach event in each of the hard-hit Florida cities where homeowners can meet one-on-one with their servicers. Before the homeowners arrive, though, Treasury has blocked off time for real estate professionals to meet with the servicers on behalf of their clients and to participate in short sale workshops led by the servicers themselves.
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By Krista Franks | 02/20/2012
Connecticut is set to receive more than $190 million from the multi-state settlement with the nation’s largest mortgage servicers. "There are many reasons why I believe this settlement is good for Connecticut, but the most important reason is this: it provides immediate help to thousands of Connecticut homeowners at a time when they can still use that help to save their homes," said Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, who served on the negotiating committee that established the settlement with the banks.
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By Esther Cho | 02/14/2012
The $25 billion, 49-state settlement awarded Ohio with $335 million to be used for recovery and prevention efforts. Through the creation of a grant program, the AG's office will set aside $75 million to fund the removal of vacant and abandoned properties, which decrease the value of surrounding homes. While the exact number in Ohio is unknown, the estimate is 100,000 properties.
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By Esther Cho | 02/10/2012
To alleviate issues of foreclosure in one of the hardest hit areas, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn launched two initiatives. One effort will connect homeowners to resources to keep them in their homes, and another will help revitalize areas affected by foreclosed and vacant properties. Illinois is consistently ranked among the top 10 states with the highest number of foreclosures.
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By Krista Franks Brock | 02/06/2012
A New York housing counselor has been sentenced to 72 months in jail and three years supervision by a U.S. District Court judge after defrauding 136 homeowners who reached out for help as they attempted to avoid foreclosure. The judge also ordered Lori J. Macakanja to pay $298,639 in restitution to the homeowners affected. Macakanja reportedly required upfront fees from homeowners and promised in return to help them achieve mortgage modifications in order to stave off foreclosure.
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By Kelli Snowgren | 01/31/2012
IndiSoft announced Tuesday that the company has enhanced its RxOffice Premium Counselor Edition. The updated module has been approved by HUD to meet the reporting requirements of agencies participating in its Housing Counseling Program. It was created to address the surge in the number of homeowners needing counseling to make informed housing decisions, and gives counseling agencies a scalable and flexible web-based case management tool to manage their internal business operations.
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By Carrie Bay | 01/10/2012
The U.S. Department of Justice released a 69-page report Tuesday on a foreclosure intervention method that is becoming increasingly popular across the country - mediation. The paper draws from an earlier workshop which was attended by dozens of mediation program stakeholders and researchers. A key finding that emerged, according to DOJ officials, is that the federal government should take an active role, both in helping to develop program and evaluation guidelines and in providing resources for mediation programs and research.
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