Tag Archives: Housing Counseling

NuView Financial Services provides services related to borrower outreach, loss mitigation, and short sale liquidation to mortgage servicers, insurers, and investors across the country. The company announced last week that it has retained Gilmore Consulting Group, LLC to manage partnership initiatives that include community and government relations. The collaboration aims to expand the role of counseling agencies, real estate professionals, and other critical stakeholders devoted to preserving communities.

Holistic financial counseling -- that which focuses on a borrower's entire financial situation -- can prevent both foreclosures and re-defaults, according to a recent study sponsored by special servicer Outreach Financial Services. Holistic financial counseling can save servicers up to $71.5 million in losses on a portfolio of 10,000 loans, according to the study. When holistic counselors review a borrower's entire financial status, they are generally able to diminish monthly spending by $200 to $300.

HOPE NOW announced a major milestone Tuesday -- the completion of 5 million loan modifications since the group began tracking such loss mitigation efforts in 2007. More than 80 percent of these modifications were completed through servicers' own proprietary programs, with the rest coming from the government's Home Affordable Modification Program. Officials called the 5 million mark a halfway point, adding that much more work needs to be done to help distressed homeowners.

NeighborWorks America announced Tuesday that Sarah McGraw Greenberg has been appointed director of its development division. Greenberg is NeighborWorks' front-line official for fundraising to support the nonprofit organization's work to prevent foreclosure and foster long-term homeownership. As director, Greenberg provides strategic leadership to the corporation's partnership and resource development efforts.

More than 445 nonprofit housing counseling agencies nationwide have one simple message for Congress: Restore housing counseling funds. Mandated federal budget cuts earlier this year stripped away $88 million in HUD funding that had been designated to support mortgage and foreclosure counseling programs. Those working on the front lines of the housing crisis everyday say counseling is critical to assisting distressed homeowners, and they're calling on lawmakers to restore funding at the level of $60 million.

CredAbility has announced the launch of its 2012 ""Reconstruye tu Futuro"" campaign, which will leverage grassroots efforts, social media networks, and traditional media communication to reach those in the Hispanic community who are at risk of foreclosure. With more than 50 million Hispanics in the United States and a downturn economy, CredAbility says Latino individuals and families have been more deeply impacted than other minority populations. By leveraging key financial tools, CredAbility aims to help Latino individuals, families, and communities recapture their American Dream.

Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee point to the GSEs and the Obama administration's housing programs as areas for Congress' deficit reduction super-committee to examine as it works toward cutting $1.5 trillion of the nation's debt. A letter drafted by Chairman Spencer Bachus and signed by 20 Republican committee members first calls for an increase in the GSEs' guarantee fees and then the elimination of such programs as HAMP and HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Fannie Mae has opened up a new Mortgage Help Center in St. Louis, Missouri, to provide free education and counseling services to struggling homeowners. The St. Louis facility is the GSE's 11th Mortgage Help Center to open across the country. It was developed in partnership with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, local community and elected officials, and area mortgage servicers.

The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions has completed a new Credit Union Foreclosure Intervention Toolkit to help credit unions combat the foreclosure crisis in their communities. The toolkit was developed with the support of a financial education grant from the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF). The federation says it has seen the national foreclosure crisis reflected in a dramatic shift in demand between different types of counseling services, from pre-purchase to foreclosure intervention counseling.

Wells Fargo says it will increase its commitment to credit counseling nonprofits by $5.4 million to a total of $12.4 million in 2011 - a 35 percent increase over the $9.2 million in 2010 - for national and local credit counseling agencies. The company notes that public funding for credit counseling is becoming more scarce, while demand for such services is growing. Wells Fargo's $5.4 million in new commitments this year will be provided in the form of grant money directly to nonprofit agencies and support foreclosure prevention counseling services and training.