By Carrie Bay | 03/30/2012
The city of Los Angeles, California, is putting its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds to work with the launch of a new initiative to create jobs rehabilitating foreclosed properties in communities impacted by the housing crisis. The new "Bridges to Business Success" program is a public-private initiative providing small minority business owners with procurement training and contract opportunities to create and retain jobs. Los Angeles has been awarded $143 million in NSP funds.
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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 Carrie Bay | 12/05/2011
Foreclosures are going to go up before they go down, according to Craig Nickerson, president of the National Community Stabilization Trust. Nickerson says estimates put foreclosure tallies at 850,000 this year, as high as 1.5 million in 2013, and then back to the levels we're at today by 2015. With all these distressed properties potentially making their way to an already stressed marketplace, Nickerson, along with a panel of industry professionals at the inaugural MPact Conference advocated for bulk short sales to investors and nonprofits.
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By Krista Franks | 10/17/2011
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.
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By Krista Franks | 10/06/2011
Federal housing programs came under attack during a congressional hearing Thursday titled "The Obama Administration's Response to the Housing Crisis." Members of the Senate challenged witnesses with questions about the effectiveness of several programs, including the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Home Affordable Modification Program. Industry experts also discussed the potential of new initiatives, such as the REO rental proposal.
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By Carrie Bay | 09/23/2011
Mortgage lending has declined sharply in neighborhoods with high levels of foreclosures, according to the Federal Reserve. The U.S. central bank looked at what the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) identified as "highly distressed" census tracts. Based on information gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HDMA), the Fed found that home-purchase lending in these highly distressed tracts was 75 percent lower in 2010 than it had been in these same tracts in 2005, and primarily reflects tighter credit for higher-income borrowers.
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By Carrie Bay | 09/16/2011
Nonprofits across the country are partnering up with lenders and government agencies to minimize neighborhood blight caused by vacant foreclosed properties. The topic was part of the curriculum at the Five Star Default Servicing Conference and Expo, and the panelists found themselves speaking to a full house. Paul Kaboth with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland started the discussion by stressing that a marketplace strained with high levels of REOs and vacancies will persist for at least another five years.
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By Phil Britt | 09/12/2011
In addition to refinancing assistance for mortgage holders, President Barack Obama's proposed American Jobs Act includes a handful of elements that relate to the distressed real estate market, all part of what the administration has labeled Project Rebuild. The new $15 billion program is based on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and will attempt to connect Americans looking for work in distressed communities with jobs needed to repair and repurpose residential and commercial properties.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/16/2011
U.S. Bank has announced several new initiatives to support the city of Milwaukee in its efforts to stabilize hard-hit communities through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The bank is setting up a $1 million restoration fund for developers to acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed properties in the city's designated NSP zones. It has also agreed to provide $15 million in mortgages to qualified borrowers in NSP zones over the next four years, and has committed to give more than $240,000 in grants to housing agencies working within the city.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 06/30/2011
Wells Fargo and Bank of America recently joined Fannie Mae, HUD, and JP Morgan Chase as revitalization and demolition partners to the Cleveland-based Cuyahoga Land Bank, which works to alleviate foreclosure and home abandonment in Cuyahoga County. Both lenders plan to donate vacant and foreclosed low-asset properties to the land bank with monetary contributions for demolition costs to help eliminate neighborhood blight and increase local property values.
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