Featured Member

More than 930,000 homeowners have received a permanent modification through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), saving an estimated $10.5 billion in monthly mortgage payments, according to Treasury.

While this tally – nearly three years after the program’s launch – falls well short of the results initially promised by President Obama of helping 3 to 4 million homeowners restructure their loans, federal officials continue to tout a key success of HAMP as improving standards and processes within the industry.

Treasury’s latest report card on HAMP points out that HOPE NOW lenders have offered more than 2.6 million proprietary mortgage modifications from April 2009 – when HAMP was launched – through December 2011.
Read More

Foreclosure inventory is dropping, but that doesn't mean the housing crisis is over.

According to CoreLogic's latest national foreclosure report, released Wednesday, the number of loans in foreclosure inventory decreased 8.4 percent year-over-year in December 2011, and fell from 57,000 to 55,000 loans from November to December.

While foreclosure inventory and starts fell in the final months of 2011, foreclosure completions edged higher, according to the Obama administration's latest Housing Scorecard Report.

Raphael Bostic, assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, responded to the administration's report with cautious optimism. "While we should be encouraged by the positive trends on inventories and foreclosure starts, the mixed overall outlook means that we must remain diligent to improve conditions in the nation's housing market," Bostic said in a media release Tuesday.
Read More

New Jersey must work through a backlog of 50,000 to 100,000 unprocessed foreclosures because of delays caused by an investigation into how lenders handled the filings, said Richard Constable, acting commissioner of the state Community Affairs Department.

Foreclosures slowed to about 10,000 last year from 50,000 in 2010 and 150,000 two years ago after claims of “robo- signing” -- unverified documents sped through the system -- spurred an investigation by state attorneys general at the end of 2010, Constable said today at a meeting of mayors in the Statehouse in Trenton.

As many as 100,000 properties will soon come to market in New Jersey as banks resume processing foreclosure sales, Constable said. The state will work with towns to make sure that the foreclosures don’t blight neighborhoods, he said.

Read More

Arizona, Michigan and Florida, three of the states hit hardest by the housing crisis, will join a nationwide settlement over foreclosure abuses, officials with direct knowledge say. They will join more than 40 other states in approving a deal that would benefit many Americans who lost their homes or can't afford their mortgages.

The three states' involvement buoys hopes that a full 50-state deal is imminent.

Read More

Checks for as much as $2,000 could be headed to Michigan residents who wrongly lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011, Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Tuesday.

The state should get more than half a billion dollars, Schuette said, as part of a nationwide settlement worth up to $25 billion between the attorneys general of more than 40 states that is still being finalized.

The negotiations with five major lenders — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial — would settle complaints that they foreclosed on homes with illegal, forged or incomplete documents, or wrongly turned down mortgage modifications. The deal wouldn't absolve lenders of all wrong-doing, and homeowners would retain the right to sue

Read More

California, New York, Nevada, Florida and Massachusetts are among the states that haven’t signed off on a settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses, according to state officials and two people familiar with the talks.

The holdouts include some with the highest rates of foreclosures. More than 6 percent of Nevada housing units had at least one foreclosure filing in 2011, the nation’s highest rate, according to RealtyTrac. California was third-highest with more than 3 percent, said the firm, which tracks foreclosures.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who have been among the most outspoken in pushing for changes to the accord, were among those who hadn’t joined as of a Feb. 6 deadline. More than 40 states signed on, said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is helping to lead talks with the banks.

Read More

February 6, 2012

To: California Congressional Delegation

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the more than 160,000 members of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.), I am writing to share with you C.A.R.’s comments to the proposed Request for Information (RFI) on the disposition of Enterprise/FHA REO assets that was released on August 10, 2011, by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Now that the regulatory agencies are looking to implement a pilot bulk sale, C.A.R. feels it necessary to share our concerns with you regarding this program. C.A.R. believes if this program is implemented improperly, it will have a negative impact throughout California and set our housing market back.

While C.A.R. understands the benefits this program may have on some cities across the country, we fear the regulators have not appropriately analyzed proposed pilot cities. Los Angeles and the Southern California region have been named as a potential pilot program location. However, these areas are experiencing an inventory shortage and many homes for sale, especially distressed properties, are receiving multiple bids. Removing REO inventory through a bulk sale and rental program will hurt these communities. In addition, the taxpayer will lose because these REOs will be sold for less money in bulk sale than if sold as individual units.

While the nation continues to face its most difficult housing crisis since the Great Depression, C.A.R. hopes FHFA and HUD will withhold or delay release of their REO bulk sale initiative in California’s housing market. C.A.R. looks forward to working with the FHFA, HUD and Congress in providing any information we may to ensure the quick recovery of the housing market.
REO Initiative

If you would like to discuss these or any other issues related to the REO initiative, please do not hesitate to contact:

 Matt Roberts, C.A.R. Federal Government Affairs Manager, at (213) 739-8284 or by email at matthewr@car.org.

Sincerely,
LeFrancis Arnold, 2012 President

California Association of REALTORS®

A foreclosure report released by CoreLogic Wednesday revealed that the number of homes in foreclosure is decreasing nationwide. The report included monthly data on foreclosures, foreclosure inventory, and 90-plus delinquency rates

Completed foreclosures for 2011 totaled 830,000, compared to 1.1 million in 2010. The December 2011 completed foreclosures figure was also down to 55,000, compared to 67,000 in December 2010.

Nationally, the number of loans in the foreclosure inventory decreased 8.4 percent in December 2011, compared to December 2010, which is a decline of about 130,000 properties. Data from the report revealed 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were in the foreclosure inventory as of December 2011.
Read More