Acting Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Edward J. DeMarco has voiced his reluctance to offer principal reductions for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages in the past. However, he has recently announced a new measure in an effort to prevent foreclosures for loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie or...

Struggling homeowners can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Congress has included an extension of Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act in an eleventh hour bill to avoid a possible fiscal cliff crisis. The Act that was scheduled to expire on December 31, 2012, was extended in the American Taxpayer...

On Jan. 1, 2013, California homeowners will benefit from a new law that protects them from wrongful foreclosures and unethical practices by lenders. The California Homeowner Bill of Rights was approved by the state's governor as one measure to regulate the actions of banks against homeowners who are in default...

Years ago, homeowners knew their bankers. They knew their mortgage officer, usually by name. However, today they might not even know who owns their mortgage.

Big banks have been buying smaller local banks for years. When the bank is sold, so are the mortgages it owns. In addition, many...

The federal government created programs to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), as many as four million homeowners were speculated to be eligible for a loan modification. However, as of May 2012, only one million homeowners had received a loan modification under the...

July foreclosure data reveals that California ranks highest in foreclosure in the nation. Riverside, California, ranks second highest among U.S. cities, topped only by Stockton, California, which is ranked number one.

These figures, released by RealtyTrac, an Irvine, CA, company that tracks foreclosures nationwide, reveal that...

Under a joint authority, San Bernardino County has proposed the use of eminent domain to help homeowners with distressed mortgages. Rather than seizing homes, however, the county and several towns in it intend to seize the mortgages, replacing those mortgages with more affordable ones that would reduce the homeowners' debts...

Edward J. DeMarco, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not offer principal reductions as an option to prevent foreclosures on the loans they guarantee. Stating that their research found that only 248,000 homeowners might benefit from debt reductions,...

Federal banking regulators have called for Independent Foreclosure Reviews to determine if there were mistakes in the foreclosure process for loans in foreclosure during 2009 and 2010. Fourteen mortgage servicers are required to review those loans and compensate homeowners for their errors. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has announced...

Since the decline of the economy, more than 2.5 million homeowners have faced foreclosure. The loss of a home can be devastating to a family, and the emotional toll can add to their financial stress. The resulting depression can leave them feeling hopeless. In fact, research by Janet Currie of...

The United States Department of Justice has announced that Wells Fargo has entered into a $175 million settlement agreement as a result of allegations that it discriminated against black and Hispanic mortgage applicants. The allegations state that the two ethnic groups received subprime loans, while giving white mortgage...

New Proposed Rules Designed to Bring Accountability to Mortgage Servicers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) summarized rules under consideration in an effort to prevent mortgage holders from facing unexpected and expensive costs. Those rules are expected to be proposed this summer and finalized in January 2013.

The premise...

Banks have always required homeowners to maintain insurance on their mortgaged properties. However, some homeowners have found that they cannot maintain the premiums on that insurance and cancel their policies or they change the policy to one that provides less coverage in an effort to afford the premium. The response...

In an effort to protect the rights of over 700,000 California homeowners facing potential foreclosure, the California General Assembly has voted to adopt many of the regulations contained in the national bank settlement between 49 Attorneys General and five major lenders. California has elected to expand the regulations to all...

Homeowners seeking a review on whether they have been unfairly foreclosed have been granted an extension, but the deadline is almost here. All review requests must be received on or before September 30, 2012, extended from the original date, granted by the OCC and Federal Reserve in an attempt to...

The Making Home Affordable Program was introduced in February, 2009. The HAMP Tier 2 program became effective June 1, 2012. Changes to the program have now been implemented in an effort to increase participation and the number of homeowners who are eligible in the hopes of preventing foreclosures.

The...

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, California has been one of the hardest hit among state foreclosure rates. That standing made the state eligible for foreclosure prevention funds from the Treasury Department. The $2 billion received funded California's mortgage payment assistance program, Keep Your Home California (KYHC). In a press...

As part of a $25 billion settlement agreement between the government and five major banks for fraudulent foreclosures, Bank of America agreed to $11 billion in mortgage principal reductions. In a recent move likely to increase that sum substantially, BofA has announced that it will offer principal reductions...

In a move long awaited by struggling homeowners, and one that is unprecedented among lenders, Bank of America is seeking tenants. In a pilot program, Bank of America will rent homes back to the homeowners who defaulted on their mortgage.

While some banks offer loan modifications, which often have...

Recent modifications to HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) made Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eligible to receive incentives for providing homeowners with principal reductions. However, there has not been a commitment by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, to offer such reductions.

Edward...