Foreclosure

Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco has begun acquiring bank-owned homes as part of its new Neighborhood Revitalization Program. The nonprofit organization says its program is the first of its kind to combat the foreclosure crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area.

NeighborWorks America has boosted funding for foreclosure prevention guidance through its National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program, yet an alarming number of distressed homeowners who have been instructed by advisors to contact their mortgage servicer have had a hard time reaching them or received disappointing resolutions.

Foreclosure filings fell six percent during the month of May, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released by RealtyTrac on Thursday. Despite the monthly decline, the nation’s foreclosure numbers are nearly 18 percent higher than they were in May 2008.

Nearly a quarter of homes currently for sale in the United States have experienced at least one price cut, according to a report released Friday by Trulia, Inc., a San Francisco-based real estate company that tracks home prices in local communities across the country.

Dallas-based MRG Document Technologies (MRG), a provider of mortgage technologies to banks, credit unions, and other lenders, recently announced that Michael O’Leary has joined the company as a senior mortgage consultant.

As federal lawmakers continue to pour over proposals that would tighten anti-predatory lending statutes throughout the nation, California may become one of the first states to enact its own mortgage reform legislation.

Bank of America Home Loans recently announced a new streamlined program for municipalities to purchase properties from its REO portfolio. The new guidelines are exclusively for local and state government departments receiving HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) grants.

As foreclosure numbers across the country continue to climb and temperatures heat up, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, is reminding homeowners and the industry to remain vigilant of an ancillary issue stemming from continued increases in vacated homes – potential mosquito infestations in the summer months, especially in and around those foreclosed properties with backyard pools.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated rulemaking proceedings to address loan modifications and mortgage servicing. The agency’s Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rulemaking addresses the proliferation of loan modification and foreclosure rescue services in the current economy.

According to the D.C.-based nonprofit homeownership research and advocacy group the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a dismal milestone was reached over the weekend – the organization says one million new foreclosures have been filed so far in 2009.