Market Strengthening: Obama Administration Releases February Housing Scorecard | RISMedia

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the February edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard—a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market. Data continues to show signs that the housing market is strengthening, although the recovery remains fragile. The supply of new and existing homes on the market continued to decline last month. However, home prices dipped again as seasonal lows continued for the fourth month in a row. The continued fragility of the housing market underscores the need for recently-announced expansions of assistance to help prevent foreclosures and strengthen hard hit communities. The full Housing Scorecard is available online at www.hud.gov/scorecard.

“Since April 2009, more than 13 million homeowners have taken advantage of our refinance programs. Following enhancements to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, another 300,000 families have already started the process of refinancing and stand to save on average $2,500 per year—the equivalent of a good-sized tax cut. So the Administration’s efforts have produced significant positive benefits,” says HUD Assistant Secretary Raphael Bostic. “But 1 in 5 Americans still owes more than their home is worth. This lasting scar of the Great Recession driven by housing’s collapse is a clear sign that we are not yet out of the woods. That is why we are asking the Congress to approve the President’s housing proposals so that more homeowners can receive assistance.”

Included in this month’s Making Home Affordable Program Report are detailed assessments for the largest mortgage servicers participating in the program with results from the fourth quarter of 2011. The Servicer Assessments—first introduced in June 2011 and published quarterly—have set a benchmark for disclosure around servicer efforts to assist struggling homeowners.

“The Making Home Affordable Program has established critical standards that have changed the mortgage industry for the better, and the assessments have been a principal tool for measuring that progress,” says Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. “By shining the spotlight on key practices, we have prompted servicers to improve their implementation of the Making Home Affordable Program. However, there is still more work to be done to ensure that the industry treats all borrowers properly. The implementation of the broader standards required by the settlement, together with our continued compliance efforts, will help bring this about.”

The standards established by the Making Home Affordable Program were also a guide for many of the servicing standards included in the historic $25 billion settlement recently announced between the federal government, 49 state Attorneys General and the five largest mortgage servicers regarding mortgage servicing and foreclosure deficiencies.

Since inception of the Making Home Affordable Program, Treasury has required participating servicers to take specific actions to improve their processes through ongoing program reviews. The latest Servicer Assessments summarize performance on metrics in three categories of program implementation: identifying and contacting homeowners; homeowner evaluation and assistance; and program reporting, management and governance. Results for the fourth quarter of 2011 show that servicers are focusing attention on areas identified in previous program reviews and, as a result, are demonstrating considerable improvement in program implementation:

• Mortgage servicers show continued improvement in calculating homeowner income, which is used to determine a homeowner’s eligibility and modified payment amount under the program.

• Servicers are more effectively evaluating homeowners under program eligibility criteria as performance in the “second look disagree” category, which reflects the rate at which Treasury’s program reviews disagree with the servicers’ decision not to assist a homeowner, remains consistently below the established benchmark.

As the Administration continues to push servicers to provide more effective assistance to struggling homeowners, the ongoing recovery of the housing market demonstrates the need for the Administration’s efforts. The February Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market and the impact of the Administration’s foreclosure prevention programs, including:

• Market data show progress on housing overhang and sales but continued fragility in home prices. The supply of homes on the market continued to decline last month. At the current rate, it would take 6.1 months to turn over the supply of existing homes currently on the market – and just 5.6 months to turn over the stock of new homes for sale – the lowest inventory of homes for sale since 2006. Existing home sales continued to improve this month, reaching their highest pace since May 2010. However, home prices dipped again in December, as measured by the Case-Shiller index, as seasonal lows continued for the fourth month.

• The Administration’s foreclosure programs are providing relief for millions of homeowners as we continue to recover from an unprecedented housing crisis. More than 5.7 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of January 2012 – including nearly 1.8 million trial modification starts through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and more than 1.2 million FHA loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions. The Administration’s programs continue to encourage improved standards and processes in the industry, with HOPE Now lenders offering families and individuals more than 2.7 million proprietary mortgage modifications through January.

• Homeowners entering HAMP demonstrate a high likelihood of long-term success in the program. As of January, more than 950,000 homeowners received a permanent HAMP modification, saving more than $530 on their mortgage payments each month. Eighty-five percent of homeowners entering the program in the last 19 months have received a permanent modification, with an average trial period of 3.5 months. Homeowners in HAMP permanent modifications have saved an estimated $11 billion to date. View the January Making Home Affordable Program Performance Report .

For more information, visit www.treasury.gov.

By RISMedia Mar 7, 2012

Market Strengthening: Obama Administration Releases February Housing Scorecard | RISMedia

Project Rebuild holds promise for housing industry

Almost hidden near the bottom of the American Jobs Act, the Obama administration proposed a plan to help the areas hit hardest by foreclosures and the loss of construction jobs.

Known as Project Rebuild, the program would have accounted for a small portion of the $450 billion jobs bill -- about $15 billion. The money would go toward putting local construction workers back to work and revitalizing vacant and foreclosure homes.

This isn't a vital need for every state, but it is in Arizona where nearly 250,000 construction workers have lost their jobs since the housing crash.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan was in Phoenix a little more than a week ago talking to housing and government leaders and touring neighborhoods that had received Neighborhood Stabilization Program, or NSP, funds. He also took some time to talk to The Arizona Republic.

The focus of most of our questions to Donovan was the expansion of the federal refinancing program to let homeowners lower their payments no matter how underwater they are with their mortgages.

More details and information on how homeowners apply to refinance are expected next week.

Project Rebuild was almost lost in the conversation because the Senate has already voted down the Jobs Act.

But the Obama administration is trying to break the plan into pieces it can enact through executive orders or existing funding.

It's obvious the administration isn't giving up on Project Rebuild, which would complement NSP, a plan enacted by the Bush administration before the last presidential election.

Project Rebuild would call for Arizona to receive almost half a billion dollars to renovate homes and revitalize neighborhoods.

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., pointed out that only local contracting companies could apply for the funds.

Donovan said Arizona's share of the Project Rebuild funding could create as many as 6,100 jobs and rehabilitate as many as 5,800 properties.

The program won't spur a recovery of metro Phoenix's housing market. But coupled with the hundreds of millions of dollars in NSP funds that Arizona has received during the past few years to buy, sell and rehabilitate foreclosure homes and neighborhoods with too many abandoned homes, the money could certainly help.

Arizona Republic reporter Maria Polletta toured a south Phoenix neighborhood that received NSP funds with Donovan, Pastor and local government and non-profit leaders.

Edmundo Hidalgo, president of Chicanos Por La Causa, pointed out a home in the area that had appreciated by 50 percent since his group put a homeowner in it using NSP funds.

Some Arizona communities have been criticized for enacting their NSP programs too slowly.

But Hidalgo said his group has been selling 20 to 40 homes a month using funds from the government program.

Pastor said Project Rebuild is the right program to complement NSP and help Arizona's construction industry. But first the Obama administration must find a way to fund it.

by Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic Nov. 19, 2011 12:00 AM




Project Rebuild holds promise for housing industry

34 years of keeping families in their homes

Rebecca Flanagan recently retired as the head of the Phoenix office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after 34 years of fighting for affordable housing, stabilizing neighborhoods, finding food and clothing for struggling families and in the end keeping families in their homes and off the streets.

Flanagan's career with HUD started in 1977 after an unexpected discussion with a neighbor as she was pulling out of the driveway of her Denver home.

"Our neighbor flagged me down," Flanagan said. "I unrolled the window and she asked me if spoke Spanish. I said 'si,' and she told me that HUD's Denver regional office was looking for a part-time administrator who spoke Spanish."

Flanagan, who had two very young sons at the time, was interested in a part-time job and interviewed with HUD. Three months later, after she had considered selling hair products part time to bring in some extra cash for her family, HUD finally called back and offered her the job.

Flanagan's role with HUD quickly grew, and when she and her husband moved back to Southern California, she was able to keep working with the agency.

In 1990, Flanagan was named deputy director of the Phoenix field office of HUD. One of her first assignments turned into a project that changed the lives of thousands of Phoenix students and helped revitalize a neighborhood east of downtown. It's a project that spanned her career at HUD in Phoenix.

"One of the first things I did when I reached Phoenix was volunteer to be principal for the day at Wilson Elementary School," she said.

"I asked the principal what else we could do. He sent me a very long list."

The Wilson school, in a lower-income neighborhood in east Phoenix, needed a lot: mentors for both students and families and clothes, shoes, backpacks, school supplies, food and nearby affordable housing for not only residents but teachers.

Flanagan took it on. HUD employees are allowed to be paid for eight hours of non-profit work a month, so she tapped everyone she could to volunteer as mentors for a class of 20 at the elementary school. Chicanos Por La Causa redeveloped two homes near the school to provide more affordable housing.

Then, Phoenix took over a run-down apartment complex across the street from the school and renovated it for low-income residents.

A bank executive got involved, and students at a Tempe school, and soon every student at Wilson had new shoes and more food in their kitchens.

"Some of the kids had their only meal a day when they ate a school lunch," said Flanagan, who keeps in touch with the girl she mentored and went on to junior college and is married with a family.

That is one of Flanagan's favorite accomplishments at HUD.

One of her biggest disappointments is that during the past few years she and the agency couldn't do more to keep people from losing homes to foreclosure.

"It seemed like every federal housing program rolled out, we couldn't use in Arizona," she said.

"We had a special congressional meeting earlier this year to try to get the program adjusted to help the state's homeowners more. Not much has happened from that meeting yet, but I am still hopeful that Arizona be a pilot for programs that will work and help slow foreclosures."

by Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic Nov. 11, 2011 05:01 PM




34 years of keeping families in their homes