It will also provide homeowners the opportunity to meet up with lenders, housing authorities, housing counselors from the HUD, real estate lawyers and credit counselors and learn all about programs that provide foreclosure assistance. In addition, loss mitigation experts from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, Sun Trust and Chase will be participants in the workshop.

Attendees of the workshop were asked to bring bank statements and paycheck records and identification cards like Social Security and driver's license. They were also requested to come to the event armed with their W2 Forms, documents on mortgage payments and employment gaps and bills on household expenses.

The workshop is just one of several efforts launched in Florida to address the issue of foreclosures. Another program that has recently come into being is a mediation effort launched by the 10th Judicial Circuit which aims to stop foreclosed homes from increasing in number. Although foreclosure figures in the state has declined by 25% compared with previous year's numbers, Florida remains in the top three states with the highest foreclosure activities.

The project, called Collins Center for Public Policy Foreclosure Mediation Program, offers borrowers and lenders the opportunity to resolve foreclosure concerns outside the courts. It also focuses on trying to keep homeowners in their homes if it is possible at all. The effort is a collaboration between Collins and the Central Florida Mediation Group and offers the mediation services free of charge to homeowners who are facing foreclosures.

Organizers of the program have stated that the mediation effort benefits both lenders and homeowners in such a way that they are given a chance to work out their case with the help of a mediator and come up with an agreement that will prevent both parties from suffering additional pressure and expenses. A reasonable solution that will take into consideration the homeowner's financial status is the primary purpose of the mediation.

The Florida Housing Help workshop and the mediation effort by Collins are part of statewide efforts to stop foreclosed homes from becoming a bigger problem. These efforts are provided for free and aim to benefit both lenders and borrowers.

Workshop on How to Stop Foreclosed Homes Problem in Florida is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

The $108 million was the amount declared by the Federal Trade Commission to be paid back by BofA to about 200,000 Countrywide borrowers who paid several thousand dollars in fees when they missed their monthly payments. The fees were collected by Countrywide for the payment of various services such as property inspections over the years from 2005 to 2008.

BofA acquired Countrywide in 2008 after it collapsed due to allegations of fraudulent lending practices and mismanagement.

Advocates said that Countrywide did not help distressed borrowers rescue their homes because they were looking at the profits they will get from the default fees. They did not provide accurate loan information to borrowers, did not provide proper notices, did not keep clear records and they made false representations against borrowers in bankruptcy.

FTC officials pointed out that Countrywide made huge amounts of money when they made risky loans and they made money again when the home loans defaulted.

For its part, BofA said it agreed to refund the money to avoid further costs related to a drawn-out litigation. Aside from the financial settlement, BofA also agreed to notify bankrupt borrowers regularly about their balances and fees.

In related news, BofA also decided to stop home foreclosures in Utah in response to a court-ordered injunction resulting from the lawsuit filed by Utah resident Peni Cox. Since January last year, Cox has stopped making her monthly home loan payments. She and her lawyer was able to stop the repossession of her house after filing a case that claimed BofA had no right to file foreclosure cases in Utah because it is not registered in Utah and it does not have an office in Utah where it can conduct face-to-face meetings with customers.

In its response, BofA argued it does not have to register with every state in the U.S. Nevertheless, it agreed to stop home foreclosures in the state to comply with the Utah court order.

BofA Agrees to Stop Home Foreclosures and to Pay $108M is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Shelby further added that the legislation for reforming the financial industry has touched almost every aspect of the economy, but failed to address the problem of the two mortgage companies which, according to him, contributed greatly to the ongoing foreclosure crisis by creating high demands for risky loans and by inflating the housing market bubble. The Alabama Senator has criticized Democrats for allegedly preventing reform plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the years.

U.S. legislators have stated that the planned changes in the rules governing the financial and banking industry are meant to prevent another economic meltdown similar to the 2008 crisis that almost brought down Wall Street.

The legislative bill aims to create a group of regulators who will oversee financial system risks and set up a strategy to liquidate businesses that are too interconnected or too big to undergo bankruptcy.

The council of regulators will also create a bureau for consumer protection to regulate lending and bring into government oversight complex securities that were previously unregulated. The proposed changes in lending rules are also meant to prevent foreclosed homes statistics from rising further.

The bill is still under debate at the Senate, while the House has already passed legislation similar to the proposed bill in December 2009. Meanwhile, the administration of President Obama has somewhat touched upon the issue of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae when it stated that it is still too early to implement wholesale reforms in the financing system of the housing market.

Shelby, along with other Republican legislators like John McCain and Judd Gregg, have called on the government to relinquish control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and take definitive actions to get out of the mortgage finance business. The recommendation, if it becomes a reality, will repeal Freddie Mac and Fannie’s mandates to promote low-priced housing.

Senator Shelby has criticized the bill designed to overhaul the financial and lending industry and prevent foreclosed homes numbers from expanding. He stated that the bill should include Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae reforms.

Legislator Called for Wide Reforms to Prevent Foreclosed Homes is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Arizona Legislation to Help Prevent Home Foreclosures is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Among the loopholes are the obvious hesitation of lenders to work out short sales because of the big gap between the loan amount and the short sale price, the difficulty in pinpointing the short sale price fair to lenders and the problem of second mortgages.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration is pushing through with the short sale program to help solve the foreclosure problem which has not been solved by earlier programs such as the Home Affordable Modification Program and the HARP and the HOPE programs.

Just like the HAMP and HARP, the federal government also gives incentives to the lender or servicer, to the second-mortgage holder and to the homeowner. The primary lender gets $1,000; the second-mortgage lender gets another $1,000; and the homeowner gets $1,500 for relocation expenses.

For troubled borrowers, this short sale scheme to stop home foreclosures has two advantages over foreclosures: less damage to personal credit ratings and the pledge that they will not be pursued for the deficiency between the final sales price and the loan amount.

For mortgage security investors, the advantage over foreclosure is the prospect of receiving a higher amount of money or the likelihood of posting less investment loss.

For lenders, the benefits of short sales are savings in terms of money and time spent for foreclosure proceedings and avoidance of maintenance costs or monthly fees for properties in multifamily buildings.

There are, however, analysts who are doubtful about the effectiveness of the program. Economist Thomas Lawler, for instance, contended that short sales can be easily used to carry out fraud. Lawler, a former top executive at Fannie Mae, questioned how the lenders can determine whether a homeowner is really troubled or only pretending in order to escape financial obligations.

At the start of the housing crisis, short sales were ignored by lenders, but the number of short sales worked out has started to rise, according to realtors. The number, however, is still not significant.

Fannie Mae reported that it has approved 36,968 pre-foreclosure sales in 2009, triple the number it approved in 2008.

Despite the fine-tuning of the short sale program, the major mortgage banks are still largely hesitant about approving short sales to stop home foreclosures. Besides, there are second mortgage holders and mortgage investors that they need to confer with before approving short sales.

Stop Home Foreclosures thru Short Sales despite Loopholes is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Mortgage loan audits, oftentimes marketed as forensic loan audits, are supposedly examination of mortgage loan documents to identify violations of mortgage lending laws by the lenders. Unscrupulous mortgage consultants sell this idea to distressed borrowers, telling them that the lenders will more easily agree to loan modifications if they are presented with their lending law violations.

In reality, however, there has been no data or evidence to back the claim that mortgage loan audits can pressure lenders to speed up their loan modification efforts for borrowers who present possible violations of federal laws in their mortgage origination.

According to the office of California Attorney General Edmund Brown Jr., the for-profit foreclosure prevention industry continues to find creative ways to swindle money from desperate borrowers.

According to legitimate consultants, even if the mortgage loan audits are performed by licensed and trained auditors, lawyers or mortgage professionals, forensic loan audits are not sure-fire or guaranteed tools to stop home foreclosures.

The Mortgage Relief Law Center in California is one of the many foreclosure-relief companies marketing forensic loan audits to homeowners at risk of foreclosure. One mortgage borrower complained that he paid $2,795 to MLRC, which accepted the money but never updated him on the mortgage modification process and never informed him that he was not qualified for modification.

The borrower claimed that he came to know of his modification status only after his lender sent him a notification stating that he was not qualified for loan modification. He also claimed that MLRC refused to refund his money.

Under the law in California, all foreclosure relief consultants and loan modification professionals are required to register with the office of Attorney General Brown and post a bond of $100,000. They are also prohibited from collecting upfront payments.

Last year, California officials have investigated over 2,000 loan modification complaints and have sued almost 350 people involved in fraudulent foreclosure relief activities.

The office of Brown has issued advisories to homeowners looking for consultants to help them stop home foreclosures. Homeowners are advised not to pay upfront fees, not to transfer titles or pay mortgage payments to consultants and not to ignore letters from mortgage servicers and lenders.

Stop Home Foreclosures, Beware of Mortgage Loan Audits is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

According to Ken Wade, chief executive of NeighborWorks, the NFMC has counseled a total of 633,294 distressed homeowners through its network of 230 community organizations in over 4,400 communities across the states since the start of the crisis to the middle of November 2009.

The program has also provided 5,237 scholarships to foreclosure counselors.

NeighborWorks America is a congressionally chartered nonprofit which was created by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and the Federal Home Loan Bank in the 1970s to revitalize older urban neighborhoods. It is also called Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a national private-public neighborhood redevelopment organization.

Since 1991, NeighborWorks has aided 1.2 million low-income families through redevelopment programs.

Based on a study carried out by the Urban Institute, a significant number of distressed homeowners who sought help from NeighborWorks in 2008, the first full year of the NFMC, were able to stop foreclosed homes or to reverse current foreclosure proceedings. They were also able to have their mortgage loans modified to lower monthly payments.

The report, however, stated that NFMC was not a cure-all, particularly for homeowners already in foreclosure. Borrowers who were delinquent by only one or two payments were the ones getting the most benefit from the counseling program.

The researchers reported that 75 percent of homeowners seeking help were already in default on their home loans at the time they approached NeighborWorks, and 22 percent were already in foreclosure.

NFMC director Jeanne Fekade-Sellassie said that homeowners can get a better response from lenders if they receive good counseling. Counselors work as their advocates, explaining options for avoiding foreclosure.

Marietta Rodriguez, head of foreclosure prevention programs for NeighborWorks, said that without help from experienced counselors and national organizations, many borrowers are put on hold for hours when they call, made to wait for months for developments on their requests and oftentimes made to resubmit documents because of incomplete information or because bank representatives misplaced the papers.

Homeowners who receive free counseling from the NFMC were 62 percent more likely to save their homes from foreclosure than borrowers who do not seek foreclosure prevention help from reputable organizations.

All in all, the NFMC program of the NeighborWorks helped save $33 million in potential cost savings during the entire year of 2008 by helping homeowners stop foreclosed homes.

Stop Foreclosed Homes with Help from NeighborWorks America is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

According to Treasury Department officials, mortgage firms servicing the 450,000 modified mortgages have until the end of the month to review all their trial modifications and check if homeowners have paid all their monthly amortizations and have completed submitting needed documents. Homeowners who have not completed the requirements are given one month to comply.

The Treasury Department said the review is needed to hasten the transfer of borrowers in trial modification to permanent status. Many homeowners have been paying their modified monthly payments for about eight months, but they are still waiting for their mortgages to be moved into permanent status.

However, according to Richard Neiman, head of the New York State Banking Department, many borrowers whose mortgages have been modified are at risk of losing their modified status because of documentation problems. They have been complaining that lenders and services are continuously losing papers submitted.

In response to the complaints, the Treasury Department has decided to issue new guidelines to preserve the initial gains achieved by the federal program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure homes. The guidelines will hasten the conversion of modified mortgages into permanent status and to relieve borrowers from excessive documentation requirements.

The Treasury Department has been continuously criticized for the slow implementation of its Home Affordable Modification Program. Only about 66,500 homeowners have moved their modified mortgages into permanent status and only about 787,000 borrowers are in trial modifications.

Qualified borrowers are put in trial modifications to ensure that they are able to handle the modified monthly payments and to provide them more time to complete the required documentation. Only after the modified loans become permanent that servicers, lenders and homeowners are given their incentive payments promised under HAMP.

Based on Treasury Department data, about 75 percent of borrowers with modified loans have been making their monthly payments on time.

New York banking superintendent Neiman said that the Treasury Department needs to hasten the standardization of documentation and the set-up of a website that will enable borrowers to track their paperwork. He added that servicers should also be instructed to accept alternative documents in cases where required documents take a long time to procure because of factors beyond the control of borrowers who are doing their best to avoid foreclosure homes.

Program to Avoid Foreclosure Homes Could Fail Owners is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

The state attorneys said that the 60 percent are seriously delinquent, but they are not getting help from mitigation programs, like the Home Affordable Modification Program and state mediation initiatives.

According to Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, co-chairperson of the group, foreclosures will continue to accelerate this year because distressed homeowners are not getting help from prevention programs.

According to a report recently released by the U.S. Treasury, only 7 percent of homeowners who had their mortgages modified under HAMP last year were able to enter permanent modification status.

The report also said that mortgage servicers and lenders have been slow in processing and completing modifications, taking up more than 6 months on the average to complete one modification. A huge majority of modified mortgages are still on the trial stage several months after their modification.

A trend described in the report is the increase in prime mortgages defaulting, based on figures from 13 mortgage servicers. Delinquencies are no longer concentrated on exotic or poorly underwritten loans; they are now spread out to all types of home loans.

The attorneys general have called on mortgage servicers to suspend foreclosure filings on all homeowners involved in HAMP or in mediation programs to help them avoid foreclosure. They further asked that their loan modification programs should reduce principal amounts in areas where there are overwhelming declines in home values to make modifications viable.

They state attorneys also called on the Obama administration to improve HAMP, increase its transparency and reduce the required paperwork to help more distressed homeowners.

A large number of troubled homeowners have been complaining that they are not getting any attention from banks. Joel Bienvenu of Boca Raton, Florida said that he has been applying for loan modification through his lender Wells Fargo since the middle of last year, but he said he keeps getting excuses from bank personnel.

Nationwide, of the over 3.3 million delinquent mortgage loans, only 66,465 modified mortgages have entered permanent modification status and that another 46,056 modifications have been moved on to permanent status by lenders but not yet accepted by borrowers, according to the report.

According to housing analysts, the nationwide program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure is not working because of high unemployment rates and sharp declines in home values.

60 Percent Do Not Avoid Foreclosure, State Attorneys Say is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.

Attorney General Cordray allocated $1 million to several local agencies in Ohio providing foreclosure counseling services to homeowners. Local agencies were encouraged by the new funding as cutbacks in federal funds were slowing them down in their operations.

Among these local foreclosure prevention agencies is Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People, which has helped around 8,000 homeowners save their homes from foreclosure this year. According to ESOP executive director Mark Seifert, without additional funding, the agency would not be able to help the same number and might only help around 5,000 borrowers in 2010.

Another foreclosure counseling agency is Community Housing Solutions in Cleveland, headed by Andy Nikiforovs who said that the funding would prevent the agency from laying off staff.

Local agencies said that their counseling services need to be supported because they have been vital in helping a lot of distressed homeowners avoid foreclosures. According to a study from the Cleveland State University, more than 50 percent of mortgage borrowers in Cuyahoga County that received counseling from foreclosure prevention organizations were able to save their homes from foreclosure.

The study showed that the success rate in the county was twice the success rate reported by other foreclosure prevention programs in other areas. However, according to Paul Bellamy, head of Cuyahoga’s foreclosure prevention program, a drastic drop in federal funding for programs in Ohio will adversely affect their capability to provide needed counseling and assistance.

Since 2007, Congress has already provided two allocations of $180 million each for foreclosure counseling programs and a third allocation of $50 million. A fourth allocation of around $65 million is being considered.

In Nevada, Judge Dawson upheld a ruling made by bankruptcy judge Linda Riegle, preventing the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems from foreclosing on properties they do not own. Riegle required MERS to show actual mortgage notes or documents proving that they are agents of the lenders before they can foreclose on defaulting properties.

In his affirmation, Judge Dawson stated that MERS, which was launched to help the mortgage industry record and monitor residential mortgages, must show evidence that it owns the mortgage or that it is an agent or legal representative of the lenders before pursuing foreclosures. Homeowners then in Nevada can use this argument to help them avoid foreclosures.

How to Avoid Foreclosures in Ohio and Nevada is a post from StopForeclosuresHelp.com - Learn how to stop foreclosures.