• Central Vermont Community Land Trust
• CVOEO Mobile Home Project
• Champlain Housing Trust
• Lamoille Housing Partnership
• NeighborWorks of Western Vermont
• Rockingham Area Community Land Trust
• Windham Housing Trust 

The funding is part of a $1,440,300 HUD grant to Boston-based Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA).  The Central Vermont Community Action Council and Bennington-Rutland Opportunity Council also received $76,883 in direct funding from HUD for homeownership, foreclosure prevention and tenant counseling. 

“HUD-approved housing counseling agencies are a critical part of the nation’s housing recovery,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  “This critical funding will help counseling organizations continue to assist families in making more informed choices before they purchase a home and counsel families facing foreclosure.” 

CHAPA received full funding for its application on behalf of the New England Housing Network.  The Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition is the state’s lead agency for the Network and helps provide technical assistance to the Vermont grantees.  The Obama Administration awarded nearly $73 million in housing counseling grants to more than 500 national, regional and local organizations, a 22% increase over last year’s funding level. 

You can read HUD’s press release here: http://tinyurl.com/24roqt7.

By Sam Hemingway

“Vermont banking regulators and the Attorney General’s Office have joined officials from 48 other states investigating claims that several large mortgage loan servicing entities engaged in the “robo-signing” of documents to initiate thousands of foreclosure actions around the country.

“It’s fair to assume that if a large national banking institution engaged in this practice of robo-signing elsewhere that there is some likelihood that it occurred here as well,” Assistant Attorney General Elliot Burg said Wednesday.

Several large lenders, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial, put a hold on their foreclosure litigation following recent media reports alleging some foreclosures were based on flawed affidavits signed by people who did not have personal knowledge of the facts in the cases.

Thomas Candon, banking commissioner at the state Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, said Wednesday some of the mortgage-service entities in question are active in Vermont, but he is unaware of any instances of robo-signing…”

For full story, click here: Vermont Joins Other States in Foreclosure Investigation

For PDF of story, click here: Vermont Joins Other States in Foreclosure Investigation

By: Bruce Edwards

“It’s a tough time for first-time home buyers.

Consumer confidence isn’t high and while mortgage rates are extremely low, banks have tightened up their lending standards.

But thanks to a year-old housing program, some low-income Vermonters are realizing their dream of home ownership.

Using $7 million in federal funding, the Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Program, or HARP, creates home ownership that remains perpetually affordable.

“We work with Realtors throughout the state, financial institutions as well, to purchase properties that have been foreclosed upon,” said Sarah Carpenter, executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency…”

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Source: Vermont Public Radio, March 31, 2010

“(Host) The number of mortgage foreclosures in Vermont continues to rise, and experts expect that trend to continue into the near future.

But help is available for homeowners in trouble.

And more may be on the way, as VPR’s Susan Keese reports.

(Keese) Manchester Town Clerk Linda Spence says it’s gotten so she dreads opening the mail. That’s because of a recent rise in foreclosures in her town.

(Spence) “It’s far worse than people think that it is. And it’s affecting people’s lives. It’s heartbreaking really.”

(Keese) In the first three months of 2010, Spence says five local properties have reached the point where the homeowners’ options are exhausted and the bank is ready to sell. That’s compared to only one in all of 2009.

State figures show a fifty percent increase in foreclosure actions initiated since 2008, though only perhaps a third of those result in auctions. In February alone, 159 foreclosures began.

Joshua Lobe is a South Burlington attorney who represents mortgage lenders in foreclosures.

(Lobe) “My sense, based on the numbers generated  by the Vermont Department of Banking and Insurance and the foreclosure referrals in our office, are that the volume probably peaked, maybe at the end of last  year or right about now. And I think that we’re starting on the way down,  though slowly starting on the way down at this point. “

(Keese) Lobe adds that Vermont’s foreclosure rate is among the lowest in the country.

Thomas Candon, the state’s deputy commissioner for Banking and Securities, says that’s true – though it’s probably not much consolation to the 1,900 households that went through foreclosure in 2009.

Candon says the national lenders who service 90 percent of mortgages in Vermont have been deluged with defaults in other states.

That resulting bottleneck may have bought time for some struggling homeowners. But Candon says the lenders seem to be catching up.

(Candon) “And therefore I think we’re going to be seeing some additional foreclosures, unfortunately.”

(Keese) The bottleneck has also made it difficult for homeowners to reach their mortgage companies to work out loan modifications.

Grace Pazdan is a lawyer with Vermont Legal Aid, which represents low-income homeowners in foreclosure actions. She says she sees it all the time.

(Pazdan) “When they reach out for help they’re talking to different customer service representatives every time. They’re asked to send financial documents over and over again, and all the while their case is going through the legal process and oftentimes the foreclosure sale just happens before they can get in touch with anyone that has the authority to come to some sort of workout plan.”

(Keese) A bill passed by the Vermont House this month would require mediation between lenders and homeowners before a foreclosure is filed.

Advocates say the bill, which is now before the Senate, could help reduce the number of foreclosures that go forward, just by getting all the parties together.

For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese.”

Full story: Vermont Foreclosures Continue to Rise

For PDF of story, click here.

Source: Bennington Banner, March 26, 2010

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure to stem the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration launched a plan Friday to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans and give jobless homeowners a temporary break.

Administration officials cautioned that the plan won’t stop all foreclosures or help all troubled homeowners. Instead, officials said their goal is to meet their original target, announced last year, of helping 3 million to 4 million borrowers avoid foreclosure.

The new effort is designed to help two groups:

– Borrowers who owe more on their loans than their houses are worth. Nearly 15 million homeowners fall into this category, according to Moody’s Analytics. About 10 million of them owe at least 20 percent more than their house’s current value.

These people would be helped in either of two ways: Their mortgage companies can cut the total amount they owe on their mortgage. Or they can refinance into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which insures loans against default. The FHA will get $14 billion in incentive money from the federal bailout fund.

– Unemployed borrowers. People receiving unemployment benefits would see their mortgage payments drop to no more than 31 percent of their monthly income — but only for three to six months. That’s intended to give homeowners more time to find a job. Once they do, they may qualify for a loan modification that would permanently reduce their payments.

The administration’s existing program to prevent foreclosures has failed to make a dent in the problem. A lack of planning and shifting rules on qualifications for it produced a huge backlog in the program, the special inspector general for the federal financial bailout fund told lawmakers this week. Only 170,000 homeowners have completed loan modifications out of 1.1 million who began the program over the past year.

On Friday, administration officials played down any notion that the new plan would solve the foreclosure epidemic. About 6 million homeowners have missed at least two months of payments.

Diana Farrell, a White House economic adviser, said the plan won’t prevent most of the 10 million to 12 million foreclosures expected over the next three years. Doing so, she said, “wouldn’t be fair, it would be too expensive and we probably wouldn’t succeed in any case, because many people got into homes that they simply cannot afford.”

The administration also stressed that the plan won’t aid investors, speculators or “Americans living in million-dollar homes or defaulters on vacation homes.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated the plan could help 1 million and 1.5 million homeowners avoid foreclosure, compared with about 500,000 if no changes were made in the program…”

Full story: Officials unveil home loan plan

For PDF of article, click here.