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Programmatic funding will support home repairs for low-income veteran households and the construction of a new, affordable home for a veteran homebuyer. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA) has been awarded a $300,000 grant from The Home Depot Foundation to further its ability to serve veterans across Greater Los Angeles.

New data (fact sheet) from a Freedom of Information Act request, released today, indicates that there was a 646% increase in foreclosures last year against seniors with federally insured reverse mortgages as compared to the previous 7 years. In January 2017, the California Reinvestment Coalition and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid submitted

The California Housing Finance Agency has released new guidelines for lending on manufactured homes that will increase access to housing for low- and moderate-income homebuyers who use a CalHFA mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration

U.S. Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Gwen Moore (D-WI), introduced H.R. 3556, the Taxpayer Protections and Market Access for Mortgage Finance Act, legislation requiring the GSEs to increase credit risk transfers (CRT) with the private sector.

Congressmen Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Peter King (R-NY) introduced a bipartisan House Resolution expressing support for the home mortgage interest and property tax deductions. Reps. Sherman and King were joined by Representatives Nanette Barragan (D-CA), Paul Cook (R-CA), Dan Donovan (R-NY), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Dina Titus (D-NV)

The California Housing Finance Agency has revised its guidelines so first-time homebuyers may apply rental income from an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) toward loan qualification. This update follows the guidelines of Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration and will take effect on May 1, 2017

The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) today issued the following statement in response to the announcement by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will indefinitely suspend a recently announced cut in its annual mortgage insurance premium

Earlier today, two nonprofit groups submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about reverse mortgage foreclosures conducted against seniors by Financial Freedom, a reverse mortgage servicer previously owned by Steven Mnuchin, who has been nominated for the United States Treasury Secretary position by President Elect Trump.

Thursday, two bills were introduced by a bipartisan group of members on the House Financial Services Committee to lay the groundwork for housing finance reform next Congress -- H.R. 6500, the Moving Housing Forward Act, introduced by Congressmen John K. Delaney (D-MD), John Carney (D-DE), and Jim Himes (D-CT) and H.R. 6487, the Taxpayer Protections and Market Access for Mortgage Finance Actintroduced by Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI). Both proposals seek to address issues in housing finance through pilot programs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

its bold new announcement of a cross government partnership, the “Clean Energy Savings for All Americans Initiative,” which includes an expansion of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. This administrative action comes after Reps. Huffman and Thompson urged the Department of Veterans Affairs to enable veterans to receive VA-secured home loans to take advantage of PACE programs.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its finalmortgage servicing rule today, with stronger protections to prevent unnecessary foreclosures on successors-in-interest, more commonly known as “widow foreclosures.”

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced that six individuals were indicted and arrested on 135 felony charges for operating a mortgage fraud scheme throughout Southern California and the Inland Empire, preying on homeowners facing foreclosure. The case is being prosecuted by attorneys in the Attorney General’s Mortgage Fraud Strike Force, created by Harris in 2011 to prosecute mortgage fraud at every step of the process

CBRE Executive Vice President Philip D. Voorhees and Jimmy Slusher announced today that the National Retail Investment Group – West (NRIG-West) team completed the sale of The Terrace, a two-level, 39,634-square-foot shopping center with structured parking in the city of Newbury Park, Calif. Leased to a complementary mix of 12 restaurant, retail and athletic-focused uses, tenants at The Terrace include: Orangetheory Fitness, Hot Yoga 1000, Road Runner Sports, Bottle and Pint, and others.

Senate Bill 1150, a bill to protect widows, widowers and other heirs from unnecessary foreclosures, passed a key hurdle today when it was voted out of the Senate on a vote that was not without drama. Amidst intense industry lobbying pressure and after appearing to go down to defeat for failing to secure sufficient votes yesterday, the bill secured the needed 21 votes today.

The Mortgage Bankers Association Opens Doors Foundation (MBA Open Doors) today announced that it is expanding into California in the coming months, thanks to a generous ongoing contribution from Arch Capital Group (U.S.) Inc. (Arch Capital), a parent company of Arch Mortgage Insurance Company (Arch MI).

Earlier today, the California Reinvestment Coalition called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to impose a moratorium on any additional reverse mortgage foreclosures by CIT Group and its subsidiary, Financial Freedom. The call for a moratorium is based in part on new data (see fact sheet here) that CRC obtained from HUD, indicating that Financial Freedom/CIT Group’s share of reverse mortgage foreclosures (39%) since April 2009 is more than two times greater than the company’s estimated market share (17%).

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MEHDI MOAREFIAN, a.k.a. “Michael Miller,” 36, and DANIEL SHIAU, a.k.a. “Scott Decker,” 30, both of Irvine, Calif., pleaded guilty yesterday in Bridgeport federal court to conspiring to defraud homeowners across the United States who were seeking mortgage loan modifications