Safeguard Properties

Freddie Mac Sets LIHTC Equity Record with $675 Million in Affordable Housing Investments

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
February 8, 2022

Source:  Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac closed a record $675 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity investments in 2021, funding over 4,800 affordable units in diverse and underserved markets across the United States. The investments include a new 162-apartment community near areas devastated by fires in Central California, affordable rental homes for farmworkers in rural Washington and the Yurok Indian Tribe in Northern California, and other affordable housing units in urban areas like Tulsa, Oklahoma and Los Angeles.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Delinquency Rate Drops to Pre-Pandemic Levels for the First Time

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
February 8, 2022

Source:  National Mortgage Professional

CoreLogic released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for November 2021, which showed that national delinquency dropped below March 2020 levels for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. In November, 3.6% of all mortgages in the United States were in some stage of delinquency, marking a 2.3% decrease compared to the previous year when it was 5.9%.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New State Initiative Offers Info, Resources on Zombie Homes

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 19, 2022

Source:  wbfo.org

New Yorkers are getting some help on “zombie” housing from Columbia Law School and its students.

Those vacant and decaying buildings of vague ownership are a problem everywhere in the state, as local governments gradually admit there are problems.

Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns has spent decades on the issue, starting from issues with one home in his South Buffalo neighborhood, to pushing a new law to regulate the problem while in the state Assembly, to helping local government officials figure out what to do.

Now, Columbia Law students have set up a new website with information to help small governments and communities. It’s called the New York State Zombies Initiative.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HUD Awards $1.4 Million to Support Housing Counseling Programs in New Jersey

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 26, 2022

Source:  Insider NJ

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday awarded $51.4 million in housing counseling grants to 177 HUD-approved housing counseling agencies and intermediary organizations. This includes funding to HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that are partnering with Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), or other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The funding supports housing counseling agencies in their critical work to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on housing, maintain housing stability by helping families with foreclosure and rental eviction prevention, and help families make more informed housing choices. The awards also include funding to further training and education to attract and retain more housing counseling professionals.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ginnie Mae Removes a Step for Servicers on some FHA Loan Modifications

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 24, 2022

Source:  National Mortgage News

New streamlined documentation requirements could make it easier for mortgage companies to quickly help some borrowers with long-term losses of income from the pandemic as temporary payment suspensions end.

The change will allow companies processing some of the tens of billions of dollars worth of newly issued mortgage-backed securities that government agency Ginnie Mae insures each month to skip certain requirements when modifying mortgages to accommodate lower monthly payments.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freddie Mac: Mortgage Serious Delinquency Rate Decreased in December

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 25, 2022

Source:  Calculated Risk

Freddie Mac reported that the Single-Family serious delinquency rate in December was 1.12%, down from 1.24% in November. Freddie’s rate is down year-over-year from 2.64% in December 2020.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VA Extends Suspension of Certain Property Inspection Requirements for Covid-19 Forbearance Cases

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 25, 2022

Source:  JD Supra

In consideration of the COVID-19 national emergency, VA issued Circular 26-20-21 which temporarily suspended certain property inspections on June 8, 2020.  The requirements to perform property inspections for loans before the 60th day of delinquency were temporarily suspended.  The temporary suspension “…only applies to borrowers whose loans are currently in forbearance and were current or had not yet reached the 60th day of delinquency when borrowers requested a CARES Act forbearance.”

The temporary suspension provisions were extended to October 1, 2022 by VA Circular 26-21-27.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Drops to an All-Time Low in 2021

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 13, 2022

Source: RisMedia

ATTOM, licensor of the nation’s most comprehensive foreclosure data and parent company to RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com), the largest online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties, today released its Year-End 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings— default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 151,153 U.S. properties in 2021, down 29 percent from 2020 and down 95 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010, to the lowest level since tracking began in 2005.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MBA Survey: “Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 1.41% in December 2021

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 18, 2022

Source: Calculated Risk

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) new monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 26 basis points from 1.67% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 1.41% as of December 31, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 705,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans.

For full report, please click the source link above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branford’s New Ordinance will Address Blight, but with Compassion

Posted on by Safeguard

Industry Update
January 8, 2022

Source: Stamford Advocate

The house at 88 Applewood Road looks as if it’s been overtaken by an army of brush and trees, hidden from the road in an otherwise well-kept residential neighborhood.

The house at 558 W. Main St., on the other hand, is highly visible, with thousands of vehicles driving past every day. Drivers can see the gaping holes in its roof, its broken windows and the front entryway that looks like it’s about to collapse.

They are Branford’s most obvious examples of blight, according to Ray Ingraham, R-5, majority leader of the Representative Town Meeting, but the town’s first blight ordinance, which was passed in 2021 and went into effect Jan. 1, is meant to address issues of rundown properties with a sympathetic, not a punitive, approach, he said.

For full report, please click the source link above.