Safeguard Properties

FEMA Declared Disaster Florida

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FEMA Alert Update
December 9, 2019

FEMA issued an update to a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for areas in Florida affected by Hurricane Dorian from August 28 to September 9, 2019.

The following counties are eligible for assistance:

Public Assistance

  • Broward
  • Volusia

Florida Hurricane Dorian (DR-4468 Amendment 1)

FEMA Declared Disaster Florida: ZIP Code List

 

FEMA Alert
October 21, 2019

FEMA issued a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for areas in Florida affected by Hurricane Dorian from August 28 to September 9, 2019.

The following counties are eligible for assistance:

Public Assistance

  • Brevard
  • Duval
  • Flagler
  • Indian River
  • Martin
  • Nassau
  • Oscelola
  • Palm Beach
  • Putnam
  • Seminole
  • St. Johns
  • St. Lucie

Florida Hurricane Dorian (DR-4468)

FEMA Declared Disaster Florida: ZIP Code List


Additional Resources

FEMA’s web site

FEMA’s Disaster Declaration Process

Safeguard Properties Industry Alerts

HUD Moratorium on Foreclosure

VA’s Policy Regarding Natural Disasters

Freddie Mac Disaster Relief Policies

Fannie Mae’s Natural Disaster Relief Policies

Dallas Tornado Causes Major Home Damage

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Disaster Alert
October 21, 2019

Source: The Weather Channel

Additional Resource:

KDFW FOX 4 (Confirmed tornado causes damages in North Dallas, surrounding areas)

Approximate locations sustaining home damage:

Texas
– Dallas (Dallas County)*
*Click city name to access associated ZIP code list
– Richardson (Dallas, Collin counties, 75080, 75081, 75082, 75083, 75085)
– Rockwall (Rockwall County, 75032, 75087)
– Sachse ( Dallas, Collin counties, 75048, 75098)

Severe storms ripped through the South Sunday night into early Monday, spawning a damaging tornado in Dallas and contributing to the death of one person in Arkansas.

The National Weather Service said at around 9:30 p.m. CDT that it had visual confirmation of a tornado on the ground in northern Dallas. The tornado was first reported near Dallas Love Field Airport.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the tornado as of early Monday morning, the city of Dallas said. Three people have been hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries.

Local media outlets reported several homes and businesses were damaged, power lines downed and tree limbs were scattered across roadways. The city said there were reports of gas leaks north of Walnut Hill in north Dallas. Police and Fire-Rescue were assessing damaged structures.

Oncor reported nearly 140,000 customers were without power as of early Monday morning in north and central Texas. About half of those outages were in Dallas County.

Seven people escaped a structure that collapsed in northwest Dallas, but Dallas Fire-Rescue were searching to see if anyone was left inside, spokesman Jason Evans said. WFAA reported that a convenience store collapsed in the storm, but the clerk told the station that everyone who was inside made it out safely.

For full report, please click the source link above.

Tropical Storm Nestor Expected to Form in Gulf

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Updated 10/20/19: The Weather Channel published a report outlining tornadic activity spawned by Tropical Storm Nestor in portions of Central Florida.

Florida Homes Damaged by Nestor Tornadoes Before Storm Moves Into Georgia (full report)

Additional approximate locations sustaining home damage:

Florida

– Cape Coral (Lee County, 33904, 33909, 33914, 33990, 33991, 33993)
– Mt. Tabor Estates, Lakeland (Polk County, 33810)

South Carolina

– Myrtle Beach (Horry County, 29572, 29575, 29577, 29578, 29579)

Updated 10/19/19: The Weather Channel issued a report detailing the latest activity from Tropical Storm Nestor, which has spawned possible tornadoes in Central Florida.

Tropical Storm Nestor Is Approaching the Florida Gulf Coast with Increasing Surge, Wind and Rain (full report)

Approximate locations sustaining home damage:

Florida

– Kathleen (Polk County, 33849)

– Park Blvd., Seminole (Pinellas County, 33776)

– Temple Terrace Blvd., Seminole (Pinellas County, 33772)

NOTE: This has not yet been declared a FEMA Disaster.

Updated 10/18/19: USA Today published an article detailing the latest forecast information for Possible Tropical Cyclone 16, which is expected to become Subtropical or Tropical Storm Nestor before making landfall in the Florida Panhandle within the next 24 hours.

Tropical Storm Nestor expected to form on way to Florida Panhandle (full article)

Disaster Alert
October 17, 2019

Source: FOX News

An area of disturbed weather over the southwest Gulf of Mexico is forecast to strengthen over the warm waters, potentially impacting the northern Gulf Coast of the U.S. as a tropical storm by the weekend, according to forecasters.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Thursday the system, known as Potential Tropical Cyclone 16, was located about 620 miles southwest of the mouth of Mississippi River with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, moving north at 8 mph.

“The disturbance is expected to develop into a tropical or subtropical storm later today or tonight, with slow strengthening then expected through Friday night,” according to the agency.

The NHC gives the storm a 90 percent chance of forming into a tropical storm over the next 48 hours. If the weather system strengthens into a tropical storm it would have the name “Nestor.”

Tropical storm warnings have been issued from the Mississippi/Alabama border to the Ochlockonee River, Fla. and from Grand Isle, La. to the mouth of the Pearl River. A storm surge watch is in effect from Indian Pass to Clearwater, Fla.

The storm is forecast to make a turn toward the northeast by Thursday afternoon or later, and then move in a northeastward motion “at a faster forward speed” by Friday into Saturday.

“On the forecast track, the system will approach the northern Gulf coast Friday and Friday night,” the NHC said.

For full report, please click the source link above.

Northeast Struck by “Bomb Cyclone”

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Disaster Alert
October 17, 2019

Source: The Weather Channel

Approximate locations sustaining possible home damage (downed trees):

Massachusetts
– Danvers (Essex County, 01923, 01937)
– Duxbury (Plymouth County, 02050, 02331, 02332)

At a Glance

  • Trees and power lines were downed in at least seven states.
  • Schools were closed in many areas.
  • A man was injured when a tree fell on his home in Massachusetts.
  • High winds helped spread a fire that destroyed three homes.

More than 500,000 people were without power Thursday morning as a bomb cyclone brought rain and heavy winds to the Northeast U.S., knocking down trees and fueling a fire that destroyed three homes.

A man was hurt when a tree fell on his home in Beverly, Massachusetts, WCVB reported. He was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Officials in Suffolk County, New York, said a fire that destroyed three homes was spread by high winds, according to the Associated Press. The blaze broke out at about 2 a.m. Thursday in the Fire Island hamlet of Ocean Bay Park. The National Weather Service said wind gusts up to 60 mph were reported in the area.

Schools were closed or delayed in dozens of locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There were also widespread closures and delays in Connecticut.

For full report, please click the source link above.

MHA HAMP Update: Important Information on the HAMP Reporting Tool and SSL Certificates

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Investor Update
October 11, 2019

Source: MHA

Black Knight is making updates to its signature for all new GlobalSign intermediate SSL certificates.

What is the impact for users of the HAMP Reporting Tool?
To ensure continued access to Black Knight products without issue, Black Knight recommends that you download and install the certificate from the link provided below before December 31, 2019. The certificate should be installed for all workstations that access Black Knight browser-based applications, including the HAMP Reporting Tool.

The new certificate can be downloaded from the link below: <http://secure.globalsign.com/cacert/gsrsaovsslca2018.crt>

Questions?
Contact Black Knight Financial Technology Solutions, LLC at (800)-731-0149 or email hamp.support@bkfs.com.

Model Suggests Higher Rate of Flood-Prone Property Buyouts

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Industry Update
October 9, 2019

Source: Science Advances

Additional Resource:

Bloomberg (FEMA Bought 44,000 Flood-Prone Homes. They May Have to Buy Millions More)

Abstract

Retreat from some areas will become unavoidable under intensifying climate change. Existing deployments of managed retreat are at small scale compared to potential future needs, leaving open questions about where, when, and how retreat under climate change will occur. Here, we analyze more than 40,000 voluntary buyouts of flood-prone properties in the United States, in which homeowners sell properties to the government and the land is restored to open space. In contrast to model-based evaluation of potential future retreat, local governments in counties with higher population and income are more likely to administer buyouts. The bought-out properties themselves, however, are concentrated in areas of greater social vulnerability within these counties, pointing to the importance of assessing the equity of buyout implementation and outcomes. These patterns demonstrate the challenges associated with locally driven implementation of managed retreat and the potential benefits of experimentation with different approaches to retreat.

To access full report, please click the source link above.

CFR: Housing Market Points to Recession By Election Day

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Industry Alert
October 10, 2019

Source: CFR

Looking back at the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis, a critical warning sign was the surging gap between the growth in home prices and household income—as can be seen in the main graphic above. When income fails to keep pace with home prices, the latter must fall back. Falling home prices, in turn, drive down household spending by way of the so-called wealth effect—that is, consumers cut spending when their assets fall in value. As one Federal Reserve study shows, consumption falls by $2.50-5.00 for every $100 decrease in housing-market net worth.

Today, a parallel dynamic is playing out—as can readily be seen in the graphic. A similar housing-income gap began opening in 2015. In 2018, as in 2005, housing-price growth began falling rapidly, with significant price drops occurring in several major markets. As the inset figure shows, the trend-line in existing-home sales growth has also been down since 2015, tipping into negative territory at the start of last year. Similar drops have preceded nearly every recession since 1970.

If these trends continue, we should expect broad falls in home prices beginning by mid-2020, which will in turn drag down household spending against a darkening economic backdrop. Growth has been slowing, with Trump’s tariff war hitting exports. Manufacturing is contracting. Retail sales, excluding autos, have stalled. Consumer confidence is falling.

What are the best hopes for avoiding recession, then? Well, we could see a U.S.-China trade deal, which would buoy business confidence. But all signs are that this is unlikely, given Chinese insistence that structural reforms are now off the table. A so-called narrow deal, with punitive tariffs eliminated in return for greater Chinese purchases of soybeans and LNG, would amount to a total victory for Beijing, given the country’s naturally rising demand for both. So our base-case is that the trade war continues.

The Fed? Well, if we are really on the cusp of a recession it will likely take more than 175 basis points of easing to prevent it—and that is all the central bank has to play with before we’re back to the zero lower bound. At that point, applying monetary stimulus becomes considerably more challenging.

In short, then, we think Trump will be entering the election homestretch with some strong economic headwinds against him.  Most notable among them will be a declining housing market.

CFPB: Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law Announced

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Industry Update
October 11, 2019

Source: CFPB

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today announced that it will establish a taskforce to examine ways to harmonize and modernize federal consumer financial laws.

The Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law will examine the existing legal and regulatory environment facing consumers and financial services providers and report to Director Kraninger its recommendations for ways to improve and strengthen consumer financial laws and regulations. The taskforce will produce new research and legal analysis of consumer financial laws in the United States, focusing specifically on harmonizing, modernizing, and updating the enumerated consumer credit laws—and their implementing regulations—and identifying gaps in knowledge that should be addressed through research, ways to improve consumer understanding of markets and products, and potential conflicts or inconsistencies in existing regulations and guidance.

“An objective and independent evaluation of our current regulatory framework to identify where there may be gaps or where regulation should be simplified or modernized is needed to help us more effectively carry out our mission of protecting consumers,” said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen L. Kraninger. “As we work to set up the taskforce, we encourage interested individuals to apply to be considered to be part of the taskforce.”

The taskforce is in part inspired by an earlier commission established by the Consumer Credit Protection Act in 1968. In addition to various changes to consumer law generally, the Act established a national commission to conduct original research and provide Congress with recommendations relating to the regulation of consumer credit. The commission’s report contains original empirical data, information, and analyses—all of which undergird the report’s final recommendations. The data, findings, and recommendations from the commission were all made public and the report led to significant legislative and regulatory developments in consumer finance.

The Bureau will be seeking to fill the taskforce with several members with a broad range of expertise in the areas of consumer protection and consumer financial products or services; significant expertise in analyzing consumer financial markets, laws, and regulations; and a demonstrated record of senior public or academic service.

The Bureau is accepting applications for members to serve on the taskforce. Click here for additional information on the qualifications for members, as well as the process for applying.

OCC: National Banks and Federal Savings Associations Affected by California Wildfires Allowed to Close

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Investor Update
October 30, 2019

Source: OCC

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today issued a proclamation allowing national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks to close offices affected by wildfires in California at their discretion.

In issuing the proclamation, the OCC expects that only those bank offices directly affected by potentially unsafe conditions will close. Those offices should make every effort to reopen as quickly as possible to address the banking needs of their customers.

OCC Bulletin 2012-28 Supervisory Guidance on Natural Disasters and Other Emergency Conditions provides guidance on actions bankers could consider implementing when their bank or savings association operates or has customers in areas affected by a natural disaster or other emergency.

MHA HAMP Update: October 2019 Reporting System Release Notes Posted

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Investor Update
October 10, 2019

Source: MHA

On October 29, 2019 the HAMP Reporting System will receive the following updates:

• Update to Servicer Response File

Refer to the Release Notes for more information about this update.

Due to the release, HAMP Reporting System response files will be unavailable Monday, October 28, 2019. During this timeframe, the HAMP Reporting Tool will be available for servicers to submit and upload HAMP loan data files, and the corresponding Black Knight response files will be provided as usual.