Daily News related to the Foreclosure Crisis

The biggest unpunished heist in human history - Max Keiser

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04/26/25

Wells Fargo To Pay $185,000,000 To Customers in Massive New Settlement – Here’s Who Will Benefit
Wells Fargo customers may be eligible to be beneficiaries of a $185 million payout from the bank following a court’s approval of a massive class action settlement.
A lawsuit initiated last year claims that during the Covid-19 era, Wells Fargo issued mortgage forbearances to its customers when they didn’t want them, causing unnecessary hardship while also negatively affecting credit scores due to halted payments.
Plaintiffs alleged that the bank decided to provide mortgage forbearances to certain clients who had made an inquiry or expressed hardship but didn’t explicitly request a forbearance.
While Wells Fargo did not admit to any wrongdoing, the bank has agreed to pay $185 million to affected customers. According to Top Class Actions, Wells Fargo customers who had a mortgage placed into COVID mortgage forbearance without informed consent between March 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021 are eligible for compensation.

04/24/25

Anti-Corruption Convoy Headed to D.C.
A convoy is headed towards D.C., with the purpose of demanding a remedy from the powers that be concerning stolen homes and corrupt court proceedings. According to Billie Powers, who is one of the organizers, the purpose is to demand an audit of all land records and to return the stolen property to the rightful owners.
According to another organizer, John Bloom, “We are starting on the west coast, we are meandering our way over to the east coast so that we are in D.C. on the first. We are going to try to hit as many state capitols as we can,we will hit some of the corporate law firms...We'll hit some of the banking institutions that have been the foreclosure mills...we will pull up and have a chat, leave them some paperwork-and then travel on--- our goal is to be as businesslike as we can...and let the powers that be in D.C. know the situation for all the land records problems, the probate problems, the CPS problems and hopefully we can help drain some scum off the swamp.”
According to Matt Skarlatos, also one of the convoy organizers, the relevant paperwork has already gone to DOGE. “The doors are opening," he asserted.

04/23/25

HUD further revises servicing and claims requirements and loss mitigation options
In January 2025 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2025-06 revising servicing and claims requirements and loss mitigation options for FHA insured mortgage loans effective February 2, 2026. HUD recently issued Mortgagee Letter 2025-12 further revising the requirements and options effective October 1, 2025. The revisions apply to all FHA Title II forward mortgage loans. HUD provides the following explanation for the further revisions:

04/21/25

Court strikes down United Wholesale Mortgage foreclosure over standing issue
In a ruling with procedural significance for the mortgage industry, a New York appeals court has found that United Wholesale Mortgage, LLC (UWM) failed to prove it had standing to bring a foreclosure action, reversing a lower court’s summary judgment in its favor.
The decision, issued on April 10, 2025, by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Third Department, stems from a foreclosure case involving a residential property in the City of Schenectady. The appellate panel held that UWM did not establish it possessed the promissory note at the time it commenced the foreclosure action in December 2022, a requirement when a note is indorsed in blank.

04/18/25

Mass layoffs paused at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
A federal judge on Friday temporarily paused layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that impacted the majority of the banking regulator’s workforce.
District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that Thursday’s RIF notices sent to more than 1,400 CFPB employees could have violated a court order restricting removals at the agency.
“[T]here is reason to believe that the defendants simply spent the days immediately following the Circuit’s relaxation of the Order dressing their RIF in new clothes, and that they are thumbing their nose at both this Court and the Court of Appeals,” she wrote.

04/17/25

Nearly 90% of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cut as Trump’s government downsizing continues
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is drastically shrinking the workforce and mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, eviscerating an agency created after the Great Recession with the goal of protecting Americans from fraud, abuse and deceptive practices.
The plan, which is being challenged by an employee union, is the latest step in an extraordinary reshaping of the federal government. Conservatives and businesses have often chafed at the agency’s oversight and investigations, and Elon Musk made it a top target of his Department of Government Efficiency.

04/17/25

Ohio Sues United Wholesale Mortgage Over Broker 'Scheme'
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit against United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), alleging the Michigan-based lender misled borrowers by misrepresenting the independence of mortgage brokers.

04/15/25

What's going on at Fannie Mae?
A dramatic year at Fannie Mae continued last week with the announcement of a cull of over 100 employees for what it described as unethical conduct, including the facilitation of fraud, as the Trump administration continues to put its stamp on the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE).
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte, who oversees Fannie and Freddie Mac, said in a news release that the agency was clamping down on “fraud, mortgage fraud, or any other deceitful act that can jeopardize the safety and soundness of the housing industry” and claimed the FHFA had slashed over 25% of its active workforce since Trump’s inauguration.

04/14/25

Hundreds Of Judgments Held By Predatory Lenders Soon To Be Vacated By Rockland County Court
A Settlement Between The New York State Attorney General And Predatory Lenders Will Cancel 1,100 New York State Judgments Against Small Businesses

04/10/25

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Increases Quarterly in Q1 2025
IRVINE, Calif. — April 10, 2025 — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its Q1 2025 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 93,953 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filings during the first quarter of 2025, up 11 percent from the previous quarter but down 2 percent from a year ago. The report also shows a total of 35,890 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in March 2025, up 11 percent from the previous month and up 9 percent from a year ago.

04/10/25

Today’s podcast episode: Everything You Want to Know About the CFPB as Things Stand Today, and Lots More – Part 1
Our podcast show being released today is Part 1 of a repurposed interactive webinar that we presented on March 24, featuring two of the leading journalists who cover the CFPB – Jon Hill from Law360 and Evan Weinberger from Bloomberg.
Our show began with Jon and Evan chronicling the initiatives beginning on February 3 by CFPB Acting Directors Scott Bessent, Russell Vought and DOGE to shut down or at least minimize the CFPB. These initiatives were met with two federal district court lawsuits (one in DC brought by the labor unions who represents CFPB employees who were terminated and the other brought in Baltimore, MD by the CFPB and others) challenging one or more of these initiatives. Jon and Evan described the lawsuits in detail. While the Baltimore lawsuit was dismissed on the basis of lack of ripeness under the Administrative Procedure Act, Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a TRO freezing the CFPB from terminating more CFPB employees through the end of March while she decides whether to enter a further injunction with respect to the CFPB’s initiatives.

04/08/25

Fannie Mae fires over 100 employees, cites unethical conduct including facilitating fraud
Fannie Mae said on Tuesday that it had terminated over 100 employees for unethical conduct including facilitating fraud.
The government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), officially known as the Federal National Mortgage Association, revealed that it had let the staff go as the latest shakeup in the organization since the Trump administration made sweeping changes to the board.
Bil Pulte, appointed under Trump as Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director, had earlier fired more than a dozen board members of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and named himself chairman of the board.

04/05/25

Homeowners sue Fannie Mae, BNY over inflated foreclosure costs
Major lenders and mortgage servicers are facing class-action lawsuits in New York over allegations that they inflated foreclosure-related charges on home equity loans, improperly costing homeowners thousands of dollars.
The lawsuits, filed Thursday in US federal court in Brooklyn, claim that lenders and their servicing partners wrongly applied compound interest instead of simple interest during a critical stage of the foreclosure process. Specifically, the alleged miscalculations occurred between the time lenders sought court authorization to sell a property and when that motion was officially granted.
According to the filings, the practice systematically increased the payoff amount owed by borrowers, diverting surplus funds that should have gone back to homeowners following foreclosure sales.

04/03/25

Rocket to Acquire Mr Cooper Mortgage Service for $9.4 Billion
Rocket Companies has announced a $9.4 billion all-share deal to acquire Mr. Cooper, the largest mortgage servicer in the United States. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2025. The acquisition announcement comes barely weeks after Rocket’s $1.75 billion agreement to acquire residential portal Redfin, and will imminently create a mortgage servicing portfolio of $2.1 trillion across nearly 10 million customers, circa one in six U.S. home loans. The deal will significantly strengthen Rocket’s mortgage infrastructure, positioning the Detroit-based lender significantly closer to the market leader, United Wholesale Mortgage.

04/03/25

UWM Upholds Ultimatum & Urges Brokers To Claw Back Loans Sold To Mr. Cooper
The lender plans to reward broker partners with 100 bps to reclaim any UWM loan in their portfolio United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) announces today that it scored legal victories in ongoing litigation around the All In Addendum (ultimatum) included in its broker contracts.

04/03/25

Trump's VA is ending a rescue program that's saved 17,000 military veterans' homes
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that it will end a mortgage-rescue program designed to help veterans who have fallen behind on their mortgages keep their homes.
But the scant details offered so far by the VA make it unclear whether the program will be replaced by a different rescue program — or whether the move will strand thousands of other vets, many of whom are in financial peril because of the VA's own mistakes.

04/01/25

Why leadership changes at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are raising big concerns
After a leadership shakeup at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a look at what's ahead for the giant firms and how the changes could affect mortgage affordability.

04/01/25

Senators Push Back Against FHFA Director
Amid sweeping changes of U.S. housing oversight by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William J. Pulte, a group of Congressional Senators have voiced their concerns over these actions.
In a letter led by Sen. Jack Reed, a contingent of five U.S. Senators voice their opinion on the legality of FHFA Director Pulte streamlining the agencies that oversee the nation’s near $50 trillion housing market through layoffs, dismissals, and office closures. Recently, Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid, Head of Human Resources Dionne Wallace Oakley, and EVP of Corporate Strategy and External Affairs Craig Phillips were dismissed from their roles, as well as FHFA COO Gina Cross, FHFA Human Resources Director Monica Matthews, and FHFA’s Office of Congressional Affairs and Communications Antonio White were placed on leave.

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