HAMP

CheckMyNPV.com is a free tool provided by the United States Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in conjunction with the Obama Administration's Making Home Affordable Program.
 
CheckMyNPV.com is designed to assist homeowners in conducting a net present value (NPV) evaluation of their mortgage for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

By Katie Buitrago, Woodstock Institute
 

 Members of the Regional Home Ownership Preservation Initiative sent a letter urging the Illinois delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against t H.R. 839, The HAMP Termination Act of 2011, which would cancel funding for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). In the letter, Housing Action Illinois, Metropolitan Planning Council, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, and Woodstock Institute told representatives:
 

Using new Treasury Department figures, previously unreleased documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and new analyses of state and industry data, ProPublica has assembled the most detailed look yet at how the the mortgage industry and the government's main effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), have failed homeowners. It provides crucial context to the ongoing government investigation into mortgage servicing practices, which might lead to reforms of how banks and servicers handle homeowner requests for modifications.

 The meltdown in residential real-estate prices that commenced in 2006 resulted in unprecedented mortgage delinquency rates. Until mid-2009, lenders and servicers pursued their own individual loss mitigation practices without being significantly influenced by government intervention. Using a unique dataset that precisely identifies loss mitigation actions, we study these methods—liquidation, repayment plans, loan modification, and refinancing—and analyze their effectiveness.

Recent Treasury data found that most borrowers whose HAMP modifications were cancelled have not yet lost their homes. Woodstock Institute dug a little deeper into the data and looked at what individual servicers are doing with borrowers they did not approve for a permanent modification (click for larger chart): 
 

The Illinois Attorney General’s office has drafted legislation that would make servicers pay close attention to proper procedure in both the loan modification process and the preparation of foreclosure documents. HB 6951, championed by Rep. Marlow Colvin, Rep. Mary Flowers, and Sen.

While the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has helped some homeowners achieve sustainable and affordable monthly payments, there have been issues with servicers complying fully with the program's stipulations. A new law, HB 5735, will give Illinois homeowners a new tool to ensure that servicers have thoroughly assessed them for HAMP eligibility before foreclosure. 
 

The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has been an effective tool that has been used over the past 30 years to ensure that banks are meeting all the credit needs of the communities they serve, particularly low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities.