Archives

Washington, DC - July 14, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- During this morning's Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Congressman John Tierney, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security, called on Chairman Darrell Issa to refocus his attention on efforts to protect our servicemembers from illegal foreclosures, rather than standing up for the big banks responsible for these egregious actions. He also entered into the record a report compiled by the Democratic staff entitled "Fighting on the Home Front: The Growing Problem of Illegal Foreclosures Against U.S. Servicemembers." The report describes in detail the systemic nature of these problems.

Boston, MA - July 11, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- On June 20, the Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD) made funding available to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. The funding program – the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (EHLP) – will provide much-needed funds for homeowners who have lost their job or experienced an involuntary decline in income. Homeowners who have received a foreclosure notice may be eligible for a deferred payment loan that will allow them to pay loan arrearages, back taxes and up to 24 months of mortgage payments. The EHLP loans will be two-year, no interest, forgivable loans. Eligible families must make less than 120 percent of the median income.

BOSTON, MA - June 17, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Addressing a group of 200 real estate agents, mortgage brokers, attorneys, home inspectors, and property managers, Attorney General Martha Coakley highlighted today her proposed legislation to address the ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis that has gripped the Commonwealth.An Act to Prevent Unnecessary and Unreasonable Foreclosures, which is sponsored by Senator Karen Spilka and Representative Steven M. Walsh, requires that creditors take reasonable steps to avoid foreclosure and prohibits foreclosures without appropriate documentation.

QUINCY, MA - March 30, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- 2011¡XSouth Shore residents in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure will soon have access to expanded foreclosure prevention counseling services through a joint initiative sponsored by the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds, Neighborhood Housing Services of the South Shore and the South Shore HOME Consortium.

Washington, DC - March 4, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- As the nation’s foreclosure crisis continues, Congressman John Tierney (MA-06) yesterday joined a select group of his congressional colleagues at a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan to demand answers for the Administration’s failure to assist homeowners facing foreclosure through the plagued federal Making Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

BOSTON, MA - January 19, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- During testimony in Brockton today, Patrick-Murray Administration Undersecretary for Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation Barbara Anthony outlined proposed regulations and legislation that would increase notification of mortgage ownership by lenders to homeowners and the Land Court.The testimony came at the first of three public hearings on regulations being drafted by the Division of Banks regarding foreclosure right-to-cure notices and reverse mortgages. The regulations are mandated as part of legislation signed by Governor Deval Patrick in August 2010 that increases consumer protection for homeowners facing foreclosure

BOSTON, MA - January 13, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- As the Patrick-Murray Administration's Division of Banks puts into place new rules regarding right-to-cure foreclosure notices and reverse mortgages, public informational hearings will be held to gather input on the regulations in late January.The upcoming regulations on the right-to-cure notices and reverse mortgages are part of legislation signed by Governor Deval Patrick in August 2010 as part of the Patrick-Murray Administration's response to the foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts.

Washington, DC - January 10, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) responded to today’s ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Ibanez case, in which the court ruled that US Bancorp and Wells Fargo did not have standing to foreclose on a borrower because they failed to follow proper legal procedure in the mortgage transfer and securitization process

October 26, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Mayor Thomas M. Menino and members of his Foreclosure Intervention Team today visited a city-owned foreclosed home in Dorchester where a group of local teens, dubbed the “Mayor’s Clean Team,” who are helping the City maintain foreclosed properties, were cleaning the property of debris and trash, landscaping the grounds, and performing minor repairs to the house’ exterior. The single-family property at 40 Mountain Avenue is being readied for sale through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process to a developer to be rehabbed and sold to a homebuyer

BOSTON, MA - October 18, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley joined with 49 other Attorneys General and state banking and mortgage regulators from 30 states to form a bi-partisan multistate group to explore whether or not individual mortgage servicers have improperly submitted affidavits or other documents in support of foreclosures without first verifying their accuracy.

BOSTON , MA - August 24, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office has obtained consent judgments against five defendants that perpetrated an unlawful foreclosure rescue scheme against multiple homeowners facing foreclosure that stripped and retained hundreds of thousands of dollars of the victims' home equity.The judgments, entered against Primary Mortgage Resource, Leo Desire, Sr., Robert Marks, Pierre Joseph and Daphne Mompoint, provide for payments of restitution to victims and civil penalties to the Commonwealth and prohibit the defendants from engaging in certain activities that facilitated the scheme

BOSTON, MA - August 10, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Patrick-Murray Administration's Division of Banks today announced the issuance of 43 temporary cease-and-desist orders against licensed mortgage loan originators in Massachusetts for failing to meet requirements for licensure under state law. The mortgage loan originators did not meet the standards set in a 2009 law, an Act Adopting the Federal Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008, also known as the SAFE Act.A significant provision of the 2007 foreclosure prevention legislation filed and signed by Governor Deval Patrick was the extension of licensing requirements to individual mortgage loan originators employed by licensed non-bank mortgage lenders and mortgage brokers. This law was updated in 2009 by Chapter 44 to ensure compliance with the federal SAFE Act which was largely patterned after the existing Massachusetts law

BOSTON, MA - August 6, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office concluded its case against former Brockton attorney Alec G. Sohmer and five other defendants over their roles in a 2006 foreclosure rescue scheme.The judgments entered today by Judge Thomas Connolly against Sohmer in the amount of $620,000 and against the four remaining defendants collectively in the amount of $364,000, together with the judgment obtained last May in the amount of $41,204, resolve allegations that Sohmer, with the assistance of the other defendants, orchestrated an unlawful foreclosure rescue scheme against 26 homeowners

BROCKTON, MA - July 1, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- A Marshfield woman has been indicted in connection with allegedly trying to delay or avoid foreclosure of a home mortgage by falsely reporting the death of a child to her mortgage company, and thereafter knowingly falsifying information in an affidavit filed in Brockton Superior Court, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced.A Plymouth County Grand Jury returned indictments against Donna Larson, age 52, on charges of Attempted Larceny and Perjury

NEW BEDFORD, MA - June 17, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- A vacant industrial site along the Acushnet River contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”) and solvents will be cleaned up and prepared for redevelopment under an agreement Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) reached with AVX Corporation (“AVX”).