Bank of America Home Loans has opened a new customer outreach center in Dedham, Mass. to serve customers in the Boston area and surrounding region. Bank of America homeownership retention specialists will be meeting face-to-face with financially troubled mortgage customers who are having difficulty making their monthly payments. Dedicated associates also are available to help customers facing hardship with their auto, credit cards and personal loans.Read more

HOPE LoanPort, a Web-based housing counselor tool that streamlines submission of completed loan modification applications, has announced that Citi, one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, has agreed to use its proprietary technology for assisting homeowners with loan modifications. Citi becomes the 10th mortgage servicer to sign onto HOPE LoanPort.Read more

HOPE LoanPort has launched its consumer-based Web site, HOPELoanPortal.org.Read more

The commercial real estate market had been described by many as a “tsunami” and “the next shoe to drop.” The ocean has receded and curious onlookers are gathering at the shore, observing people collecting fish on the dry ocean floor, along some of the most highly leveraged condo projects and luxury hotel suites in the country. Multibillion dollar deals that were made in an environment of optimism and increasing rents as far as the eye could see have come undone and crashed ashore amidst the carnage of investor losses.Read more

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has opened an investigation into Making Home Affordable, the federal foreclosure prevention program. As part of the Committee’s investigation, NCRC released a survey of homeowner experiences in the loan modification process, conducted by over 29 housing counseling organizations affiliated with the organization.Read more

NewOak Capital announces the appointment of Jay Lown as managing director and senior member of the financial institutions group. He will be responsible for coordinating all activities relating to the U.S. government-related mortgage lending programs through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA, as well as developing mortgage advisory solutions and focusing on the bank advisory and recapitalization at NewOak Capital.Read more

LenderLive Network Inc., a provider of business process outsourcing and technology to the financial industry, has announced that it has performed at least one of its services on more than 600,000 loans under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) campaign. In turn, the company has put approximately 200,000 borrowers in trial plans to date. HAMP is part of the federally mandated Making Home Affordable program, which touts allowing up to nine million Americans to refinance or modify their home loans.Read more

Actions to keep Americans in their homes grew by almost 22 percent during the second quarter of 2009, according to a report released today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). The latest OCC and OTS Mortgage Metrics Report showed that difficult economic conditions resulted in higher rates of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures in process, which increased to 8.5 percent and 2.9 percent of all serviced mortgages, respectively, but as the Administration’s “Making Home Affordable” program got underway Read more