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What's New?

Innovations in foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization are taking place every day. This page provides an overview of new examples, resources and reports that have been added to Foreclosure-Response.org as we strive to present the most up-to-date information. If you are aware of other resources or case studies that should be added to the site, please Contact Us.

December 2011

October 2011


August 2011

New Resources:
July 2011

New Resources:

June 2011

New Resources:

April 2011

New Resources:

March 2011

New Resources:
 

February 2011

New Resources: Maps and Data
  • Metropolitan Delinquency and Foreclosure Data have been updated to September 2010. These data provide the share of mortgages in each U.S. metropolitan area that is seriously delinquent -- either 90 or more days past due or currently in foreclosure -- as well as the metropolitan foreclosure rate. Data are available in an Excel workbook for all 366 U.S. metropolitan areas. Rankings are also available. The data will be updated on a quarterly basis.

  • A new Market Strength and Foreclosure Risk Matrix and related guidance are available to help communities set priorities for neighborhood stabilization targeting. The matrix combines a new LISC Housing Market Index and LISC Foreclosure Risk Scores estimated to the census tract level. Communities can use the downloadable matrix to compare census tracts within a metropolitan area and use their limited neighborhood stabilization resources more effectively.

  • LISC Foreclosure Risk Scores have been updated to September 2010. Intrastate Foreclosure Risk Scores are available for mapping or download. Intrametropolitan Foreclosure Risk Scores are available for download only. These data allow users to see which ZIP Codes within each state or metropolitan area have high foreclosure risks and determine which neighborhood(s) to target in a neighborhood stabilization plan.

January 2011

New Resources:

December 2010

New Resources:

November 2010

New Resource: Maps and Data
Metropolitan Delinquency and Foreclosure Data have been updated to June 2010. These data provide the share of mortgages in each U.S. metropolitan area that is seriously delinquent -- either 90 or more days past due or currently in foreclosure -- as well as the metropolitan foreclosure rate. Data are available in an Excel workbook for all 366 U.S. metropolitan areas. Rankings are also available. The data will be updated on a quarterly basis.


October 2010

New Resource: Maps and Data
LISC Foreclosure Needs Scores have been updated to June 2010. Intrastate Foreclosure Needs Scores are available for mapping or download. Intrametropolitan Foreclosure Needs Scores are available for download only. These data allow users to see which ZIP Codes within each state or metropolitan area have high foreclosure needs and determine which neighborhood(s) to target in a neighborhood stabilization plan.


September 2010

New Resources: Maps and Data


August 2010

New Resource: Maps and Data
New Intrametropolitan LISC Foreclosure Needs Scores are available for download. These data allow users to see which ZIP Codes within each metropolitan area have high foreclosure needs. The new scores provide a different look at foreclosure needs by enabling meaningful comparisons of foreclosure needs when a metropolitan area includes ZIP Codes in more than one state. The data are from March 2010 and complement the existing intrastate scores.


July 2010

Webinar: Strategies for Comprehensive Neighborhood Stabilization
On Wednesday, July 28 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, Enterprise Community Partners hosted a webinar called Strategies for Comprehensive Neighborhood Stabilization. Panelists included representatives from organizations involved in neighborhood stabilization in Baltimore, Chicago, and Cleveland. To learn more, click here.

New Resource: Maps and Data
New mapping tools are available for the LISC scores, HMDA High-Cost Purchase Loan data, and HMDA Housing Market Conditions data. In addition, LISC Foreclosure Needs Scores have been updated to March 2010.

New Resource: Mediation Policy Section
The policy guide now includes a section on foreclosure mediation programs with descriptions of initiatives around the country and a list of best practices for implementing a mediation program in your community.


January 2010

New Resource: NSP2 Grantees Information
The NSP Resource Center now includes a list of NSP2 grantees by state and a list of grantees with summaries of each of the grants.


December 2009

New Resource: Maps and Data
LISC Foreclosure Needs Scores have been updated and are available for online mapping. The new data are from June 2009. HMDA data for 2008 are also available and can now be downloaded in stand-alone Excel files for ease of use.


November 2009

New Resources:
  • NSP Resource Center
    Find quick links to resources that may be useful for states and localities that are in the process of implementing neighborhood stabilization plans.

  • Live at the Forum Resource Page
    "Live at the Forum" sessions give Forum members the opportunity to learn about new research reports and policy innovations and interact with housing practitioners, researchers, and other leaders in the field. This page provides links to resources for Live at the Forum sessions related to foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization, including recordings from conference calls and webinars when available and direct links to the online Q&A portion of each event.

October 2009

New Case Study: Manual Credit Review in Memphis
Learn more about an innovative initiative in Memphis, Tennessee, to manually check the credit of rental housing applicants whose previously-clean records have been damaged by foreclosure. While an automatic check would likely screen out these families, this cooperative effort between community organizations and property management firms may allow households facing foreclosure to find more and safer rental options.


September 2009

New Resource: Making it Work Webinar Series
Materials from the four-part series Making it Work - Practical Information on How to Implement a Neighborhood Stabilization Plan are now available on Foreclosure-Response.org. Sessions in the series address key aspects of implementing a neighborhood stabilization plan, including developing a plan that achieves the best results, property acquisition and disposition, and performance measurement.


August 2009

New Case Studies:

Bring Foreclosed Properties Back Into Use
New Resource: Federal Housing Administration's 203(k) Loan Program
The FHA's 203(k) program combines the costs of purchasing or refinancing and rehabbing a single-family home into a single loan that is fully backed by the federal government. The 203(k) can be a useful tool for communities whose neighborhood stabilization plans involve the acquisition and re-use of vacant and foreclosed properties. A new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency calls attention to this tool and outlines associated benefits and risks.

Special Announcement
On August 4, the Administration reported progress on the Making Home Affordable Program and released information on servicer performance. There have been over 230,000 trial modifications since the program began, but some servicers have not offered any modifications yet. A press release available on the Making Home Affordable site has more information and a link to the full report.


July 2009

New Resource: Stop Foreclosure: Documents Your Lender Needs to Help You
This new two-minute video, developed by Freddie Mac and available on their YouTube channel, provides an overview of the financial documents borrowers should have available before placing a call to their mortgage servicer.

Special Announcement
On July 1, HUD announced an expansion in eligibility for the Making Home Affordable Program. Homeowners who owe between 80 and 125 percent (up from 105 percent) of their home's value may now be able to refinance at current interest rates. Visit the Making Home Affordable page for more information.


June 2009

Special Announcement
On Monday, June 15, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a Bridge Notice that helps to simplify and streamline the requirements specified in Rounds One and Two of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP1 and NSP2). View a Summary of the notice from Enterprise Community Partners.

Special Announcements
  • During a webinar on Friday, June 26, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EDT, PolicyLink and Living Cities will release the "Reclaiming Foreclosed Properties for Community Benefit" tool, which highlights promising strategies for acquiring foreclosed properties and transferring them to responsible owners. The webinar will review the tool, look at strategies being used in the Twin Cities and Los Angeles, and include time for Q&A with a HUD representative about the NSP2 program. Click here to RSVP.

New Resource: Regional Resilience in the Face of Foreclosures: Evidence from Six Metropolitan Areas
This report by by Swanstrom, Chapple, and Immergluck looks at foreclosure prevention and response in weak market, mixed market, and strong market metro areas (Cleveland, OH; St. Louis, MO; Chicago, IL; Atlanta, GA; the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino, CA; and the East Bay area of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, CA).

Bring Foreclosed Properties Back Into Use
New Resource: Property Disposition: Exploring Different Approaches for Preserving Affordable Housing Opportunities
This report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency outlines various ways that banks and mortgage servicers can partner with public and non-profit entities to develop property disposition strategies that also help to preserve affordable housing opportunities.

Case Studies
In May 2009, the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership and Center for Urban and Regional Affairs jointly sponsored a Symposium on Neighborhood Responses to the Foreclosure Crisis. Case study examples from the event have been added to Foreclosure-Response.org on the following pages:

May 2009

Special Announcement
On May 20, President Obama signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which includes important protections for tenants of foreclosed properties. Click here to read a memo prepared by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that describes the tenant protection provisions, or click here to read a summary or the full text of the bill.

Secure and Maintain Vacant Properties
New Resource: Vacant and Abandoned Properties: Survey and Best Practices
This collection of case studies and best practices, issued by the US Conference of Mayors, updates a previous report on successful strategies and initiatives that cities have implemented to mitigate the harm done by vacant and abandoned properties.

Special Announcement
On May 4, HUD issued a NOFA for the second round of NSP funding, which will be awarded on a competitive basis. Enterprise Community Partners has prepared 2 summary documents, one providing an overview of application and eligibility requirements, and one describing changes for the second round of funding.

Understand Why Foreclosures Matter: Communities
New Resource: Updated Analysis of Home Sales Prices and Appraised Home Values in High Foreclosure Rate Neighborhoods
This report compares median home sales prices with median appraised home values in 15 ZIP code areas in the Atlanta GA metro area, and finds that significant deterioration in home sales prices in high foreclosure neighborhoods has not been reflected in appraisals for homes in those areas.

Special Announcement
On May 14, Secretaries Geithner and Donovan announced updates to the 'Making Home Affordable' program. Click here to view the related Fact Sheet [PDF], or click here to learn more about the program.

Special Announcement
On May 4, HUD announced that the Department is now soliciting grant applications under its Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to make available nearly $2 billion in Recovery Act funding to states, local governments and non-profit housing developers to combat the effects of home foreclosures. Click here for more information.


April 2009

Special Announcement
On April 28, the Administration announced an expansion of the 'Homeowner Affordability and Stability' Plan to prevent foreclosures. The expanded program will include a second lien modification plan and incorporation of the Hope for Homeowners program. Information on the original program can be found in the guidelines released in March. Click here to read a detailed review of the modification portion of the original program, prepared by law firm Cleary Gottlieb.

Clickable Map of Examples By State
Pew Center on the States Fact Sheets
Available for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, fact sheets describe foreclosure prevention efforts at the state level.

Help Owner and Renter Families Recover
New Resource:The Unraveling of the American Dream: Foreclosures in the Immigrant Community of Minneapolis
This report looks at the characteristics of families affected by foreclosures in the City of Minneapolis. Among other findings, the author notes that the majority of foreclosures involved rental properties, rather than owner-occupied homes, and nearly 4 out of 10 foreclosures affected families with a child in the Minneapolis Public School system. African-American and Hispanic households, as well as non-English speaking households, were disproportionately represented in this group.

Prevent Foreclosure, Keep Families in Their Homes
New Resource: Loan Modifications and Redefault Risk: An Examination of Short-term Impact
This report examines the relationship between redefault rates and different types of loan modifications. Findings show that the most effective modifications reduce mortgage payments to affordable levels and reduce the principal owed. More significant restructuring may be needed to deal with poorly underwritten loans or those who owe more than the current value of the home.