Foreclosure Resource Center

Consumer Information

Need legal advice?

• Philadelphia Legal Assistance
• Community Legal Services

Need to talk to a housing counselor?

• HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agencies
• National Foundation for Credit Counseling
• Pennsylvania Finance Housing Agency: Homeownership and HEMAP-Approved Housing Counseling Agencies
• Delaware State Housing Authority
• United Way

Resources for homeowners

Falling behind on your mortgage? Need to refinance? Learn about mortgage assistance and refinance programs offered by the following agencies:

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac :
  • Making Home Affordable website for consumers
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA):
  • FHASecure
  • Hope for Homeowners
• Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency:
  • HEMAP
    • Technical Brief  (273 KB, 2 pages)
    • HEMAP Help Center 
  • REAL and HERO
• Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition — Foreclosure Prevention Resource Guide
• Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS): Loans for Legal and Sheriff's Fees
• Delaware State Housing Authority:
  • Delaware Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program
  • Delaware Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (DEMAP)
• New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency:
  • Homeownership Preservation Refinance Program (HPRP)
  • Refinance Rehabilitation Program
• New Jersey Housing Resource Center
• Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America: Home Save Program

Other informational websites and background information

Third District (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware):

• Delaware Department of State: Office of the State Bank Commissioner
• New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance
• New Jersey Home Ownership Preservation Effort (NJ HOPE)
• Pennsylvania Department of Banking

National:

• Consumer Mortgage Information
• Loan Modification Scam Alert
• Find a HUD Counselor
• 5 Tips Series , includes Avoiding Foreclosure Scams and more (Federal Reserve System)
• A Consumer's Guide to Mortgage Refinancings
• NeighborWorks America: foreclosure prevention information
• NeighborWorks Foreclosure Hotline — 1-888-955-HOPE
• HOPE NOW: foreclosure prevention information
• Foreclosure Resources for Consumers (Federal Reserve Board of Governors)
• You May Be Paying Too Much for Your Mortgage (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)  (181 KB, 4 pages)
• Filing a Bank-Related Complaint (Federal Reserve Consumer Help)

Community Resources

Help your customers. Find an approved housing counselor, agency lender, or simply gather the resources and education to help consumers navigate the complex foreclosure process.

Foreclosure Mitigation Toolkit for Communities

The Foreclosure Mitigation Toolkit provides resources to assist communities in addressing the current turmoil in the housing market and minimize the impact of foreclosures on neighborhoods.

National Resources

• Reclaiming Foreclosed Properties for Community Benefit — A website that highlights practices aimed at stabilizing neighborhoods.
• Making Home Affordable — A consumer website created to provide information, including eligibility requirements, on the Home Affordable Refinance Program and Home Affordable Modification Program.
• Stable Communities — Created by NeighborWorks America and designed to help communities respond to local problems that arise when foreclosed homes remain vacant. StableCommunities.org is where community development practitioners share success stories and learn what works to reverse the many negative impacts of foreclosure.

Counseling agencies

• HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agencies
• National Foundation for Credit Counseling
• Pennsylvania Finance Housing Agency: Homeownership and HEMAP-Approved Housing Counseling Agencies
• Delaware State Housing Authority
• United Way

Learn about loan programs that can help your customers

• Federal Housing Administration
• Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency
• Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS): Loans for Legal and Sheriff's Fees
• Delaware State Housing Authority
• New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency
• New Jersey Housing Resource Center
• Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America

Other resources

• Federal Property Managers Report
• Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition — Foreclosure Prevention Resource Guide
• PBS NOW
• Excerpts from Foreclosure Prevention: A Collaborative Meeting Between Servicers and Counselors
• Just Price BestFIT

Research, Publications, and Other Background Information

• The Federal Reserve Conference of Presidents’ Mortgage Outreach and Research Efforts: Foreclosure Crisis — An Interim Report, June 2010
• Financial Literacy and the Effectiveness of Financial Education and Counseling
• Effect of Mortgage Foreclosures on Nearby Property Values
• Foreclosure Prevention Efforts
• Mortgage Defaults
• Summary of Findings: Design and Testing of Truth in Lending Disclosures for Closed-End Mortgages
• Summary of Findings: Design and Testing of Truth in Lending Disclosures for Home Equity Lines of Credit
• Summary of Findings: Consumer Testing of Mortgage Broker Disclosures
• “The Accumulation of Foreclosed Properties,” Dan Immergluck (FRB-Atlanta), Community Affairs Discussion Paper #02-08, December 2008.
• “Residential Housing and Personal Bankruptcy,” Wenli Li, Business Review (Q2 2009)
• 5 Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure Scams
• A Snapshot of Mortgage Conditions with an Emphasis on Subprime Mortgage Performance
• Cascade: No. 66, Fall 2007: Foreclosure
• Community and Economic Development Research (CEDRIC)
• Conference of State Bank Supervisors: State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group Reports
• How to Spend $3.92 Billion: Stablizing Neighborhoods By Addressing Foreclosed and Abandoned Properties
• NeighborWorks Center for Foreclosure Solutions
• Spotlight on Research: What Happens to Subprime Defaults
• Subprime Outcomes: Risky Mortgages, Homeownership Experiences, and Foreclosures
• Synopses of Selected Research on Housing, Mortgages, and Foreclosures
• The Reinvestment Fund: Mortgage Foreclosure Filings in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania

Policy and Regulation

• Servicemembers Civil Relief Act of 2003 — information on mortgages (and foreclosures) owned by a servicemember during the applicable period of military service
• Federal Reserve adopts policy statement supporting prudent commercial real estate (CRE) loan workouts
• Federal Reserve to implement consumer compliance supervision program of nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies and foreign organizations
• Annual adjustment of fee-based trigger for additional mortgage loan disclosures
• Board publishes 5 Tips for Dealing with a Home Equity Line Freeze or Reduction
• Board approves final rules revising disclosure requirements for mortgage loans under Regulation Z
• Loan Modification
• Home Mortgage Amendments (Regulation Z – Truth in Lending)
• Federal and State Agencies Announce Project to Improve Supervision of Subprime Mortgage Lenders
• Federal Financial Regulatory Agencies and CSBS Issue Statement of Loss Mitigation Strategies for Servicers of Residential Mortgages
• New Mortgage Laws in Pennsylvania: five mortgate reform bills

Events and News

• Rules Revising Mortgage Disclosure Requirements Get Final Approval
• Confronting the Neighborhood Impacts of Foreclosure
• Hope for Homeowners, the FHA's new program, is effective October 1, 2008
• Summary of the "Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008"