News By Edition

During her appearance, Thompson discussed the state of the housing market, including comparison with the Great Recession; the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; providing liquidity to underserved areas and housing supply and affordability.

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its proposals for updating the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, commonly referred to as the HUD Code.

The proposed updates were published in the Federal Register and are the largest set of changes to the HUD Code in over two decades.

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The agency said the office will serve as a centralized source of information to support it in addressing emerging risks and advancing agency priorities related to the adoption and deployment of financial technology.

Read on to learn more about the new office.

Existing-home sales dropped for the fifth consecutive month in June, with three out of four U.S. regions experiencing month-over-month sales declines and one region holding steady, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

According to NAR, first-time buyers were responsible for 30 percent of sales in June, up from 27 percent in May and down from 31 percent in June 2021.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra recently highlighted steps the agency has taken in the past year to promote competition in the American economy.

In a blog posted on the bureau’s website, Chopra said agency is participating in the Biden administration’s whole-of-government effort to ensure markets for consumer financial products are competitive.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined Bank of America $100 million for “botching” the disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic.

According to the CFPB, Bank of America automatically and unlawfully froze people’s accounts with a faulty fraud detection program and then gave them little recourse when there was no fraud.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a list of its programs included in the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative.

The Justice40 Initiative’s goal is to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water and other investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

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NAR surveyed its members about transactions with international clients who purchased and sold U.S. residential property from April 2021 through March 2022.

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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced the availability of $10.4 million through the Veterans Housing Rehabilitation and Modification Pilot Program for the rehabilitation of the homes of veterans with low-incomes and disabilities.

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New Jersey recently sent a bulletin to real estate licensees to remind them to comply with the state’s RESPA-related laws.

The bulletin was directed to real estate licensees, particularly those on teams, and the brokers responsible for managing and supervising those teams. It urged them to comply with the state Real Estate Broker and Salesperson Act and related regulations.

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A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administrative law judge ruled a Long Island, N.Y., landlord violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent to a mother and her daughter because of the daughter’s cerebral palsy.

The landlord was ordered to pay damages to the family and a civil penalty to the United States.

Read on to learn more about this case.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is accusing payday lender ACE Cash Express of concealing free repayment plans from struggling borrowers to generate millions in fees.

The bureau said ACE’s alleged illegal practices caused individual borrowers to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in reborrowing fees when they were eligible for free repayment plans.

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The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced new flexibility for lenders when qualifying borrowers who experienced previous employment gaps or loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to updates provided in the FHA’s Mortgagee Letter 2022-09, salaried and hourly wage-earners, as well as self-employed individuals affected by COVID-19, who now have stable income will have a greater opportunity to purchase a home.

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More than half of Realtors surveyed (57 percent) cited a lack of inventory as the leading reason preventing clients from buying a home, according to the latest membership survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

NAR’s survey also revealed that its membership increased to 1.56 million at the end of 2021, up from 1.48 million at the end of 2020.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) charged a Florida owner and manager of an RV park with discriminating against a former tenant because of her gender identity.

The defendant allegedly gave a tenant a letter stating the tenant should act as a man, talk as a man and dress as a man to avoid trouble.

Read to learn more about the charges.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agreed to a consent order with Blossom Associates, LLC and Maryanne Hart, the owner and operator of multiple rental units in Massachusetts who allegedly refused to rent to a family because the family had children under the age of 6.

Massachusetts requires housing providers to remediate lead paint in units where children under 6 live. The laws also create liability for housing providers if they do not remediate and young children suffer lead poisoning.

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A Boston-area property management company and its owner agreed to pay restitution and implement no smoking policies in its Roxbury and Dorchester affordable housing units, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

The agreement will settle allegations that the management company and its owner unlawfully denied a tenant and their young disabled child the reasonable accommodations necessary to address secondhand smoke and a rodent infestation.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a legal interpretation to ensure companies that use and share credit reports and background reports have a permissible purpose for doing so under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Congress enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970 to ensure companies “exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality, and a respect for the consumer’s right to privacy.”

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The California Office of Administrative Law recently approved the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation’s proposed commercial financing disclosure regulations.

The regulations extend disclosure protections to California small businesses when those businesses seek commercial financing. The disclosures take effect on Dec. 9.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking external experts with diverse viewpoints to serve on four advisory boards established to provide the agency with information about emerging trends and practices in the consumer financial marketplace.

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The organizations said SPCPs permit lenders to offer mortgage credit to economically and socially disadvantaged borrowers and are an important tool for ensuring financial institutions can meet the needs of their consumers.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing has closed a Rental Assistance Demonstration transaction with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to build 58 newly constructed affordable rental homes.

HUD said the homes will be constructed in the Sharswood/Blumberg neighborhood. They will be built on both vacant lots and locations with blighted structures.

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However, year-over-year transactions decreased in all regions.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued an advisory opinion affirming federal law often prohibits debt collectors from charging “pay-to-pay” fees.

Commonly described by debt collectors as “convenience fees,”

The charges are imposed on consumers who want to make a payment in a particular way, such as online or by phone.

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The Federal Housing Finance Agency released its first quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report.

According to the report, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 129,779 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 6,494,057 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced its intention to investigate credit card company penalty policies, including late fees, which it said costs consumers $12 billion each year.

The bureau published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking soliciting information on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ 2010 immunity provision for excessive late fees that allows credit card companies to avoid enforcement scrutiny.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Council on Foundations recently announced the winners of the 2022 Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships. 

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The company formerly known as Facebook has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving a lawsuit in which the government alleged the company’s housing-advertising system discriminated based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status and national origin.

The lawsuit alleged Meta uses algorithms to determine which Facebook users receive housing ads, and those algorithms rely, in part, on characteristics protected under the Fair Housing Act.

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A North Carolina borrower claimed the servicer of his loan foreclosed without proper notices after receipt of a complete loss mitigation application. The servicer sought summary judgment on all claims as well as for emotional distress and punitive damages.

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The American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently shared a legal analysis with the CFPB.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released a package of resources to combat unsheltered homelessness and homeless encampments, including funds set aside to target homelessness in rural communities.

The package promotes partnerships with health care organizations, public housing authorities and mainstream housing providers, as well as people with expertise concerning homelessness.

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Existing-home sales decreased for the fourth consecutive month in May, according to the National Association of Realtors, with month-over-month sales declining in three out of four major U.S. regions and year-over-year sales slipping in all four regions.

Read on to learn more.