Research

Nationwide, foreclosures have drained nearly $2 trillion in property value from families who live nearby, more than half of them African-American or Latino.* This loss in wealth has hit some areas of the country harder than others. Here we break down the spillover costs for each state, showing total lost wealth, number of households affected and average home equity lost. *Results apply to loans that entered foreclosure between 2007 through 2011. For more details on this report, see " Collateral Damage: The Spillover Costs of Foreclosures."

CRL urges the NCUA to structure their Payday Alternatives Loan (PAL) program to reflect the broad range of alternatives, to prevent the program from operating like a series of high-cost payday loans and to prevent credit unions from engaging in payday lending outside of the PAL program.

Despite the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, owning a home is still central to the hopes and aspirations of many Americans. Even with the recent decline in house prices, owning a home can bestow more financial and non-financial benefits than any other single asset. This means more economic mobility and financial security for families, and stronger communities too. As this chapter explains, the shift away from standard mortgage loans and strong underwriting during the 1990s and early 2000s, along with a fractured regulatory environment, sparked the foreclosure crisis and...

Center for Responsible lending joined with Financial Services Roundtable and Housing Policy Council to ask Congress to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. This tax law has bi-partisan support and is critical to helping homeowners and communities struggling with the ongoing foreclosure crisis. Read the letter sent to the Senate Committee on Finance Read the letter to the House Ways and Mean Committee

The CaliforniaForeclosure Reduction Act – SB 900 (Leno, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Evans, Pavley, Steinberg) & AB 278 (Eng, Feuer, Mitchell) extends key protections of the National Mortgage Settlement to all mortgage servicers for owner-occupant borrowers at risk of foreclosure. Scope of Coverage What Loans? Limits covered loans to first liens of owner-occupied, one-to-four unit principal residence mortgages. Which Servicers? All servicers: General obligations, including prohibiting dual tracking and prohibition on false documents applies to all servicers. Small servicers: Servicers that foreclose...

Foreclosures have drained nearly $2 trillion dollars in lost property value from nearby households. Half of this spillover cost has been incurred by communities of color. People who happen to live near foreclosures lose significant home equity. $1.95 trillion in property value has been lost or will be lost by residents who live close to foreclosed properties. Based on loans that entered foreclosure between 2007 and 2011. This spillover estimate includes losses stemming from completed foreclosures and also future losses projected on foreclosure starts. Communities of color are bearing the...

Five years into the foreclosure crisis, borrowers across the country are still struggling with their mortgage payments, and many seek housing counseling to help manage their finances and guide them through the loan modification process. Between 2008 and 2012, the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program provided foreclosure counseling to nearly 1.4 million homeowners and mortgage-related legal assistance to more than 37,000 homeowners. This analysis helps identify which metropolitan and rural areas have been hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis and remain areas of greatest need for...

Many families who can pay their mortgages on time don't have wealth reserves for a large down payment. Decades of lending have shown that low down payment lending can be successful. Excluding millions of good borrowers from the mainstream mortgage market would be a serious mistake—slowing housing recovery and dragging down the economy when we most need healthy growth. With a 10% Down Payment Lower and middle-income families who could be successful homeowners would be locked out of the lower-cost, mainstream housing market. Existing wealth disparities would get even worse. Given median housing...

Honorable Ben S. Bernanke Chairman Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Washington, DC 20551 Honorable Timothy Geithner Secretary U.S. Department of the Treasury Washington, DC 20220 Honorable Thomas J. Curry Comptroller Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Washington, DC 20219 Honorable Martin J. Gruenberg Acting Chairman Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Washington, DC 20429 Mr. Edward DeMarco Acting Director Federal Housing Finance Agency Washington, DC 20552 Honorable Mary L. Shapiro Chairman Securities and Exchange Commission Washington, DC 20549 Honorable Shaun L. S...

Read the complete issue brief Read a short summary. Read the letter to regulators from CRL and six other organizations. Federal regulators are currently debating how to define "Qualified Residential Mortgages" (QRMs), a category of home loans established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Under Dodd-Frank, mortgage lenders that sell their loans into the private secondary market must retain a portion of the loan's risk unless the loan is designated as a QRM. Because lenders are strongly motivated to avoid future costs on loans they originate, the QRM...