Ed DeMarco, the Acting Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency for the past three years, will deliver a speech today at the Brookings Institution that leans in the direction of allowing principal reduction on Fannie and Freddie-backed loans in certain cases. This is definitely a crack in the otherwise rigid objection to principal reduction [...]

The bank accountability movement that has grown parallel to the #OccupyWallStreet protests, and has benefited from its energy, won a high-profile victory today. Rose Mary Gudiel is a California public employee facing eviction because of a two-week delayed payment at a time when her brother was shot and killed. She can make the payments now, [...]

The Fannie and Freddie white paper was not the only recent release from the Treasury Department. They put out a “HAMP Fact v. Fiction” paper, a short document that serves as a defense for the White House’s signature foreclosure mitigation program, particularly a response to those Republicans who have called for its elimination. Needless to [...]

At a press event in North Portland in front of the home of a family struggling to avoid foreclosure, Senator Jeff Merkley unveiled a six-part plan to fix the housing market and rebalance the relationship between borrower and lender. The plan includes what Merkley calls “lifeline bankruptcy,” which is basically the cramdown proposal to allow [...]