With the support of a grant from the California Bar Foundation and assistance from the State Bar of California, Office of Legal Services, Access and Fairness staff, the Public Interest Clearinghouse and the State Bar announced recently that ForeclosureInfoCA.org, a central repository for public resources and attorney volunteer opportunities, has gone live. 

 This site has a host of services including: 1) listing agencies and organizations providing mortgage foreclosure assistance to consumers; 2) linking with http://www.probono.net/ca/and listing the attorney volunteer opportunities available at legal services programs, HUD counseling agencies, local bars and LRS’s interested in using volunteer attorneys to address mortgage foreclosure issues on behalf of home owners and renters; and 3) providing consumer education on mortgages, loans and the foreclosure process.

Ideas for additional ForeclosureInfoCA.org resources, should be directed to Siobhan Waldron, Public Interest Clearinghouse at swaldron@pic.org.

RealtyTrac, the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, reported in its Q2 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, that foreclosures were filed on 739,714 U.S. properties during the second quarter of 2008, a nearly 14% increase from the previous quarter and a 121% increase from the second quarter of 2007. The report also shows that one in every 171 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the second quarter of 2008.

“Although much of the fallout from foreclosures is being driven by rampant activity in a few states, such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, most areas of the country are seeing at least some increase in foreclosure activity,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Forty-eight of 50 states and 95 out of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the second quarter.”

In light of all the recent dismal activity in the housing market, states across the nation are responding with mandatory mediation programs to provide some form of relief to struggling homeowners.

In Connecticut, the General Assembly launched a special foreclosure mediation program through the state Judicial Branch, the first of its kind in the United States, to help homeowners who have not been able to make their monthly mortgage payments reports Daniel Tepfer of the Connecticut Post. 

Similarly, Ohio’s Supreme Court has developed and instituted an 11-Step Foreclosure Mediation Program Model that Ohio Courts are using in forming their mandatory foreclosure mediation programs throughout the state. In Seminole County, Florida, 18th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Clayton D. Simmons signed an order earlier this summer ordering mediation in foreclosures of owner-occupied residences in an effort to force lenders to respond to homeowners’ who want to work out a deal so they can keep their home. “It is forcing, hopefully, some communication that wasn’t going on in the past. That was our whole purpose,” Simmons said as reported in the Orlando Sentinel by Amy Edwards . “If they don’t communicate, there’s no way of working it out.”

We have not seen anything comparable instituted yet in California to specifically tackle the foreclosure crisis. We invite you to weigh in with your thoughts and comments on the issue and how mandatory mediation programs may positively or negatively effect foreclosure actions across the country.