Nearly One Year On Stakeholders Evaluate California's Homeowner's Bill of Rights

Housing advocacy groups say the “single point of contact” requirement has helped prevent lost and duplicated paperwork.

“It’s guaranteeing folks one person at the bank, so they’re not passed back and forth between people,” says Maurice Weeks with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. “They know exactly who their point person is at the bank.”

Bill of Rights supporters also applaud the end of dual tracking. That’s the practice of pushing people through foreclosure as they try to modify their loans.

Banking groups agree those protections are helping. But they says the extra rules are driving up home prices.

“A lot of the foreclosure activity has been stalled compared to historic levels,” says Dustin Hobbs with the California Mortgage Bankers Association. “And so you have fewer homes on the market for purchasers and thus an increase in appreciation.”

Hobbs says increased legal liability is also slowing the housing recovery. Meanwhile, some homeowner groups are pushing for clearer state guidelines for loan modification applications.