YEARS before the housing bust — before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure — a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game.

His name is Nye Lavalle, and he first came to attention not in finance but in sports and advertising. He turned heads in marketing circles by correctly predicting that Nascar and figure skating would draw huge followings in the 1990s.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently examining how consumers shop for mortgages, which could provide some clues to unraveling the housing crisis. In its first semi-annual report to Congress, the CFPB notes that home buyers are taking on less complex mortgages than they were before the bust, but suggests that many may be reluctant to shop around for the best deal. The implication is that mortgage borrowers might miss potential savings that could make paying off their homes easier.

The CFPB points out that about half of all mortgage borrowers do little to no cost-comparisons: “About 20 to 30 percent of mortgage borrowers contacted only one lender [and] a similar fraction considered two lenders.” The figures comes from surveys before the financial crisis, but the CFPB believes that consumers could be underestimating the potential value of shopping around.

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The Obama administration’s long criticized Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) showed a major improvement last week, pushing underwater refinances for underwater homeowners higher, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Although total application volume dropped on an adjusted basis relative to last week, refinance volume remains high, with survey participants reporting that the expanded Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) contributed to roughly 10% of their refinance activity,” said MBA’s chief economist Michael Fratantoni.

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Wells Fargo & Company /quotes/zigman/239557/quotes/nls/wfc WFC +2.44% is hosting a free Home Preservation Workshop in Sacramento for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial, Wachovia Mortgage and Wells Fargo Home Equity customers facing financial hardships. Wells Fargo has invited more than 11,000 mortgage customers in the Sacramento area to the two-day free workshop which will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 8 and Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, from 9 a.m. — 7 p.m., at the Sacramento Convention Center, Hall D and C, located at 1400 J Street in Sacramento. Parking is free.

How to register for Wells Fargo’s Sacramento Home Preservation Workshop

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The National Association of Realtors(R) commends President Obama for pledging to assist homeowners and the struggling housing market, because restoring the health of the housing market is critical for the nation’s economic recovery.

“As the nation’s leading advocate for homeownership and housing issues, NAR knows that stabilizing the housing market is key to the health of our economy and communities across the country,” said NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. “We are pleased that the President released a plan to help America’s struggling housing market and homeowners. Improving access to simple, low-cost refinancing and streamlining the process will help hardworking families who have stayed current on their mortgage payments and will go a long way to helping keep more families in their homes.”

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Almost three years after she last paid the mortgage, Linda Ganguzza remains in her New Milford home  one of thousands of troubled New Jersey homeowners caught in a drawn-out foreclosure process.

“I have no idea where I stand, how much longer I have,” said Ganguzza, a 58-year-old nurse, who says her divorce left her unable to afford the home where she raised three children. “Do I move, do I hang tough, do I talk to the bank?”

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President Obama lays out a new plan for tackling the housing crisis, but will it be more successful than prior efforts?

The president had only to cross the Potomac River to Falls Church, Va., to find plenty of foreclosures.

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President Barack Obama announced a package of proposals to jolt the housing market, his latest effort to reignite the economy after four years of foreclosures and falling home prices.

“This housing crisis struck right at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America: our homes,” Obama said in the text of remarks he’s delivering in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia. “We need to do everything in our power to repair the damage and make responsible families whole.”

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The FHA is betting housing can recover enough to expand financing and earn bigger fees to revive its record-low capital levels. The agency increased the size of mortgages it’s willing to insure to as high as $793,750 in Hawaii and $729,750 in the costly real estate markets of states including California, Florida, and Virginia. In his State of the Union address on Jan. 24, President Barack Obama proposed a new refinancing program that may expand FHA’s responsibilities, and risks, even further.

It’s “not the best time to begin guaranteeing houses that the average American couldn’t afford,” said Anthony Yezer, director of the Center for Economic Research at George Washington University. “It may be that the insurance fund even now is insolvent.”

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A reverse mortgage is a loan for senior homeowners over 62-years-old that uses some of your home equity as collateral. If you keep paying your property taxes and insurance, the loan does not have to be repaid until the last homeowner moves out of the property or passes away. At that point, the home is sold and the loan plus interest is repaid and the remaining home equity goes to the surviving owner or the estate. If the home is worth less than the loan, the estate is not liable for any losses.

Most homes are eligible, although mobile homes must be on owned land and built in last 30 years. Your home needs to either be free and clear of other loans, or any existing mortgage will first be paid off with loan proceeds before additional money is taken out. For instance, you might still owe $100,000 on a loan and have monthly payments of $1,000 a month. With a reverse mortgage, you could pay off the loan and also receive perhaps $1,000 a month in extra income. This would leave you $2,000 a month richer.

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