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With consumers already dealing with the fastest price increases in decades, another unwelcome uptick is on the horizon: a widely expected increase in winter heating bills, the New York Times reported. After plunging during the pandemic as the global economy slowed, energy prices have roared upward. Natural gas, used to heat almost half of U.S. households, has almost doubled in price since this time last year. The price of crude oil — which deeply affects the 10 percent of households that rely on heating oil and propane during the winter — has soared by similarly eye-popping levels. And those costs are being quickly passed through to consumers, who have become accustomed to cheaper energy prices in recent years and now find themselves with growing concerns about inflation this year. In the U.S., the winter months account for about 50 to 80 percent of residential fuel consumption. And there is “a significant chance” consumers could face a “marked increase” in prices for heating, said Nina Fahy, an analyst for Energy Aspects, a research consultancy. Last winter was warmer than average, which led to residential energy bills that were comparatively low. This season, heating costs could rise to levels not seen for a decade, even if there isn’t a severe winter. Several factors — lower global fuel inventories, incentives for producers to let prices rise and a mismatch between supply and demand as economies emerge from the pandemic — may combine to push bills higher regardless.

Freddie Mac is introducing a program to help renters build their credit history. The new program incentivizes apartment operators to report on-time rent payments through technology provided by Esusu Financial, the Washington Post reported. The technology automatically delivers on-time rental payment data from property management software programs to the credit bureaus. If renters miss payments, they are automatically unenrolled from the program so that negative information is not delivered to the credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) if they are struggling financially. Freddie Mac is the largest purchaser of multifamily loans, accounting for approximately 20 percent of the market. More than 90 percent of the rental units funded through Freddie Mac are affordable to households with low to moderate incomes. Freddie Mac will provide closing cost credits on loans to apartment owners who agree to report on-time rental payments through Esusu’s platform.

In August, House Education Chair Bobby Scott urged the Education Department to hold the executives of defunct for-profit colleges, like Corinthian and ITT Tech, personally liable for money owed to the federal government — a cost that has typically fallen on students and taxpayers. During a hearing last week, Federal Student Aid (FSA) director Richard Cordray directly responded to Scott's request, and he said he "absolutely agrees," according to Business Insider. "We see eye to eye on this," Cordray said. "More needs to be done to prevent people from abusing these student aid programs, from cheating taxpayers, from cheating students." Cordray was invited to testify before the House Education and Labor Committee last week on his financial aid priorities, and while he was often vague in his responses to a number of questions surrounding broad student loan forgiveness, he was clear with his stance on protecting borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools. During his line of questioning, Scott followed up on his August letter, saying that the Education Department has been "failing" to use its authority in holding the executives of institutions that defrauded students financially accountable, which has left "taxpayers and students to pay the price when institutions engage in fraudulent activities." Cordray acknowledged Scott's letter and said "it was a good bit of a kick in the behind for us to make sure we're moving down the road on this. And we will."

The Education Department's point person on student financial aid told Congress this week that the agency is working with the Justice Department to revise its bankruptcy policy for federal student loans, the Washington Post reported. "The process doesn't work well. It needs to be reformed . . . and we're committed to doing that," Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of the Office of Federal Student Aid, told a House education subcommittee on Wednesday. "There have been discussions already with the Justice Department. They, too, are willing to have us revise our approach." Discharging education debt through bankruptcy can be a Sisyphean task. Borrowers must bring a separate lawsuit — known as an adversary proceeding — within their bankruptcy case to have their student loans canceled. They must persuade the court the debt would impose an "undue hardship" and fend off the lender from thwarting their effort. As the creditor for $1.6 trillion in federal student loans, the Education Department has the right to contest a bankruptcy discharge to maintain the fiscal integrity of the lending program, and it routinely does so. But the agency also has an obligation to help destitute borrowers, consumer groups argue.

The city of Boston has set aside $5 million in emergency funds to help local homeowners avoid foreclosure, the Associated Press reported. Eligible residents can apply for assistance under the program, which is open to local residents who are at least 90 days behind on payments and who meet income guidelines. Boston Mayor Kim Janey announced the program Thursday, saying it was an effort to address pandemic-related job losses and the local residents who are now struggling to make ends meet. The city is working with local non-profit agencies to oversee the fund. Recipients will also be offered foreclosure counseling to help them learn how to avoid the risk of foreclosure in the future. “The pandemic has exacerbated inequities in our city, and highlighted the importance of safe, stable housing,” Janey said in a statement. Boston is using federal pandemic relief funds to pay for the program.

Rohit Chopra, the head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), will tell lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee today that the agency is seeking to minimize foreclosures on struggling American homeowners and ensure "greater competitive intensity" in consumer lending, according to his prepared testimony, Reuters reported. The agency will also aim to scrutinize Big Tech as it gains greater control over money flows and will sharpen its enforcement focus on firms that repeatedly violate consumer finance laws. "The CFPB will use its tools to promote an equitable and inclusive recovery," Chopra will tell the panel. I hope to focus attention on ways to stimulate greater competitive intensity in consumer financial markets and sharpen my focus on repeat offenders, particularly those that violate agency or federal court orders." He added that the agency will keep a close eye on practices that might impede competition by taking note of "the obstacles small local financial institutions face when seeking to challenge dominant incumbents, including in Big Tech." Analysts expect he will use the CFPB's sweeping authority to probe the financial marketplace and flex significant enforcement muscles. Read more.

To view today's hearing at 10 a.m. ET, please click here. 

Roughly $10 billion of a $46 billion pool of federal rental aid has made it to renters, landlords and utility companies after another $2.8 billion was disbursed by state and local governments in September, the Treasury Department announced yesterday, The Hill reported. Treasury said that funds from the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program reached more than 510,000 households last month and more than 2 million since the initiative began this year. The department had distributed the entirety of the $46 billion to eligible state and local entities in May to help struggling renters avoid eviction upon the expiration of federal and state moratoria. The urgency to expedite the rental aid distribution process ramped up in August when the Supreme Court struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, which was imposed in September 2020. But despite months of pressure from Treasury and attempts to loosen red tape, nearly 75 percent of the rental assistance funds have yet to reach the intended recipients. Even so, the mass wave of evictions that many policymakers feared has not materialized thanks in part to state and local eviction bans, court backlogs and eviction diversion strategies, according to data from Princeton University's Eviction Lab.

The Biden administration is developing plans for how it will restart federal student loan payments early next year when the pandemic pause on monthly payments for tens of millions of Americans ends, POLITICO reported. The Education Department is eyeing proposals that would give borrowers new flexibility as they face student loan bills for the first time in nearly two years, such as an initial grace period for missed payments, the documents and sources show. Officials are also looking at policies to make it easier for millions of borrowers to remain enrolled in income-based repayment programs to avoid a sudden increase in their monthly payment amount. And the administration is actively considering a sweeping plan to expunge the defaults of borrowers who were struggling even before the pandemic. The plans, some of which are still in progress and not finalized, are aimed at averting a potential surge in delinquencies when payments resume in February, which the Biden administration announced in August.

Foreclosures are starting to surge as government and private sector programs designed to help homeowners deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic have begun to expire, CNBC.com reported. Mortgage lenders began the foreclosure process on 25,209 properties in the third quarter, a 32% increase from the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, it’s a 67% increase from the third quarter of 2020, according to ATTOM, a mortgage data firm. While the increases in foreclosures are dramatic, they are coming off extreme lows that were created by the forbearance programs. New foreclosures, also known as starts, usually number around 40,000 per month. They fell to as low as 3,000 to 4,000 in the first year of the pandemic, when forbearance programs were in full force. Government and private-sector relief programs allowed borrowers with financial difficulties to delay their monthly payments for up to 18 months. The missed payments could then be tacked on to the end of the loan period or repaid when the home was sold or the mortgage refinanced.