Masto obtained approval last August from a state legislative panel to use $11.7 million to set up the resource network for Nevadans trying to access $25 billion available nationwide for mortgage assistance.
Money for the Home Again program comes from $57 million Nevada received from five of the nation's largest banks as part of a national foreclosure settlement last February. The state also negotiated a separate $30 million settlement with Bank of America.
Masto has called it important to get the program up and running because money is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Clark County assessor recorded more than 105,000 foreclosure sales between January 2007 and June 2012 in the Las Vegas area. Luis Arturo Lopez, an analyst at the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said almost 85,000 of those foreclosures were single-family residences.
Nationwide, authorities say about 11 million households are underwater.
The settlement requires the banks to reduce loans for about 1 million households at risk of foreclosure. The lenders will also send $2,000 each to about 750,000 Americans who were improperly foreclosed upon from 2008 through 2011. The banks have until 2015 to fulfill terms of the deal.
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Home Again, Nevada Homeowner Relief Program: www.HomeAgainNevada.gov. Toll-free 1-855-HLP-4-NEV (1-855-457-4638).
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Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr
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