By: Carrie Bay Foreclosure starts dropped during the second quarter and the inventory of homes in the process of foreclosure fell for the first time since 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Thursday. Loans 90 days or more past due, the largest share of delinquent mortgages, also decreased. MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann says […]

By: Carrie Bay Chase, the consumer and commercial banking arm of New York’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. says it “remains committed to helping customers avoid foreclosure.” In an announcement issued Wednesday, the bank outlined several key initiatives it has undertaken to better serve borrowers who are struggling with their mortgage payments. Over the last 18 […]

According to a new report from state attorneys general and bank supervisors from across the country, more than 60 percent of homeowners with seriously delinquent loans are still not involved in any form of loss mitigation with their servicer. The ratio is disconcerting considering the group also found that one of servicers’ primary loss mitigation […]

By: Carrie Bay First-time homebuyers continued to desert the housing market in July, according to a new industry study released Monday. Data compiled by Campbell Surveys and Inside Mortgage Finance, shows that first-time homebuyers accounted for only 39.1 percent of the home purchase market last month. That’s down from a peak of 48.2 percent as […]

By: Heather Hill Cernoch In its efforts to protect homeowners and avoid another mortgage and foreclosure crisis, the New York State Banking Department has issued new rules regarding the business practices of mortgage loan servicers. The regulations, which go into effect October 1, implement provisions from 2008’s Mortgage Lending Reform Law to create consumer protections […]

By: Carrie Bay The industry has completed about 975,000 permanent loan modifications so far in 2010, according to estimates released this week by the HOPE NOW Alliance. Of those, just over 331,000 have been processed under the umbrella of the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), while nearly 644,000 have been restructured using servicers’ […]

Will Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still be here in three years? Or will they be replaced by a new federal mortgage agency? Will the government begin a grand exodus from the housing market and leave the American Dream to the private sector? These were the questions addressed Tuesday at the administration’s housing finance conference […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Monday published a long list of new rules intended to protect consumers from what the central bank describes as “unfair, abusive, or deceptive lending practices.” The documents outline new requirements that will govern compensation to mortgage professionals and disclosures to borrowers regarding their home loans. The Fed announced final rules […]

By: Carrie Bay Foreclosed homes permeate the American landscape. According to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), they make up about one in 12 houses with under $1 million left on the mortgage. These foreclosures drive down home prices, and MIT gives two reasons for their depreciating effect – because foreclosed homes add […]

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RealtyTrac reported Thursday that foreclosure filings increased four percent in July – an abrupt departure from the previous three months, which saw consecutive declines in foreclosure activity. However, even with filings on a total of 325,229 properties during the month, July’s numbers represented a 10 percent decrease compared to July 2009. One in every 397 […]

By: Carrie Bay The number of short sales has more than tripled since 2008, with the estimated annual volume now at 400,000, according to the real estate data and analytics firm CoreLogic. The hard-hit housing markets of California, Florida, and Arizona, along with Texas, are seeing the most activity, CoreLogic said in its 2010 Short […]