Home / News / Foreclosure (page 313)

Foreclosure

Servicers to Receive New Incentives for Expedited Modifications

Treasury has released an update to its Home Affordable Modification Program, which provides enhanced incentives to servicers that modify loans quickly rather than letting them linger in delinquency. Incentives vary based on the number of days a mortgage loan is delinquent before receiving modification, ranging from $1,600 to $400. The directive is effective October 1, and applies to all permanent HAMP modifications with trial period plans effective on or after that date.

Read More »

Government Extends Mortgage Forbearance for Unemployed

With no sustained pickup in the job market, over six million Americans have been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks. Such extended periods of joblessness remain the predominant force behind high volumes of seriously past-due mortgages. With these realities weighing on an already fragile market, the federal government said Thursday it will extend the mortgage forbearance period for unemployed homeowners to a year under the Federal Housing Administration and Making Home Affordable programs.

Read More »

HOPE LoanPort Now Live in All 50 States, D.C. and Puerto Rico

HOPE LoanPort, a proprietary, Web-based tool used by non-profit housing counselors, housing finance agencies, investors, and major mortgage servicers, recently added North Dakota to its roster, making it live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The nonprofit organization, which recently completed its first full year of operation, allows housing counselors to submit an application, including the upload of homeowner documents, for home retention in a secure environment.

Read More »

Loan Liquidations Send CMBS Delinquency Rate Plummeting

For the first time since the credit crisis began in 2008, the delinquency rate on loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) has fallen for two consecutive months. After a modest reduction in May, the research firm Trepp LLC says the delinquency rate fell 23 basis points in June to 9.37 percent. Unfortunately, the company says, the rate reduction was driven primarily by a sharp spike in loans being resolved with losses, rather than delinquent loans actually curing.

Read More »

Wells Fargo to Host Free Workshop for Washington Customers

More than 5,000 Washington state homeowners have been invited by Wells Fargo to participate in a free workshop this Thursday and Friday in Bellevue. Designed for borrowers facing financial hardships, the two-day workshop targets Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial, Wachovia Mortgage, and Wells Fargo Home Equity customers. The Washington event is Wells Fargo's 16th home preservation workshop in 2011.

Read More »

Shadow Inventory and REOs Loom Over National Recovery

Conditions across multiple financial sectors suggest economic stabilization and growth. It's the housing market that's holding back economic recovery, according to the credit bureau Equifax. The company's latest analysis of national credit trends points to shadow inventory and REOs as major mortgage market depressors. Growth in these areas has led to bigger write-offs. Equifax says write-off dollars for home finance in 2010 more than doubled that of 2006 and 2007 combined.

Read More »

Milestone Asset Resolution Company Undergoes Corporate Changes

Milestone Asset Resolution Company, a diversified financial services management firm, announced several changes last week regarding the expansion of its business operations following a corporate investment from Oaktree Investment Holdings. Oaktree will acquire a non-controlling equity position in the company, and going forward, Milestone will be known as Sabal Financial Group.

Read More »

Investors Plead Guilty to Bid-Rigging at California Foreclosure Auctions

Eight California real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to rig bids at foreclosure auctions in Northern California. The U.S. Department of Justice says the investors face felony charges for a scheme that involved fixing bids by agreeing to refrain from bidding against one another, and paying other potential competitors not to bid in the public auctions. The bid-rigging occurred between May 2008 and January 2011 in Contra Costa County and Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area.

Read More »

Fannie Mae’s Serious Delinquencies Decline for 15th Straight Month

Seriously past-due home mortgages continue to decline for the nation's largest mortgage company, continuing a 15-month path of descent. Fannie Mae says the share of single-family loans it holds that are 90 or more days past due or in foreclosure fell 8 basis points to 4.19 percent in April, and then dropped another 5 basis points to 4.14 percent in May. Fannie Mae says servicers completed modifications on 16,419 of its loans in May. For the first five months of the year, loan modifications total 84,133.

Read More »

Treasury: Nearly 5,000 HAMP Mods Carry Principal Reductions

Treasury has released new numbers for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). New this month is data on the program's Principal Reduction Alternative (PRA). Servicers have cut principal balances on 4,938 permanent HAMP modifications under the PRA initiative. In addition, there are currently 16,017 HAMP trials in force that have also received principal write-downs. The median amount of principal reduced for active permanent modifications exceeds $69,000.

Read More »