Tag Archives: Foreclosure Moratorium

A New Jersey judge has given the green light for five of six major mortgage servicers to resume uncontested foreclosures in the state after a formal review of their procedures demonstrated the ""reliability of their processes."" Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and OneWest Bank have been granted permission to restart foreclosures. Ally's GMAC Mortgage is awaiting the court's decision. Since the beginning of 2011, just over 6,000 foreclosures have surfaced in the state courts, compared to 35,000 filings at this time last year.

Data released by Lender Processing Services (LPS) Thursday indicates foreclosure and delinquency numbers are on the rise again. The company says foreclosures were initiated on 217,486 loans in June, up more than 10 percent from May. The national delinquency rate also increased to 8.15 percent. As a supplement to this month's report, LPS examined its historical data and found that nearly half of all loans originated in the U.S. since 2005 would not qualify as a Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) under regulators' current proposal.

The nation's Capitol stands out as the ""shining star"" in nearly every market report that crosses the wire. Washington, D.C. has consistently resisted home price declines, sales activity bucks widespread trends, and foreclosure numbers, too, have been almost non-existent due to an unofficial moratorium. Is it the absence of foreclosure property that's behind D.C.'s defiant market performance and will it turn now that emergency mediation rules have been enacted to restart foreclosures? Local experts say no, D.C. is just a market to itself.

Wells Fargo will host a free workshop Thursday for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial, Wachovia Mortgage, and Wells Fargo Home Equity customers facing financial hardships. Hundreds of South Carolina homeowners are invited to the event in Columbia, South Carolina. About 50 home retention team members will be on hand to work one-on-one with customers to explore options such as workouts and loan modifications.

Foreclosures in Florida dropped by 12 percent from March to April, according to ForeclosureDataOnline.com. Since the fourth quarter of last year, the state's foreclosure activity is down 47 percent. The site attributes this slowdown to the recent robo-signing foreclosure documentation problems exposed last fall, which resulted in temporary moratoriums and court delays where foreclosures require approval by a judge. However, March data suggest foreclosures will soon rise again as banks continue to work through their backlog of cases.

The nation's largest mortgage servicers foreclosed on 95,067 homes during the fourth quarter of 2010, a 49 percent drop from the number of completed foreclosures during the previous quarter, according to a new report from two regulatory agencies. Newly initiated foreclosures also decreased but by a much smaller ratio of 8 percent. Because new foreclosures outpaced completed foreclosures, the inventory of foreclosures in process increased to 1,290,253, representing 3.9 percent of all serviced loans among the largest national firms.

Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (M&I) has extended its foreclosure moratorium for distressed homeowners. Begun in December 2008 as part of M&I's Homeowner Assistance Program, the moratorium applies to applicable loans in all M&I markets and covers all owner-occupied residential loans for customers who agree to work in good faith to reach a successful repayment agreement.

Servicers made several concessions in their version of the settlement proposal that they submitted to federal and state regulators. In an excerpt of the draft obtained by DS News, servicers agree to stop dual tracking, give borrowers a window to appeal a denied modification, and provide a single point of contact for borrowers. Perhaps most significant in the excerpt is a pledge by the servicers to establish standards for affidavits and sworn statements in foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings.

Attorneys general and federal regulators sat down with major servicers this week to discuss the details of the robo-signing settlement. Both sides have submitted their own version of what they believe a settlement should look like, and this week's meeting is just the first in what will likely be a long period of negotiations. Banks have repeatedly spoken out against what they believe to be terms that are too harsh and may even encourage moral hazard. Mortgage investors are also weighing in on the proposed terms.

Opposition to the proposed servicer settlement developed a stronger stance this week as four attorneys general released a letter to Iowa's Tom Miller, who is leading the states' investigation. Attorneys general from Virginia, Texas, Florida, and South Carolina said while they support actions to correct problems unearthed by the robo-signing scandal, the proposal includes mandates and suggestions that are out of the scope of their enforcement role. They expressed particular uneasiness over the provisions surrounding principal write-downs.