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The city's Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution earlier this week that would encourage the lenders who own distressed properties to sell them to nonprofits and community development financial institutions rather than to hedge funds, Wall Street speculators, or private equity firms.

The STACR offering announced Thursday is the GSE’s second this year and 11th overall. Freddie Mac began the STACR program in the second half of 2013 as part of the Enterprise’s goal of reducing risk to taxpayers by increasing private capital’s role in the mortgage market.

A new Web-based course that will provide city leaders with strategies to successfully address foreclosures in their cities will be offered for free to the general public, according to an announcement from National League of Cities (NLC) and Wells Fargo on Wednesday.

In a white paper released Wednesday titled "The Continued Profitability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is Not Assured," the Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) warned that the profitability of the two GSEs may not continue due to their having to rely on core earnings for profits in the future.

According to Ocwen, the portfolio consists of approximately 55,000 performing loans owned by Freddie Mac. The transaction is subject to approval by Freddie Mac and its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as well as other customary conditions. Ocwen reported that it expects the transaction to close by April 30, 2015, and expects the loan servicing to transfer in May 2015.

Despite the fact that 89 percent of the mortgage industry professional surveyed by the Collingwood Group last September said regulations were hurting their business, 76 percent of respondents in March's Mortgage Industry Outlook Report said they would be willing to pay up to 25 basis points when asked how much they would pay "to be relieved of all liability for future buybacks, indemnifications and/or lawsuits."

In an update on its website dated March 2, Ocwen announced that it had "signed a letter of intent with a buyer on the sale of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) on a portfolio consisting of approximately 277,000 performing Agency loans owned by Fannie Mae with a total unpaid principal balance of approximately $45 billion." In that March 2 update, Ocwen wrote that the transaction was "subject to a definitive agreement, approvals by Fannie Mae and FHFA and other customary conditions, Ocwen expects the transaction to close by mid-year and the loan servicing to transfer over the course of the second half of 2015."

According to February's first mortgage default index, the rate ticked downward to 1.00 percent in February from 1.02 percent in January after seven months of increases since falling to its lowest level of 0.88 in July 2014. February's first mortgage default rate represents a decline of 23 basis points from February 2014 (1.23 percent). The rate recently experienced its largest increase in the previous 15 months (five basis points) from November to December 2014.

Nomura, which is headquartered in Japan and is one of the world's biggest banks, is the first financial institution to go to trial out of the 18 lenders FHFA sued in 2011 to recoup U.S. taxpayer costs following the government's $188 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008, after which the government seized control of both Enterprises.

A group of consumer advocates has expressed concern over non-borrowing spouses facing foreclosure and eviction following the death of a borrowing spouse, according to comments the group recently submitted totaling 65 pages to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).