Headlines

Rosenberg & Associates LLC, a real estate law firm based in the Washington, D.C., area, has announced the promotion of Senior Associate Mark Meyer to Partner within the firm.

Attorneys for investment firm Morgan Stanley made a motion in the New York Supreme Court Tuesday to dismiss two lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) accusing the firm of failing to buy back $2.5 billion worth of faulty residential mortgage-backed securities, according to media reports. FHFA, which is suing on behalf of the RMBS pools' trustees, claims that Morgan Stanley committed a breach of contract by failing to buy back the poor performing loans, which were pooled into securities and sold to Freddie Mac in 2007.

In his first time to testify before Congress since being named HUD Secretary last July, Julián Castro on Wednesday defended the decision to lower FHA mortgage insurance premiums and predicted that the agency's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund would exceed the required 2 percent ratio within two years.

International Document Services (IDS), a mortgage document preparation vendor operating out of Salt Lake City, has promoted former EVP Mark Mackey to CEO.

Five of the nation's largest mortgage servicers will pay more than $123 million to 952 service members and their co-borrowers as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over non-judicial foreclosures that violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), according to an announcement from the Justice Department.

Officials from the Wayne County, Michigan, treasury office assisted more than 4,000 homeowners delinquent on taxes with various plans to avoid foreclosure during the county's recent show cause hearings, according to Wayne County Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski.

Foreclosures in the United States have been steadily declining for months nearly every way the numbers are broken down, and December was no exception, according to CoreLogic's December 2014 National Foreclosure Report released Tuesday. Foreclosure inventory nationwide dropped in December down to 552,000 from 840,000 in December 2013, a decline of 34.3 percent. As of the end of December 2014, approximately 1.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage were in some state of foreclosure – a decline from 2.1 percent from the previous December. The current foreclosure rate of 1.4 percent is the lowest level since March 2008.

Ohio-based field services provider ZVN Properties has added Hazard Claim services to its suite of offerings, according to an announcement from ZVN Properties CEO Bryan Lysikowski.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, February 11, starting at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

The share of respondents in Fannie Mae's survey who said their household income is "significantly higher" than it was a year ago climbed 4 percentage points to a survey high of 29 percent, the company reported. Looking ahead, 48 percent said they expect their finances to improve in the next year, also a survey high. Overall, 44 percent of Americans said they believe the economy is on the right track, an increase of 3 percentage points and only a few points less than those saying the economy is headed the wrong way (49 percent). That optimism spurred 66 percent of those surveyed to say they would buy a home if they had to move, a jump from 61 percent at the end of 2014.