Headlines

Trends involving volume and investing in smaller valuation companies to ensure quality valuations will impact the home finance industry in 2015, according to an email from Summit Valuations President Ron Ahlensdorf, Jr., to his firm's staff and clients.

Just one month after experiencing the largest monthly increase in six years, the nation's mortgage delinquency rate took a big tumble in December, according to Black Knight Financial Services' December 2014 "First Look" at Mortgage Data released Friday. The mortgage delinquency rate, or the number of mortgage loans that are 30 days or more past due but not in foreclosure, dropped down to 5.6 percent for December – a decline of 7.2 percent from November and 12.7 percent from December 2013.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments both for and against the controversial "disparate impact" rule in housing, stakeholders on both sides are awaiting the Court's decision as to whether or not disparate impact claims can be made under the Fair Housing Act.

In the wake of the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) latest confidence index, builders convened in Las Vegas this week to discuss housing trends over the last few months and what they expect to see in 2015. In a ...

Default rates are on the rise month-over-month for both first and second mortgages nationwide, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices for December 2014 released Wednesday. According to the data, the first mortgage default rate experienced its biggest monthly increase since September 2013, rising by five basis points from 0.97 percent in November up to 1.02 percent for December.

Altisource Portfolio Solution's executive team saw a new addition this week, with industry veteran John Vella stepping into the newly created role of chief revenue officer.

Michigan-based default services law firm Fabrizio & Brook, PC, has announced the addition of attorney Cheryl D. Cook to its litigation team and the promotion of Stefan Zaryczny as the firm’s director of information technology.

A nationwide survey of real estate investors bidding on properties offered for auction during the fourth quarter of 2014 revealed that flipping was the preferred investing strategy over renting, according to Auction.com's Q4 2014 Real Estate Investor Activity Report. Though various reports have suggested in the last year that flipping opportunities are dwindling, Auction.com's latest survey affirms that flipping is still going strong: 50 percent of investors said they intended to flip the homes they purchased, compared to 47.3 percent who said they intend to rent them out (2.7 percent were undecided).

Four national banks agreed to pay a combined $2.7 million in penalties to resolve claims that they unlawfully foreclosed on properties in Massachusetts, according to an announcement from Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.

The nation's leading online real estate marketplace, Auction.com, has announced the addition of two executives, Rob Behrend and Hauke Schupp, to its single-family residential division.