Foreclosure

With inventory dropping, including the distressed sale inventory, investors are moving to built-for-rent sales. A recent report noted that more and more investors are building rental homes themselves to make up for the gaps. Putting the blame on tight mortgage standards and rising prices, many younger buyers are holding off on buying a home, and investors are cashing in on the desire for detached-homes without the down payment.

The default rate has been steady and falling as home prices continue to rise in most parts of the country and sales of both new and existing homes increase. The default rate for both first and second mortgages fell in April. Additionally, most cities saw declining default rats, with the exception of New York.

A recent survey shows improved performances for mortgage performance for 1-4 family properties. Foreclosures in process fell as well. But new foreclosure starts picked up for the first time since 2014

According to the City of Philadelphia, black borrowers of Wells Fargo loans were over twice as likely to receive high-cost or high-risk loans than white borrowers, while Hispanic borrowers were around twice as likely, and home in predominantly minority neighborhoods were 4.7 times more likely to be foreclosed. Two weeks before this case, the Supreme Court had ruled that Miami could sue Bank of America for predatory lending practices that allegedly increased segregation.

In 2015, a court dismissed all claims under the suit entirely, citing a six-year statute of limitations on MBS contract litigation, as established in ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products Inc. According to Judge Karla Moskowitz, a member of the five-judge panel in Thursday’s appeals court, JPMorgan Chase’s six-year obligation to safeguard WMC didn’t stop when its obligation to repurchase the loans did. It instead will end six years after WMB actually failed to make the repurchase.

According to new analysis of GSE loan performance data, refinances may be, in large part, to blame for the housing crisis. An uptick in “using homes as ATMs” lead to sloppier underwriting and an uptick in defaults on refis leading up to the collapse. Refis were significantly more likely to be seriously delinquent than purchase loans during this time.

According to a new report, serious delinquencies, short sales, deeds-in-lieu, third-party sales, and foreclosure sales were all down for the month. Earlier-stage delinquencies were up in February, however, with loans 30 to 59 days delinquent rising from 377,000 to 404,000 for the month. Of February loan modifications, 19 percent had principal forbearance, while extend-term modifications accounted for 44 percent—something the report attributes to ever-climbing housing prices.

A new report shows foreclosure filings are down 23 percent since last year, hitting their lowest point since November 2005. Foreclosure starts and completions are also down over the year, though repeat foreclosures have seen an increase. The only places to see jumps in foreclosure activity were New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and D.C.

Municipalities may be experiencing whiplash from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling which both permits and prevents certain suits based on the Federal Housing Act. In Bank of America Corp., et. al. v. City of Miami, the City of Miami argued that two banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, violated the Federal Housing Act by intentionally issuing riskier mortgages on less favorable terms to African Americans and Latino customers than they issued to similarly situated white, non-Latino customers.

Patrick Cox is SVP of Default Servicing at Ocwen Financial Corporation, where he is responsible for all the foreclosure and bankruptcy activities of the firm. He previously served as SVP of Default Servicing at ServiceLink LoanCare Servicing, VP of Late Stage Default and Foreclosure at HSBC Consumer and Mortgage Lending, and Manager of Operations at Global Service Centre. He holds an MBA from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s in Finance and Marketing from Florida State University.