Foreclosure

Gerner & Kearns Co., L.P.A. (G&K), announced the addition of two new attorneys to its Litigation Department: Elizabeth A. McCord and Kyle M. Winslow.

Joining the broadcast today to discuss the new qualified mortgage rules is Chris Whalen, Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Carrington Holding Company. Carrington operates in virtually every aspect of the real estate and mortgage space. Chris currently writes ...

An estimated 44,000 homeowners received permanent loan modifications from mortgage servicers during the month of November under both proprietary servicer programs and the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), HOPE NOW reports. While that total represents a 12 percent decrease from the 50,000 loan mods completed in October, the most recent data show a steeper 20 percent decline in foreclosure sales and a 17 percent decline in foreclosure starts between October and November.

Experts at Freddie Mac and Equifax expect falling unemployment and economic growth to keep the housing market steady in 2014. This, despite climbing interest rates and anticipated growth in housing prices nationwide. While industry economists welcome the idea of a steady, slowly recovering housing market, they also have a checklist of housing and economic indicators they're keeping tabs on that could influence the pace of recovery.

Despite declining foreclosure starts over the year, distressed sales made up a higher percentage of overall home sales in 2013 than they did the previous year, according to the U.S. Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. Foreclosure sales—which include sales to third-party buyers at foreclosure auction and sales of REOs—combined with short sales to make up 16.2 percent of residential property sales in 2013, up from 14.5 percent in 2012. The report also revealed an uptick in cash purchases at the close of the year.

Following a year of fast-paced appreciation, Fitch Ratings expects home price gains to slow to a more moderate pace in 2014 in the United States, according to its Global Housing and Mortgage Outlook released Tuesday. The ratings agency also predicts mortgage volume will decline and delinquencies and shadow inventory will decrease, albeit slowly, while liquidation timelines continue to rise.

Pite Duncan, LLP, announced the promotion of Christopher Peterson to partner. Peterson joined Pite Duncan in 2009 and has been working as a senior associate attorney in the firm's litigation group. He has over 12 years’ legal experience in civil litigation.

Single-family and condominium sales in California closed 2013 on a cautiously positive note, even though overall sales were down notably from the year prior, according to the latest quarterly market report from PropertyRadar. December sales in the Golden State's home and condo market grew 1.4 percent over November 2013 sales, but were down nearly 20 percent from December 2012. Overall, last year’s property sales finished the year at their lowest level since 2007.

  Select Print Feature, originally appeared in the May, 2013 issue of DS News Magazine. Can servicers and their partners in the field work through the many obstacles that come with fast-tracking vacant foreclosures? Several jurisdictions are considering legislation or ...

MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. has won yet another victory in a long list of lawsuits filed against the company. The company recently announced that the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) had the authority to assign a mortgage for foreclosure.