Foreclosure

Mortgage industry commentators may argue (and they certainly have) about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) performance over the last year, but one thing is certain: The bureau knows how to command headlines. Early this year, CFPB finally issued its long awaited Qualified Mortgage (QM) guidelines along with a slew of other finance regulations. With the future of housing finance on the line, it's no wonder readers of DSNews.com couldn't tear themselves away from the news.

Based on a poll of borrowers that have been subject to foreclosure, authorities at LoanSafe.org and AfterForeclosure.com say they're confident that 2014 will be the year of the ""boomerang"" borrower. They say changes in lending guidelines and population shifts make these buyers essential to the recovery of the housing market, particularly since developments that naturally advance housing have been largely disrupted in today's environment.

Potestivo & Associates, P.C. announced the hiring of Nathan Lichtman, as the firm's newest associate attorney. Lichtman has an established presence at the firm, as he has been employed employed as a title coordinator/law clerk at the Rochester Hills office since March 2013.

Richard M. Rothfuss, president of Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss, recently received the USFN Founder's Award for his service and dedication to the USFN-- America's Mortgage Banking Attorneys. The award recipient must have demonstrated a deep and abiding commitment to USFN and epitomize the character and ideals of the founders of attorney association.

Fay Servicing, a Chicago-based special servicer, has earned stable outlooks from both S&P and Fitch Ratings. According to the agencies' assessments, the rating actions are based on Fay's robust single point of contact (SPOC) model and integrated servicing technology.

The mortgage servicing industry is fielding a spate of new rules and regulations--49 mortgage reforms and 63 required rules related to consumer protection. With the regulatory intervention the industry is experiencing today, there is an increased and immediate need for system controls, certification of compliance, and information management controls--for both servicers and their outsourcing partners.

The city of Los Angeles has launched a series of lawsuits against three of the nation's largest banks alleging they persisted in discriminatory lending practices that contributed to more than 200,000 foreclosures between 2008 and 2012 that cost the city more than $1.2 billion. The lawsuits charge all three banks with redlining and reverse redlining; the banks, however, deny the allegations.

The national foreclosure crisis is reaching its end as many markets work their way toward normalcy, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report from RealtyTrac. As major evidence of this trend, RealtyTrac reports foreclosure starts reached a 95-month low in November. At the same time, overall foreclosure activity across the nation declined by 15 percent from October to November, while year-over-year, activity was down 37 percent.

Freddie Mac's mortgage book of business contracted at an annualized rate of 6.4 percent in October, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines. The book has registered declines in seven of the first 10 months of 2013, according to Freddie Mac's monthly volume summary. October's pace of decline was the highest rate so far this year and is up from a 4.3 percent annualized rate reported for September.

The servicer assessment component of the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program has been enhanced with new compliance metrics and benchmarks to measure the impact of servicer performance on the borrower's experience. Individual servicer assessments are conducted quarterly to identify areas of non-compliance and drive improvements in servicers' execution of the federal program.