Foreclosure

The American Legal & Financial Network has released a best practices guide for title policy work as it relates to distressed properties. ALFN says the housing crisis has impacted the industry in a number of ways, and one area in particular that calls for attention is default title policy standards. Due to marketplace pressures, the organization warns that large pools of loans are being affected by the inability to properly close escrow after foreclosure, costing investor's time and exposing them to legal risks.

With the deadline for the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program (EHLP) just a couple days away, HUD says it does not expect to meet the program's original goal of helping 30,000 homeowners, even after two deadline extensions. According to a HUD spokesperson, the main obstacle stems from the ""statutory requirements of the program and the statutory time limits."" The agency says approximately 75 percent of the applicants rejected did not meet the criteria of the program.

The industry's shadows are shrinking, according to CoreLogic. Based on the analytics firm's calculations, the residential shadow inventory of unlisted REOs and soon-to-be REOs stood at 1.6 million units as of July 2011. CoreLogic says that tally represents a supply of five months and is down from 1.7 million units in April and 1.9 million units in July of 2010. The company says the decline is driven by a pace of new delinquencies that is slower than the disposition pace of distressed assets.

It will be a long road ahead for the 14 servicers who received consent orders from federal regulators earlier this year. Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh says the servicers will spend the next year or more recompensing for past foreclosure errors. Servicers must hire independent consultants to audit cases from 2009 and 2010, set up dedicated websites and toll-free numbers, and launch massive mailing and advertising campaigns to reach borrowers who may have been affected.

Mortgage litigations in the second quarter of 2011 have more than doubled since last year, according to an industry report released Monday. During the April-to-June period, mortgage litigations reached 190 cases, up from 75 over the same quarter in 2010 and 151 during the first quarter of this year. Foreclosure-related litigation rose from 29 cases in the second quarter of 2010 to 67 cases a year later. The study also recorded a significant jump in cases involving secondary market transactions.

Mortgage lending has declined sharply in neighborhoods with high levels of foreclosures, according to the Federal Reserve. The U.S. central bank looked at what the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) identified as ""highly distressed"" census tracts. Based on information gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HDMA), the Fed found that home-purchase lending in these highly distressed tracts was 75 percent lower in 2010 than it had been in these same tracts in 2005, and primarily reflects tighter credit for higher-income borrowers.

Florida has one of the longest foreclosure timelines in the country, and some state lawmakers hope to shorten that timeline by removing the courts from the process. Florida is one of more than 20 judicial states -- states that require foreclosures to funnel through the courts before becoming official. Governor Rick Scott says he is interested in learning more about the prospect of moving to a non-judicial process, but not all state officials are open to the idea.

According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG), FHFA's examination process is not up to par. FHFA-OIG says it has identified shortfalls in the agency's examination coverage, particularly in the areas of real estate owned (REO) and default-related legal services. In fact, the inspector general says FHFA has not conducted an examination of the GSEs' management of their REO inventories, despite the surging number of foreclosures, since 2007.

A year after evidence of robo-signing related to the processing of home foreclosures surfaced, state attorneys general don't seem to be any closer to a consensus on what should and shouldn't be included in the settlement. In fact, dissension among states' lead counsels is growing. Attorneys general from Kentucky and Minnesota have now joined the faction questioning the thoroughness of the investigation. Of particular concern is liability related to securitizations and the use of MERS.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced a program last week that he says will help approximately 15,000 homeowners threatened by foreclosure. The Illinois Hardest Hit program utilizes $345 million in federal funds to support families who are having trouble making their mortgage payments due to unemployment or underemployment. Eligible participants will receive up to $25,000 over 18 months as a 10-year loan to keep their mortgages current. The loan is forgiven over the last five years of the 10-year term and carries zero interest.