Foreclosure

As unemployment increased, mortgage rates decreased for the week ending July 14, according to Freddie Mac's weekly report released Thursday. ""Long-term bond yields and mortgage rates fell this week following a weak employment report,"" said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, Freddie Mac. ""The economy added 18,000 jobs in June, well below the market consensus forecast, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest since December 2010,"" he added.

Despite a recent trend in increasing foreclosure times, the average time it took to foreclose properties in California, Arizona, and Nevada decreased in June 2011, according to ForeclosureRadar. While monthly numbers decreased in three states, year-over-year numbers still show an increase in the five West-coast states included in the firm's monthly report. ForeclosureRadar covers Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Foreclosure filings decreased in the five states in Foreclosure Radar's report.

With a groundswell of unpaid mortgages and home seizures adding to inventories of bank-owned properties for years, REO sales have commanded a bigger share of the market, weighing down the entire housing market. Getting these foreclosed homes off banks' books and back into the hands of responsible homeowners is an essential part of the housing sector's recovery. RealtyTrac reports that REOs sold during the first quarter carried an average markdown of 35 percent compared to the price of homes not in foreclosure.

Distressed commercial real estate in the United States stood at $181.1 billion in June, according to the analysts at Delta Associates. That tally includes properties in default, in foreclosure, and lender REO. The firm says the amount of distress in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector has increased by $500 million since April but still remains on the low end of the plateau range. The level of distress began to plateau in spring 2010, according to Delta Associates, and has stayed between $175 billion and $190 billion since then.

The number of foreclosure filings for the second quarter of this year was the lowest reported since the fourth quarter of 2007, according to RealtyTrac's Midyear 2011 Foreclosure Market Report released Thursday. All categories of foreclosures showed decreases on both a quarterly and annual basis. June marked the ninth consecutive month in which foreclosure activity declined on a year-over-year basis.

Home prices have gotten a little bit of a boost in recent months thanks to a seasonal uptick in market activity. Most analysts, expect further declines to characterize the later part of the year and possibly extend into next year, largely because of the huge supply of foreclosures on the market. Mortgage insurer PMI says there's a 50 to 60 percent chance that home prices at the national level will be lower in March 2013 than they were in March 2011. PMI has put a figure on the likelihood that home prices will continue to depreciate over the next two years.

Nevada's Supreme Court sided with homeowners on three foreclosure cases regarding violations of the state's Foreclosure Mediation Program and Mediation Rules, for lack of proper paper-work.

The promise of a loan modification based on delinquency status induces some financially proficient borrowers to intentionally fall behind on their mortgage payments, according to a study commissioned by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Massachusetts and conducted by researchers at Columbia University. Led by Christopher Mayer, senior vice dean and professor of real estate at Columbia Business School, the research team examined the modification policies of Countrywide Financial.

Homeowner Reward Co., a subsidiary of The PMI Group, Inc. is launching a pilot program aimed at supporting sustainable homeownership in some of the nation's hard-hid markets. The program helps underwater homeowners.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, announced an investigation of mortgage servicers Monday. The investigation will be conducted through the Senate Judiciary Committee and will examine foreclosure policies and procedures at top mortgage servicers. ""The rate of foreclosure and families that struggle with their mortgage payments is one of the single largest barriers to economic recovery that we still see today,"" Blumenthal says.