Foreclosure

A Virginia housing advocacy group released data this week that shows the housing circumstances in rural Virginia are arguably some of the direst in the nation. Key findings of the report say that the largest increase in foreclosure filings last year occurred in rural Virginia, easing only slightly when banks began moratoriums to review their foreclosure processes.

RealtyTrac has released its 2010 foreclosure tallies for the nation's largest metropolitan areas. The tracking firm found that foreclosure activity increased from 2009 in 149 of the 206 metros with a population of 200,000 or more. Interestingly enough, the metro areas with the 10 highest foreclosure rates all posted decreasing activity from 2009, but RealtyTrac says foreclosures became more widespread last year as high unemployment drove activity up in parts of the country that had been relatively insulated from the initial foreclosure tsunami.

Real estate software firm eBrokerHouse recently released its Rapid Trustee Sale (RTS) tracking and management software platform for two new counties--Maricopa in Arizona and San Bernadino in California. RTS allows users to track opening bids in real time, get full property details, and manage documents and pictures associated with each property. The system also serves Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange counties in California and Clark County, Nevada.

Fannie Mae has issued a notice to its servicers, instructing them to postpone foreclosure proceedings for unemployed homeowners who are receiving help through Hardest-Hit Fund programs run by state housing finance agencies. According to the GSE's newly released directive, if a housing finance agency (HFA) notifies a servicer that a borrower has been approved for assistance, the servicer must not refer the mortgage loan to foreclosure or conduct a scheduled foreclosure sale for 45 days.

The volume of distressed residential properties in the United States is the primary factor hindering a full recovery in the country's housing market, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P). Based on data through the end of the third quarter of 2010, S&P puts the principal balance of the nation's shadow inventory of distressed homes at more than $450 billion - a log jam that will take more than three and a half years to clear from the market, and that doesn't include GSE mortgages.

Wells Fargo will provide one-on-one consultation sessions for customers facing financial hardships January 25 and 26 in Brooklyn. Thousands of area homeowners are invited to the event, which will focus on avoiding foreclosure. The company says it is committed to helping people stay in their homes, and this workshop is another way for it to reach out to homeowners and provide answers on the options available for them.

As of the end of December, 6.87 million mortgages in the United States were delinquent or in the process of foreclosure, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). The company's data show that while the nation's volume of non-current home loans remains elevated, it's been steadily declining for several months now. LPS reported that 6.92 million mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of November, and in October, it was just above 7 million.

Experian announced this week that it will incorporate positive rental data into the traditional credit file in an effort to help underbanked consumers build credit. According to the FDIC Web site, an estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked. Experian says having positive rental history reflected in their credit scores will help consumers who may have faced financial hardships such as foreclosure or bankruptcy rebuild their credit.

According to the Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data, the number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts jumped almost 32 percent in 2010 to 12,233, up from 9,269 in 2009. However, it did not surpass the record 12,430 foreclosures in 2008. The company says the one bright spot in the state's annual data is that fewer people entered the foreclosure process compared to a year earlier, despite a slumping economy and high unemployment.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair warned mortgage bankers that failure to take immediate and decisive action to deal with breakdowns in servicing procedures will trigger a double-dip in U.S. housing markets and keep the industry deeply mired in a cycle of credit distress. Bair's fix includes instituting new fee structures so that servicers aren't forced to cut corners and establishing a claims commission funded by servicers to compensate borrowers who've been impacted by substandard practices.