Foreclosure

Mortgage giant Freddie Mae is finding itself on the downward side of the delinquency arrow - and when it comes to delinquencies, the downside is an angle the GSE didn't see for a long three-year stretch. According to Freddie's monthly summary report released Tuesday, the company's single-family delinquency rate fell to 4.06 percent in April, down 7 basis points from March. It was the second straight month that the GSE has reported a decline in delinquencies.

HOPE LoanPort's roster of participants seems to be ever-growing. Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Delaware Valley, with 19 offices in the Philadelphia metro area, is the latest to join the more than 200 counseling agencies and 10 major servicers already committed to the new Web portal.

The nation's thrift industry posted profits of $1.82 billion in the first quarter of 2010. The Office of Thrift Supervision says the data indicates thrifts are stabilizing despite rising delinquencies and foreclosures. By definition, the thrift business involves taking deposits and originating home mortgages. The industry's non-current loans and repossessed real estate assets made up 3.27 percent of total holdings in Q1. Sixty-five percent of these troubled assets were residential mortgages, 27 percent were commercial real estate loans.

NeighborWorks America announced Tuesday that it received $1 million from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York to support infrastructure development and technical upgrades for the organization's network of nonprofit housing counselors. NeighborWorks says the grant will help to strengthen and supplement its counseling capacity and increase the efficiency with which its community-based members are able to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

When the Senate passed the Wall Street reform package last week, it included a provision that uses $3 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds to reduce mortgage payments for those homeowners who have lost their job as a result of the nation's recession. The same measure already passed in the House's version of the financial reform bill and is modeled after a state program introduced by Rep. Chaka Fattah when he was a Pennsylvania state legislator.

DebtX, a full-service loan sale advisor based in Boston, announced Monday that it will sell approximately $500 million of mostly commercial real estate (CRE) loans on behalf of three financial institutions. ""Sellers are moving aggressively to dispose of loans and benefit from stronger balance sheets,"" said Kingsley Greenland, DebtX CEO. ""Investors have an opportunity to buy a wide range of both performing and non-performing loans from these sales.""

REO asset management firm Green River Capital announced Monday that it has launched a company that will focus exclusively on short sale program management, Green River Financial (GRF). In response to growing market interest, the West Valley, Utah-based company is offering a pre-foreclosure short sale and deed-in-lieu program.

As the real estate market continues to fight an uphill battle towards recovery, the dream of homeownership seems to be dying out for some consumers, at least for the time being. According to a new online survey conducted in May, 76 percent of consumers deemed renting to be the more favorable option to owning a home in the current real estate market, a 5 percent jump from the 2008 survey results.

Liquidation and modification rates on Countrywide-serviced residential loans have edged higher in the past few months, with a larger percentage of mortgage restructurings encompassing principal forgiveness, according to a study just released by Barclays Capital. The research firm examined loans within residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) serviced by Countrywide, now Bank of America Home Loans, and found that while historically, the once-subprime leader claimed lower-than-average mod rates and long liquidation timelines, that has begun to turn around in the past few months.

Representatives from more than a dozen mortgage servicers, along with local HUD-approved housing counselors, were on hand last week in Anaheim and San Bernardino, California to help struggling homeowners with their mortgages. The four days of events saw 2,576 at-risk homeowners come through the doors to learn what they can do to lower their mortgage payments and avoid foreclosure.