Foreclosure

HOPE NOW says its first quarter data shows a surge in solutions for troubled homeowners. In all, the organization says the mortgage industry completed almost half a million loan modifications for homeowners during the first three months of 2010 - 476,192 to be exact. That includes both proprietary and government mod programs, and represents a 29 percent increase from the same period last year. HOPE NOW also reported that foreclosure starts are down 5 percent compared to a year ago.

Foreclosure filings in California were down in April for the first time since the beginning of the year, ForeclosureRadar reported Tuesday. Last month, the locally-based company tracked a total of 58,410 notices of default and trustee sale in the Golden State. Default notices fell 16 percent compared to March, while sale notices dropped 10 percent. ForeclosureRadar's market data shows that banks added 14,517 foreclosed California properties to their REO inventories in April. The company puts the total REO supply in the state at 90,295 properties.

Home values in 106 of the 135 markets tracked by Zillow continued to decline on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter of this year, causing the Zillow Home Value Index to fall 3.8 percent from the same quarter last year and 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 to $183,700. As a result, negative equity across the country remained high, with 23.3 percent of single-family homes underwater, the company said. Zillow also reported that foreclosures reached a new peak in March.

After steadily increasing for 12 consecutive quarters, the national mortgage loan delinquency rate--the ratio of borrowers 60 or more days past due--dipped down to 6.77 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data released Monday by TransUnion. This statistic, which is traditionally seen as a precursor to foreclosure, reflects a 1.74 percent decline from the previous quarter's 6.89 percent average. TransUnion reported that delinquency rates in the first quarter continued to be the highest in Nevada and Florida, both above 14 percent.

The Fisher Law Group, PLLC, based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, recently appointed Doreen Strothman as managing attorney of foreclosure. She has been with the Fisher Law Group since 2000, and her practice is concentrated in the areas of real estate, foreclosure, mortgage finance, bankruptcy, and litigation.

Just four months after its launch, the Responsible Homeowner Reward (RH Reward) program has offered more than $86 million in rewards to eligible borrowers nationwide as an incentive to remain current on their mortgage payments. As DSNews.com previously reported, the RH Reward program was developed by the Loan Value Group LLC (LVG), a Rumson, New Jersey-based company, in response to the increasing rate of strategic defaults, in which homeowners walk away when the value of their mortgage exceeds their house value - even if they can afford the monthly payments.

The true cause of the foreclosure crisis is up for debate. Did banks prey on unwitting consumers, or did households overreach and borrow more than they could afford? Economists at the University of Arkansas recently completed a study to answer that very question. The study, The Foreclosure Crisis: Did Wall Street Practice Predatory Lending or Did Households Overreach?, found the latter to be true. Although, the researchers were careful not to excuse Wall Street banks, as they say reckless lending enabled households to become dangerously leveraged.

A recent study by Barclays Capital says that U.S. lenders are holding fewer foreclosed homes than previously assessed by the firm. Some are viewing the revised estimate as a testament to the stability that is taking hold in the housing market, but Barclays warns that the industry should expect REO inventories to grow - albeit gradually - over the next couple of years, as banks push more properties through the pipeline and foreclosure alternatives are exhausted. Barclays estimates that as of the end of February, 480,000 repossessed homes were held by U.S. lenders, mortgage investors, and the GSEs.

With foreclosures, housing vacancies, and mortgage fraud at all-time highs, it's no secret that the real estate sector is struggling. These intertwined problems are threatening the stability of entire neighborhoods, making the search for effective responses crucial. As part of this search, the Bureau of Justice Assistance brought together experts from around the country to examine possible solutions to these challenges, and on Friday released a report outlining the various strategies that were discussed.

The Fisher Law Group, PLLC, located in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, announced Thursday that it has completed the acquisition of Specialized, Inc. of Virginia, from the CBCInnovis family of companies. Specialized, Inc. of Virginia is a trustee company that has been transacting foreclosure business in Virginia since 1992 for both residential and commercial loan servicers and lenders.