Government

Although about 50,000 checks from the recent foreclosure settlement have been cashed or deposited as of Monday, according to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), not all recipients were able to cash their checks due to insufficient funds. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Fed announced ""early problems with some checks have been corrected"" and ""funds are available to cash all checks."" The Fed stated early recipients of the checks called the Fed's consumer helpline on Tuesday after being told their checks could not be cashed.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reported a 25 percent decline in mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports (SARs) last year. However, the organization has seen ""dramatic growth"" in the number of SARs involving foreclosure rescue scams, according to Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of FinCEN. Overall, financial institutions reported 69,000 suspicious activities to FinCEN in 2012, down from 92,000 in 2011. While this category experienced improvement in 2012, foreclosure rescue scams appear to be on the rise. About 2,800 SARs in 2011 involved foreclosure rescue scams. In 2012, the number ticked up to 4,400.

Housing organizations across the country will be able to receive funds through a $70.1 million award through the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program, NeighborWorks America announced Tuesday. According to a release, the funds will go to 30 state housing finance agencies (HFAs), 17 HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, and 72 community-based NeighborWorks organizations.

Led by a surge in multifamily building, housing starts jumped 7.0 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000, the highest level since June 2008 while housing starts dropped 3.9 percent to 902,000, the lowest level since November, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Tuesday. In February, multifamily activity represented 60 percent of the increase in permits, while in March, all of the multifamily units accounted for all of the increase in starts as single-family starts fell.

A Rhode Island Supreme Court ruling determined Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), as mortgagee, had the authority to proceed with a foreclosure on behalf of another entity, MERS announced in a release.

The California Homeowner Bill of Rights (HBR) is the main driving force behind the recent slowdown in foreclosure sales and short sales in the Golden State, according to a research report from Barclays. In addition to stalling the foreclosure process, provisions in the new bill, which took effect January 1, 2013, have also led to an increase in litigation risk for servicers, analyst at Barclays found. As a result of the HBR, Barclays believes ""servicers have become significantly more cautious when carrying out foreclosure sales"" in the state.

Unless the GSEs change their restrictive guidelines, Superstorm Sandy victims could face a hefty balloon payment or a spike in their monthly mortgage payments, according to a release from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. According to Cuomo, Sandy victims who receive forbearance on their mortgage payments could face an immediate balloon payment or see a spike in their monthly mortgage payments.

With the price of a new home barely above year-ago levels, builder confidence fell for the third straight month in April, dropping two points to 42, the lowest level since October, the National Association of Home Builders reported. Economists had expected the Housing Market Index (HMI), the measure of confidence, to improve to 45 from March's reading of 44. It was the second straight month the index fell when economists had expected it to improve.

A compromise, certainly in politics, is usually a result which both sides in a dispute find equally unsatisfactory. It usually comes after some protracted negotiations from extreme positions. In the budget unveiled this week, President Obama, as he has in so many policy initiatives, attempted to reshape the political lexicon and landscape by beginning a compromise, not from an extreme, but from the middle. There is a lot for both sides to dislike in the Obama budget plan and there will be more as the document is scoured by both sides. The devil is always in the details.

A Minnesota attorney who continues to stall foreclosures using the show-me-the-note argument was met with rejection again, MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. (MERS) announced. Judges Raymond W. Gruender, Bobby E. Sheppard, and Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of MERS and other defendants in the cases Jerde v. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. and Dunbar v. Wells Fargo Bank N.A., and dismissed repeated arguments from attorney William Butler of Butler Liberty Law, LLC.