News

HOPE NOW announced that from its creation in 2007 until the end of 2014, the mortgage industry has completed more than 23 million non-foreclosure solutions for homeowners, including 7.3 million permanent loan modifications. In January 2015, lenders and servicers offered homeowners another 158,000 non-foreclosure solutions.

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Michelle Garcia Gilbert, managing partner with Florida-based Gilbert Garcia Group.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a decision by a district court that dismissed a borrower's wrongful foreclosure claim against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), according to an announcement from MERSCORP Holdings, Inc.

A New York court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state's attorney general against HSBC Mortgage Corporation nearly two years ago which alleged that HSBC failed to follow the state law related to foreclosure actions.

When he was asked if Fannie Mae could have predicted the magnitude of the housing crash, Mudd said the GSE's predictions "undershot" what eventually happened and that to his knowledge, no one at Fannie Mae could have accurately predicted the extent of the housing crisis.

The settlement was reached between four banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo) and the AG in January 2015 in Suffolk Superior Court to resolve claims that the banks lacked legal authority to foreclosure on homes when they did not own the mortgages on those homes.

The issue has been particularly hot in judicial foreclosure states such as Florida and New Jersey, where the foreclosure process must pass through the courts and signed by a judge to be completed.

The single-family serious delinquency rate for Fannie Mae in February fell another three basis points down to 1.83 percent after dropping to a nine-year low of 1.86 percent in January. Fannie Mae's single-family serious delinquency rate has declined every quarter since the first quarter of 2010 due to a number of reasons that include foreclosure alternatives, home retention solutions, completed foreclosures, improved loan payment performance, and acquisitions of loans with stronger credit profiles.

While consumers remained positive toward homebuying conditions in the latest survey, the reason for the positive outlook has shifted – prospective homebuyers are now dependent on low mortgage rates as opposed to low home prices. In Q1 2015 surveys, the percentage of consumers citing low home prices was at its lowest level since 2006, while the percentage of consumers who cited low mortgage rates was at a 10-year high.

Real estate and mortgage industry services provider Clayton Holdings has announced the acquisition of Salt Lake City, Utah-based Red Bell Real Estate and its sister company, Main Street Valuation.