News

A $1.1 trillion congressional spending bill proposed on Thursday may avoid another government shutdown, but Biniam Gebre, acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), is disappointed that certain FHA programs were not included in that spending plan.

The U.S. Department of Treasury announced that is recovered $22 million for taxpayers through the sale of First BanCorp common stock earlier this week, and that it planned to sell additional stock in the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based bank.

Keeping in line with the steadily increasing number of foreclosures in New Jersey, Atlantic City turned in the highest foreclosure rate in the nation among metropolitan areas with a population greater than 200,000 for November, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for November 2014 released Thursday.

The majority of mortgage industry professionals said they believed that the lowering of the down payment to 3 percent for first-time homebuyers by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a step in the right direction for the housing market, according to the Collingwood Group's November 2014 Mortgage Industry Outlook Report released earlier this week.

The highest foreclosure rate of any state once again belonged to Florida in November after being displaced by Maryland in October, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for November 2014 released Thursday.

The number of residential foreclosure filings in the U.S. declined by 9 percent from October to November despite a yearly spike in the number of foreclosure starts (scheduled auctions), according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for November 2014 released Thursday.

An amended Ohio House bill that was originally intended to reduce the lengthy residential foreclosure process and eliminate blight in Ohio neighborhoods died in the Ohio Senate Finance Committee Tuesday night, sources close to the situation told DS News.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently changed its policy regarding buyback of REO properties through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley thinks the agency could do more.

RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing customers concerned about any issues surrounding their loan can now access the company's Consumer Ombudsman online, thanks to an upgrade introduced this week.

The nation's mortgage loan delinquency rate is expected to fall down to 2.51 percent by the end of 2015, its lowest level since prior to the housing bust, according to data released by TransUnion on Wednesday.