News

Mortgage note holders in North Carolina can no longer voluntarily dismiss more than one non-judicial foreclosure without being banned from filing additional non-judicial foreclosures, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled earlier this week.

What this means for the future of the housing market could be trouble. The effects of rents high enough to keep prospective buyers away from houses is particularly hitting millennials, who are already saddled with uncertain job prospects and enormous student debt, according to Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

A settlement has been reached in a housing discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Louisiana State Bond Commission, the department announced recently.

The program's launch marks a big step in the agency's "Know Before You Owe" mortgage initiative, which is aimed at improving the homebuying experience for consumers through simpler disclosure forms as proposed in a rule first issued in November last year. In Thursday's release, CFPB announced it is in the process of preparing for that rule to be implemented in August 2015.

Foreclosure sales are way down nationwide for the second quarter of 2014 with close to 115,000 reported, according to HOPE NOW's Q2 2014 data released earlier in the week. It was the lowest number of foreclosure sales reported for any quarter since HOPE NOW began tracking foreclosure data in 2007.

Nationwide sales of flipped homes dropped both quarter-over-quarter and year-over year in the second quarter of 2014, according to the Q2 2014 U.S. Home Flipping Report released by RealtyTrac on August 22.

The central figure at one of enduring images of the financial crisis is potentially facing the latest in a series of attempts to hold him responsible for some of the events leading to the economic downturn. U.S. attorneys in Los Angeles are preparing a civil lawsuit against former Countrywide Financial CEO and co-founder Angelo Mozilo

A year ago, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.58 percent—its peak in 2013. The average interest rate for a 15-year FRM this week was 3.23 percent (0.6 point), down from 3.24 percent a week ago. Adjustable rates were mixed for the week. According to Freddie Mac, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.95 percent (0.5 point) in the latest survey, down slightly from last week, while the 1-year ARM edged up to 2.38 percent (0.5 point).

Obama administration officials praised Thursday's $16.65 billion settlement between Bank of America and the U.S. Department of Justice, $7 billion of which will go to provide consumer relief to assist those distressed by the collapse of the housing market in 2008.

Approximately 421,000 homeowners used various non-foreclosure solutions from mortgage servicers in the second quarter of 2014, according to recently released Q2 2014 data from HOPE NOW, a private sector alliance between various players in the mortgage industry. The number of non-foreclosure solutions in Q2 was almost quadruple the number of foreclosure sales for the same period (115,000), according to HOPE NOW.