News

Shapiro and Ingle, LLC., a law firm with offices in Alabama and North Carolina, recently announced the hiring of Jackson E. Duncan, III to its Alabama office. Duncan will serve as Managing Attorney.

The American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), a measure of loans' default risk under stressful conditions, retreated to 11.6 percent last month from January’s reading of 11.8 percent. To gauge where February’s index lies historically, 1990 vintage loans would have an estimated index value of 6 percent, while riskier 2007 loans would be up at 19 percent.

Equifax announced its latest National Consumer Credit Trends report on Monday, which showed that the total balance of first mortgages increased by 2.8 percent from last year. The report found the balance increase was the largest year-over-year increase since September of 2008.

The Data & Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) reported no monthly change in its Home Price Index (HPI) for January. The latest report from BKFS underlines questions as to where other home price reports—including the monthly Case-Shiller Home Price Indices—will land.

Rosenberg & Associates, LLC. Welcomed two new attorneys to the firm—Caroline Fields and Tracy Leyba. The firm specializes in all manners of law related to real estate law and creditor’s rights.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced Friday it had settled two separate lawsuits with Credit Suisse alleging violations of federal and state securities laws in connection with private-label mortgae-backed securities (PLS) purchased by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae during 2005-2007.

The number of loans in foreclosure has dropped by more than 500,000 since last year, according to Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) "First Look" Report focused on February mortgage data. The Data and Analytics Division of BKFS found that foreclosure inventory stood at 1.24 million as of the end of February, 2014.

RealtyTrac released a new analysis of the foreclosure housing market on Thursday, which found that 96 percent of U.S. county real estate markets are better off than at the height of the foreclosure crisis four years ago.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group expects economic growth in the first quarter to come in around 2.0 percent, but thereafter, the economy should pick up. Economic growth for the year is expected at 2.7 percent, according to the research group.

Isaak Khafizov, a former owner of American Home Recovery (AHR), a mortgage loan modification business in New York, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to nine years in federal prison in connection with a mortgage modification scam that defrauded hundreds of homeowners and lenders.