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Completed foreclosures continued their descent into September, falling 31 percent from a year ago, according to data from CoreLogic. The analytics company reported the number of homes lost to foreclosure in September dropped to 57,000. The decline is a steep drop from 83,000 in September 2011, and a decrease from the upwardly revised 59,000 in August. Before the housing crises, completed foreclosures were much lower than the sinking figures reported recently. Between 2000 and 2006, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month.

Equifax announced the launch of its Spectrum Verification Services Platform designed to strengthen lender confidence by streamlining the verification processes through underwriting, QA, and closing.

Wells Fargo has issued thousands of refund checks to home loan customers who paid unnecessary mortgage fees, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. According to the newspaper, Wells Fargo sent out refunds to as many as 10,000 customers along with letters explaining that they had paid too much.

Apparently, if one loses his or her home to foreclosure, the waiting period to qualify for another mortgage can easily be another decade. According to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, a mere 10 percent of borrowers with a history showing a serious delinquency were able to obtain a mortgage again within 10 years. For borrowers who end their mortgage for a reason other than default, they were able to access mortgage credit about two-and-a-half times faster than those who went into default.

Homeowners with mortgages guaranteed by Freddie Mac may be eligible for payment relief if they are located in an area that has been devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

The number of households owning homes rose to 75,076,000 in the third quarter from 74,832,000 in the second, but down from 75,251,000 a year ago, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. At the same time, the nation's homeownership rate (seasonally adjusted) remained at 65.5 percent. The homeownership rate stayed near historic lows. The rate in the first quarter was 65.4 percent, the lowest since the first quarter of 1997.

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) reached a settlement with Colorado Attorney General John Suthers for $1.8 million over former document execution practices by LPS subsidiaries, DocX, LLC and LPS Default Solutions.

U.S. home prices continued to increase in August as the Case Shiller 20-city Home Price Index increased 0.9 percent to its highest level since September 2010. The 20-city index is up 2.0 percent in the last year. The 10-city also rose 0.9 percent in August, increasing to 158.62, 1.3 percent ahead of August 2011 and the highest level since October 2010. The monthly gain in each index was slower than in July, when the 10-city index went up 1.5 percent and the 20-city index improved 1.6 percent. July also saw gains in all 20 index cities.

The cumulative default rate for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) in the U.S. rose over the third quarter, largely due to an increase in defaults among office loans, according to the latest data from Fitch Ratings. The rate rose from 13.2 percent in the second quarter of this year to 13.5 percent in the third quarter, according to Fitch. The total amount in CMBS loans that defaulted in the third quarter was $2.2 billion. The total number of newly defaulted loans during the quarter is 119.

In the report from the Center for Responsible Lending, researchers conclude that based on the 10.9 million loans that entered foreclosure between 2007 and 2011, approximately $1.95 trillion in property value has been lost or will be lost by residents who live close to foreclosed properties. This estimate includes losses stemming from completed foreclosures and future losses projected on foreclosure starts. The average spillover cost per family is or will be $21,000 in household wealth, or 7 percent of median home value, according to the report.