News

Five months after the nation's top five servicers settled with the states attorneys general and several federal agencies to address iniquities in foreclosure processes, Joseph A. Smith, Jr., the settlement monitor, released a preliminary report to inform the public of the servicers' progress so far. Thus far, the five servicers - Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Ally Financial - offered $10.56 billion in relief to borrowers and have implemented between 35 and 72 percent of the 304 servicing standards detailed in the national settlement.

Wells Fargo announced it has made progress in meeting requirements to offer homeonwers relief as outlines by the national mortgage servicing settlement. The company stated in a release that it has helped more than 27,000 homeowners under the settlement terms, and it estimates it has fulfilled about 35 percent of its $4.3 billion consumer relief and refinance commitment.

The nation's economy expanded gradually from early July through mid-August, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. The description of the economy, drawn from reports from each of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts, differed from the usual tone of Beige Books, which have recently described economic growth as ""modest"" or ""moderate."" Housing markets across most districts, the Beige Book said, showed ""signs of improvement, with sales and construction continuing to increase.""

Sales of single-family homes in the Bay State continued their steady rise in July, The Warren Group reported Tuesday. A total of 4,979 single-family homes sold statewide in July, up from almost 27 percent year-over-year. This July was the best for sales volume since 2005, when sales reached 6,672.

The California State Department of Real Estate (DRE), which is responsible for licensing and regulating activities of real estate brokers and salespersons, had to take action against more license holders compared to the previous year.

Equator announced Monday the launch of its Servicer Specific Training program. The program, designed to enable mortgage servicers to train real estate agents on their own short sale and REO processes and standards, is provided through Equator's EQ Platform.

In another positive sign for the housing sector, the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 2.4 percent in July to 101.7, its highest level since April 2010, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Economists had expected a 1.0 percent increase to 100.3.

A report released Monday from John Burns Real Estate Consulting revealed that the real homeownership rate-measured as the percentage of households that own a home and are not seriously delinquent on their mortgage-has fallen to 62.1 percent, the lowest level in almost half a century. The firm said that the Census Bureau's 65.5 percent homeownership estimate was a vast overestimate, as it includes 3.8 million homeowners who are 90 or more days delinquent.

The U.S. economy grew in the second quarter at 1.7 percent, slightly faster than the originally estimated 1.5 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday. At the same time, BEA reported the second quarter grew at a meager 0.5 percent from the first quarter, but an improvement from the 2.7 percent drop in corporate profits registered in the first quarter. Profits in the financial sector though fell more than 9 percent.

As bank failures dwindle, FDIC institutions continue to see their own coffers swell, with an agency report finding that banks with government guarantees earned $34.5 billion over the second quarter. The FDIC also noted fewer ""problem"" institutions for the fifth consecutive quarter. Those identified as problems fell from 772 to 732, making this year one for the smallest problem banks since fourth-quarter 2009. Assets for institutions on the decline fell from $292 billion to $282 billion. And banks seemed to sweat a little less over the last quarter.