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ForeclosureRadar's Foreclosure Report for July 2012 showed mixed month-over-month trends from state to state but revealed an overall year-over-year decline in foreclosure filings. The report, released Monday, covers Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Of the five states, only Arizona and Oregon posted decreases in foreclosure filings from June, while California and Nevada reported relatively small increases.

Clearer monthly mortgage statements, warnigns before interest rates adjust, quick correction of errors - these are among the proposed rules for mortgage servicers from the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau. According to a commentary from Fitch Ratings, these new rules, if implemented, would set consistent standards for residential servicers, but the rules ""will also further increase compliance costs for the industry and potentially drive further consolidation within mid to smaller servicers.""

Limited inventory may be boosting home prices, but buyer choices are stifled in an increasing number of markets, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. The association's latest quarterly report showed distressed homes accounted for 26 percent of Q2 sales, down from 33 percent in Q2 2011. NAR president Moe Veissi what is needed now is additional inventory in the lower price ranges, so the association hopes banks will be releasing more foreclosure inventory into the market.

Lack of affordable, accessible housing is a significant problem for people with disabilities, according to a release from the California State Independent Living Council.

Along with second quarter decreases in the national mortgage delinquency rate came signficant improvements for hard-hit states California and Arizona, according to a TransUnion report. The national mortgage delinquency rate slipped for the second straight quarter to 5.49 percent. Arizona and California saw the greatest year-over-year declines, each falling around 21 percent from the second quarter of 2011.

An increase in loan modifications led to fewer delinquencies for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) in July, according to Fitch Ratings. The decrease in CMBS delinquencies is the second consecutive month of declines as CMBS delinquencies fell to 8.48 percent in July, a drop of 14 basis points (bps) from June's 8.62 percent. According to the ratings agency, two large loan mods helped bring down the past due rate - the $305 million Schron Industrial Portfolio and the $210 million Savoy Park.

A former Fannie Mae executive now finds himself facing charges from the SEC of misleading investors about the GSE's loans. According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ex-CEO Dan Mudd, along with two other defendants, allegedly misled investors into thinking the company had far less exposure risky loans than it actually had. SEC accuses Mudd, Enrico Dallavecchia, and Thomas Lund of creating ""materially false and misleading statements regarding Fannie Mae's exposure to subprime and Alt-A loans"" between 2006 and 2008.

Bradford Technologies announced Monday the release of the next generation of its Collateral Valuation Report (CVR), a product that introduced statistical analysis into the appraisal process.

Following efforts led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan) to have Goldman Sachs investigated, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department have decided not to take further actions against the investment bank.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.(FDIC) is going after a list of financial institutions over mortgage securities sold to the now defunct Colonial Bank. According to the complaint, the defendants - which include JPMorgan Chase, CitiMortgage, and Wells Fargo - made untrue statements or omitted important information when selling securities to Colonial. The suit is over $388 million in securities Colonial purchased from the defendants.