News

The Nevada Supreme Court has updated the rules governing the state's foreclosure mediation program, which officials say are intended ""to clarify and streamline the processes"" of the program created by the state legislature in 2009 to address Nevada's foreclosure crisis. Among the revised rules, which take effect March 1, the court has expanded the time to file a petition for judicial review from 15 to 30 days after a party receives the mediator's statement.

More legal woes have developed for Bank of America, as some of its mortgage investors brought a lawsuit against the lender in an attempt to force the bank to buy back bad loans. The original balance of securitized loans involved in the case was $2.8 billion, and the plaintiffs claim their trustee ""unreasonably failed"" to sue BofA. Another group of investors, which is engaged in talks with the bank in hopes of avoiding a legal battle in court, has nearly doubled the amount of allegedly faulty loans it wants Bank of America to repurchase.

Fannie Mae's latest national housing survey finds that Americans are more confident about the stability of home prices than they were at the beginning of 2010, even though they lack confidence in the strength of the economy. Seventy-eight percent of respondents to the GSE's fourth-quarter survey said they believe housing prices will hold steady or increase over the next twelve months. However, almost two-thirds said they believe the economy is on the wrong track. The number of delinquent borrowers who say they have seriously considered defaulting declined to 19 percent.

Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide appraisal management company based in Maryland, announced the appraisal industry's first smart phone application last week. The free application, currently in beta testing and available later this year, connects Coester Appraisal Group with staff, contracted appraisers, and its lender and broker clients.

Despite new rules for short sales under the government's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program which went into effect on February 1, real estate agents responding to a survey said short sale transactions are still taking too long. A survey published recently by property valuations company Equi-Trax reveals the majority of short sales are taking four to nine months to complete, and Realtors say lenders are to blame, although some concede that borrowers need to be better educated about short sales.

Industry data released Monday showed that the number of homebuyers who signed contracts in January for the purchase of previously owned homes declined from both the previous month and year-ago levels. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says its January index of pending home sales is down 2.8 percent from the December reading, which was revised downward from a previously reported gain to reflect the start of a two-month decline in pending sales. NAR's January reading is 1.5 percent below the pending sales measurement recorded 12 months earlier.

In a break from the typical multiple institutional closings that have become the norm of any given weekend for the last couple of years, regulators took control of just one community-based lender Friday evening -- Valley Community Bank in St. Charles, Illinois. The seizure of Valley Community brings the number of names on the FDIC's failed bank list to 23 for the 2011 calendar year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reports that home prices nationally dropped 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 when compared to the previous three-month period. On a year-over-year basis, the agency's index is down 3.9 percent. It's the largest annual decline recorded since the third quarter of 2009. Home prices have come in below their year-ago levels for 13 consecutive quarters now. The ongoing depreciation is being attributed, in part, to an elevated number of distressed properties weighing heavy on surrounding home prices.

Research released this week by the senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland reveals homeownership is more sustainable for people who come to the table with down payments. The study examines the types of homeowner assistance that the government uses to promote homeownership -- generally down payment subsidies or interest rate subsidies -- and finds down payment subsidies are more helpful and less expensive.

Regulators and attorneys general say their investigations of servicing practices have uncovered critical deficiencies and shortcomings that have resulted in violations of foreclosure laws. They've made it clear that mortgage servicers will be required to make operational changes and will be hit with sanctions and penalties. It's been reported that the 14 servicers subject to the investigations will, as a group, face a hefty $20 billion in fines, but there is dissension even among the government agencies involved over the amount. Negotiations are ongoing.