News

According to recently released statistics from the HOPE NOW Alliance, the mortgage lending industry helped 249,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure and keep their homes in May. HOPE NOW said its members and the greater mortgage lending industry modified 101,000 mortgages in May and completed 148,000 repayment plans.

BA Urban Solutions LLC, a nationwide minority-owned REO asset management company headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, recently unveiled an initiative that aims to bring homeownership back to urban communities through a network of industry alliances.

Seven regional banks were shut down on Thursday – one in Texas and six in Illinois – bringing the number of failed banks in 2009 to 52. Barely half-way through the year, and that number is already more than double the 25 institutional failures in 2008.

In a ruling last week, the U.S. Supreme Court gave state prosecutors the power to investigate and sue national banks for violating fair-lending laws – a blow to federal regulators who say states’ attorneys general don’t have the authority to go after the institutions they oversee.

The McLean, Virginia-based mortgage giant Freddie Mac was given another $6.1 billion by the Treasury Department last week to offset the GSE’s first quarter deficit, according to a recent securities filing by the company.

The Atlanta-based real estate default law firm of Rubin Lublin, LLC has announced the hiring of Erica Malcom. Malcom will join the firm as an associate attorney working within the title department. Managing Partner Glen Rubin, commented, Erica makes a strong addition to Rubin Lublin.

Mortgage interest rates slipped lower again this week, according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) released Thursday by Freddie Mac. Frank Nothaft, the GSE’s VP and chief economist, said that along with the recent moderation in home price declines, lower rates are providing a big boost to the nation’s ailing housing market.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it is expanding its Home Affordable Refinance Program to allow a larger pool of underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates.

According to Standard & Poor’s, a recent improvement in the rate of home price declines is a signal that the housing slump is nearing a bottom. The company’s home price index has been falling for the last three years.

New research released last week by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, suggests that a novel phenomenon is at hand in the fallout of today’s housing crisis – strategic default on mortgage loans.