The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions closed Banks of Wisconsin (Kenosha), FDIC announced Friday. As receiver, the agency entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with North Shore Bank, FSB (Brookfield, Wisconsin) to assume all of Banks of Wisconsin's $127.6 million in deposits and $97.4 million in assets. The remaining assets (approximately $36.6 million) will be retained by FDIC for later disposition.

A report from LendingTree shows down payment percentages continue to decline even as interest rates recover. According to LendingTree's study, average down payments for 30-year fixed-rate purchase mortgages have declined 9.4 percent since May 2011. As of May 31, 2013, the average down payment percentage across the nation was 16.1 percent, while the average national loan amount was $221,694.76. ""As the housing market begins to improve, lenders are beginning to loosen their guidelines to more normalized standards and approve loans with lower down payments,"" said Doug Lebda, CEO of LendingTree.

Shadow inventory held by the GSEs and HUD "vastly" outnumbers REO properties the groups maintain, according to a joint report from the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency and HUD. The report further warned HUD and the GSEs must pay close attention to shadow inventory, which threatens to increase their supply of REOs. For the GSEs, the ratio of shadow inventory to REO inventory was about 6-to-1, while shadow inventory for HUD was 19.9 times greater than REO inventory.

Despite improvements in home values, Radar Logic continues to contend the factors underpinning the recovery will not lead to sustainable price gains. In March, Radar Logic's home price index, which tracks 25 metro areas, showed a 13.1 percent year-over-year gain. Even with the double-digit gain, the data and analytics firm touched on several points to explain why the trend won't last, with the main one being the temporary issue of limited supply. Demand is also not expected to last since it is driven by low mortgage rates and institutional investors.

According to BEA, profits fell for both financial and non-financial corporations in the first quarter. For financial corporations, it was the fourth quarterly decline in profits in the last five quarters. The slip in financial corporation profits comes at a particularly critical time for the financial sector, as housing-so heavily dependent on lending institutions--is in the midst of a nascent recovery, and that recovery is causing concerns that we may be on the cusp of yet a new housing bubble. Recent data shows home prices rising at the fastest pace since the housing bubble burst.

While reverse mortgages can be a boon to seniors as they head into retirement, a new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) says recent trends show trouble in the market that may cost taxpayers billions of dollars. According to a 2012 MetLife survey, two-thirds of borrowers are now using reverse mortgages to pay down debt. Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow at NCPA, expects the ""troubling trend will increase as more baby boomers enter retirement with mortgage debt than previous generations.""

First Title & Escrow, Inc. (FT) appointed government auction expert Douglas Dennison to join the company as a national business development executive.

Bendett & McHugh, P.C. promoted attorney Andrew S. Cannella to partner and VP of the firm, and announced 11 senior associate designations.

As of the end of May, borrowers have cashed or deposited 2.6 million foreclosure review checks, according to the latest update from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The checks are valued at $2.3 billion and are part of a foreclosure settlement reached in January between the OCC, the Federal Reserve Board, and 13 servicers.

Over 4.2 million single-family residential properties across 19 states are at risk of encountering hurricane-driven storm surge damage, according to CoreLogic's latest storm surge report. In a worst-case scenario situation, CoreLogic's analysis also found risk for property damage is valued at $1.1 trillion. Out of the over 4 million properties at risk, CoreLogic reported more than 976,000 of the homes are in an ""extreme risk"" zone, meaning they are at risk for damage from a hurricane of any category.