According to the American Credit Union Mortgage Association (ACUMA), while big banks stagger beneath the weight of the nation’s credit crisis, credit unions are among the few financial institutions that have mortgage money ready to lend to struggling consumers.

January brought an unexpected, across the board drop, in the total Notices of Default, Notices of Trustee Sale, and sales at auction in California, not only from the prior month, but year-over-year as well, according to a report released by ForeclosureRadar on Thursday.

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced on Friday that they are suspending all foreclosure sales and evictions of occupied properties through March 6th, in anticipation of the Obama Administration’s national foreclosure prevention and loan modification program.

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Deputy Director John Pistole told a Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that mortgage fraud investigations are intensifying in both volume and scope as the economic crisis worsens.

Leading policymakers, including the new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, practitioners, and housing and economic experts from around the country came together February 12-13 in New York.

Mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.16 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending February 12, 2009, according to Freddie Mac’s newly released Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

RealtyTrac released its January 2009 Foreclosure Market Report today, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 274,399 U.

Reisenfeld & Associates LPA, LLC, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based foreclosure and bankruptcy law firm, held a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony marking the official opening of the Sylvan P. Reisenfeld Law Building on January 20th.

On Wednesday, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) – the primary regulator of federal savings holding companies and thrifts, including the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lenders – called on the more than 800 OTS-regulated institutions to suspend foreclosures on owner-occupied homes until the Financial Stability Plan’s home loan modification program is finalized.

According to a panel of financial experts at the 2009 Economic and Investment Forecast Dinner in Los Angeles last week, more pain lies ahead for the U.S. and global economies as they adjust from a long period of credit-fueled prosperity to a new era in which both economic growth and investment returns are likely to be lower.