Kate Berry

Park City, Utah - Banks are not alone in criticizing the newly-empowered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: even some consumer advocates are piling on, raising concerns that the agency will not go far enough in rolling back preemption.

The National Association of Realtors said that it overestimated home sales by nearly 15% in 2010, an indication that the housing market is in even worse shape than many experts previously thought.

The backlog of real estate owned homes held by banks and the government is "staggering," Fitch Inc. said.

Americans who are able to buy homes are putting down payments of more than 12% on average, a survey from mortgage lead generator LendingTree LLC found this month.

The mortgage market is expected to change dramatically in the coming year as some of the largest banks cede loan-origination market share to regional banks and nonbank mortgage lenders.

Fannie Mae's chief economist is warning that the United States has a 40% chance of slipping into a double-dip recession in 2012.

Nevada's attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto this week filed civil fraud charges against Lender Processing Services and two subsidiaries alleging the company engaged in a widespread fraud of forging foreclosure documents.

The backlog of real estate-owned homes held by banks and the government is "staggering," Fitch Inc. said this week.

Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, this week hammered the Obama Administration and Treasury Department at a panel discussion on the foreclosure crisis, saying fears of a political backlash led to the administration's tepid response to the housing crisis and refusal to back principal reductions.

Some mortgage industry members are applauding Congressional efforts to raise the guarantee fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders, saying the increases could help bring private investors back into the mortgage market.

Government officials are likely to lessen large banks' liabilities over how they handled delinquent Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages as part of a settlement with the largest mortgage servicers, according to people briefed on the negotiations.

It's a sign of the dismal state of the housing market that a combined $14 billion bailout in the third quarter for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no longer merits front-page headlines.

Bank of America Corp. reshuffled top retail bank executives yet again this week, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.

Zombie mortgages, or home loans that are worth more than the underlying collateral of the house, are impeding a recovery in home sales and in the broader economy, according to Barclays Capital chief economist Dean Maki.

MURRIETA, CALIF. — When Lesliane Bouchard took out a mortgage in 2008 to buy a home in Riverside County, she specifically requested a Federal Housing Administration loan. The 8th-grade English teacher and former foster parent thought a government-insured loan would offer the most protection in a falling housing market.

Lewis S. Ranieri, who helped pioneer conventional mortgage-backed securities in the early 1980s, is proposing a fix for the nation's housing mess.

A Florida court ruling could make it harder for mortgage servicers to use computer records as evidence for foreclosure without verifying the underlying information.

Mike Perry, who led IndyMac Bancorp until its collapse in 2008, is trying to rehabilitate his image, waging a public campaign rarely seen from an executive of a once high flying mortgage lender.

Some of the nation’s top banks including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase – which also rank first and third, respectively in terms of housing receivables -- flunked Fannie Mae's latest test of mortgage servicers, but the GSE isn’t exactly saying that.

The New Jersey Supreme Court lifted a foreclosure ban on Ally Financial this week, removing the last state barrier for mortgage servicers to fully resume operations a year after their widespread "robosigning" procedures came to light.