Kate Berry

Six Federal Home Loan banks have launched a salvo against Bank of America Corp.'s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage bondholder settlement, suggesting the payout may need to be triple that amount.

The California Association of Realtors declared victory in getting a bill signed into law that prohibits junior lien holders from pursuing a deficiency judgment on short sales.

As housing prices continue to slide, the loan-to-value ratios of always-performing loans have in many cases crept higher than those on defaulted loans, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

The price of being a good neighbor can be steep for banks foreclosing on condominiums and homes in planned communities.

The Federal Housing Administration is considering tightening borrowers' debt-to-income ratios, a move that would prevent the most highly leveraged consumers from qualifying to buy a home.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, some mortgage lenders are choosing to relax underwriting requirements ever so slightly to offset a dramatic drop in loan origination volumes.

Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economist and the namesake of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes, has been called overly pessimistic for predicting home prices could fall another 25%.

Home purchases have picked up the past few weeks in Phoenix and Las Vegas, a sign that some of the hardest-hit housing markets may have hit bottom.

A Texas mortgage broker, Rodney Anderson, has single-handedly pushed for legislation that requires medical bills of $2,500 or less to be expunged from credit reports if the debts have been paid or settled.

A couple in Naples, Fla., showed up at a branch of Bank of America Corp. with two sheriff's deputies last week to seize assets, after the bank failed to compensate them for legal fees from a wrongful foreclosure.

A drop in mortgage lending volumes to the lowest level in over a decade is forcing lenders to consider new cost cuts and staff reductions. The lack of activity comes despite a boost from low interest rates that has sparked a wave of refinancings, and is prompting lenders to face the prospect that refis and home purchases may remain moribund for an extended period.

For less than $200 up front, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley might have saved themselves a combined $22 million, and a whole lot of embarrassment.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $20 million and Morgan Stanley $2.35 million for improperly foreclosing on members of the military — some of whom were on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan — under a settlement with the Justice Department.

A significant sector of the housing market is still being driven by sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure, according to a new report from Realtytrac Inc.

The Federal Housing Administration is getting tougher on paying claims for defaulted loans where it believes lenders have cut corners on the underwriting.

As home prices fall again and regulatory reforms take hold, long-simmering tensions between mortgage lenders and appraisers are flaring up anew.

A new report, "Paying More for The American Dream V," by a group of nonprofit housing advocacy organizations, finds evidence that banks may be engaging in redlining on refinance loans in communities of color.

When Noel Watts, the vice president of mortgage banking at Marshall & Ilsley Bank, set out to upgrade the lender's origination platform two years ago, he expected interest rates to rise and mortgage volume to plummet.

The recovery prospects for second-lien holders in residential foreclosures keep looking dicier.

The city of Los Angeles filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Deutsche Bank, claiming the German bank failed to maintain foreclosed properties and illegally evicted hundreds of low-income renters.