Servicing

The largest single-family home landlords plan to raise their rents as much as 5.7% this year as they shift focus from buying properties to boosting their bottom lines.

Federal regulators fined mortgage servicer Green Tree Servicing $63 million in penalties and restitution on Tuesday, alleging that it mistreated borrowers at risk of foreclosure and failed to honor modifications of loans transferred from other servicers.

The message being telegraphed is consistent: lenders have been on notice to upgrade compliance and strict adherence is now expected.

Real estate agents' satisfaction with lenders and the underwriting process is rising as distressed home sales decrease, according to the latest survey from the California Association of Realtors.

New Jersey's Atlantic County led U.S. metropolitan areas in foreclosures during the first quarter of 2015, according to new data.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has sold $3.7 billion of soured loans since late 2012 to aid homeowners in communities hurt by foreclosures. So far, the government agency has mostly helped itself.

Radian Group Inc. and MGIC Investment Corp. surged in New York trading after a U.S. regulator softened mortgage insurers' standards on some loans.

Quicken Loans filed a lawsuit against the U.S. departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development over a government inquiry into its FHA mortgage business.

Only about one in four former homeowners who lost property during the housing crash will soon become buyers again as tight credit keeps many out of the U.S. real estate market, according to a National Association of Realtors study.

The final rule outlining new criteria for private mortgage insurers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans lacks a key feature that industry participants had sought: the ability to count future insurance premiums towards capital reserves.