Servicing

Over the past year, the number of states with programs offering foreclosure mediation has nearly doubled, from 11 to 21, according to the Center for American Progress.

First-time homebuyers and investors are snapping up foreclosures in large quantities and at considerable discounts.

In Las Vegas, foreclosure resales — homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months — fell to 49.5% of all resales in May, down from 51.9% in April and down from a record-high of 73.7% in April 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.

The Navajo Partnership for Housing, which will mark its 15th year of doing the incredibly difficult next year, has bucked the housing depression to continue to bring mortgage finance to members of the Navajo Nation on or near their giant reservation, which sprawls across New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a publicly traded vulture fund, is now offering nonperforming notes to investors through its website but is using three outside firms to facilitate sales.

Three anti-government zealots were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with an alleged scheme to extort money from public officials and top executives of Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, after the lender foreclosed on one of their homes.

The percentage of residential loans in default beyond 90 days increased slightly during May, while both delinquency and foreclosure rates remained relatively stable at historically high levels, according to new figures compiled by Lender Processing Services.

The government is extending more relief to unemployed homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages.

A unit of Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Alexandria, Va., has acquired Exit Slater Realtors in San Antonio to provide real estate services in the Texas market.

Freddie Mac recently listed five ways that lenders can avoid loan repurchases, laying plenty of blame for underwriting defects squarely on the shoulders of management at banks and mortgage lenders.