Servicing

Lenders won't be getting an eighth active mortgage insurance underwriter to choose from after all. But they may get repaid faster on claims from a carrier that's been winding down.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will suspend work on the Uniform Mortgage Servicing Dataset to conduct a fact-finding exercise to identify broader data standardization needs in the servicing industry.

The deal would be the second connected to rental homes after Blackstone Group LP, the largest single-family landlord, issued the first such bond last year.

The slowdown in housing since the middle of last year reflects a pickup in borrowing costs, declining affordability, limited job growth and, more recently, bad weather.

For the first time since the financial crisis of 2008, consumers are prioritizing their mortgages ahead of their credit card payments, according to TransUnion.

Roughly 167,800 families who face foreclosure will receive housing counseling through the eighth round of funding from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program.

Executives at a recent NMN panel discussion also discuss why foreclosures will take longer to clear out in New Jersey and why some troubled borrowers may not want loan mods.

As home equity lines of credit hit the five-year mark and borrowers have to start repaying principal, lenders might have to modify these second liens to avert defaults.

A court hearing this week could force housing officials to clarify a longstanding gray area in the reverse mortgage business: When the borrower dies, can the lender foreclose on a surviving spouse not named in the loan?

The number of homeowners who received loan modifications rose to roughly 44,000 in January—up 2% from the previous month.