Servicing

With over a million borrowers delinquent on their mortgages and nearly two million properties in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, analysts, Realtors and servicers can only speculate about when the housing industry will take positive steps towards a recovery.

Resource Real Estate Opportunity REIT has purchased a distressed multifamily REO property in Houston that was experiencing operational and capital deficiencies for $11.4 million.

Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union of Warrenville, Ill., the survivor of what was once Members United Corporate FCU, said it has signed a letter of intent to combine with Central Corporate Credit Union of Michigan, creating the nation's largest corporate with almost $5 billion in assets.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau detailed a slew of new mortgage servicing rules last week that it plans to propose this summer, including a call for expanded disclosures for payments and fees and new policies in how banks must handle customer accounts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about to take another step forward in its efforts to write a series of rules to define "larger participants" in specific markets, including those in the consumer credit reporting business.

Following an undercover investigation that found "disturbing evidence" of discrimination in the management of real estate owned properties in communities of color by a number of undisclosed banks the National Fair Housing Alliance has filed a federal housing discrimination complaint against Wells Fargo & Co. and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has conceded that the higher incentive payments the Treasury Department is willing to pay make principal reduction cost effective for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Over the last 10 years, $23.7-billion State Employees' Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. has not had a single mortgage handed back to it by an investor due to poor underwriting.

In 1848, the discovery of gold in California proved to be one of the most significant events in U.S. history. The dream of striking it rich and reaping the benefits of copious finds held a strong allure for many adventurous risk takers. Today, investors armed with reams of data and metrics, and that same adventurous spirit, are looking at the foreclosure to rental property market with that same gleam in their eyes.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to make mortgage servicing more consumer friendly so borrowers will be given advance notice of interest rate adjustments and how to avoid costly forced-placed insurance.