Mortgage defaults

The number of zombie foreclosures, properties in the foreclosure process that are vacant, dropped 30.1% from a year ago during the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac.

Radian Group, the second-largest U.S. mortgage insurer, said Chief Executive Officer S.A. Ibrahim will step down at the end of next year after steering the company through the financial crisis as weaker rivals collapsed.

Freddie Mac is auctioning off $135 million in nonperforming residential whole loans.

A subsidiary of Goldman Sachs was the winner for all four pools in Fannie Mae's latest nonperforming loan sale.

Foreclosures continued to decrease in the first quarter, while delinquencies remained flat from the previous quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

American International Group's mortgage insurance business has secured indemnity reinsurance coverage for a portfolio of policies from 2008 and earlier.

The number of homes at some stage in the foreclosure process dropped in March to its lowest level since October 2007, according to CoreLogic.

After the Home Affordable Modification Program ends, servicers will employ myriad proprietary workout options to meet ongoing compliance requirements. But will more discretion in loss mitigation practices create consumer and investor confusion?

The Making Home Affordable program has been extended and expanded so many times that it's gotten hard to imagine life without it. But its two primary initiatives have served their purpose and the days may be numbered for HAMP and HARP.

Borrowers who have defaulted in the past are generally considered to be a bigger risk than those who have never missed a payment. Yet the early performance of bonds backed by rehabbed residential mortgages is pretty strong.

Under the Federal Housing Finance Agency's new mortgage modification program, less than 1% of all seriously underwater properties might qualify for principal loan forgiveness, according to RealtyTrac.

United Guaranty's pretax operating income of $163 million benefited from lower mortgage delinquency rates but a decline in refinance originations affected the amount of new insurance written.

Freddie Mac is marketing its 20th offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk notes offloading exposure to defaults on residential mortgages that it insures.

For banks looking to enter or expand their mortgage servicing rights business, there is a pressing question: Are the best years for MSRs behind us or do current market conditions offer a favorable risk/reward opportunity?

The nation's housing markets may be finally getting over the foreclosure crisis, but for many Americans the anger hasn't subsided.

Ocwen Financial Corp. has fulfilled its consumer relief obligation under the National Mortgage Settlement ahead of schedule. But that doesn’t mean it’s in the clear yet.

Cost improvements weren't enough to keep Ocwen Financial Corp. out of the red during the first quarter.

Clayton Holdings reported a $3.7 million pretax first-quarter loss, but Radian's mortgage insurance business had pretax income of $140 million, a 10% increase over the prior year.

The monitor of the Bank of America Mortgage Settlement distributed roughly $89 million Tuesday to legal assistance groups in nine states from a fund for federal tax assistance.

It's taken nine years, but the number of U.S. homes in foreclosure has fallen to a level not seen since before the 2008 housing crisis.