Foreclosures

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at whether mortgage servicers are boosting profits by prematurely unleashing debt collectors on delinquent borrowers, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The mortgage industry made fewer loan modifications in January, while deeds-in-lieu and foreclosure sales spiked, according to Hope Now.

The House passed a bill late Monday to extend foreclosure relief for military service members through the end of next year.

As servicers downsize their loss mitigation units, housing counselors are finding the companies' designated points of contact are less experienced, making it more difficult to get packages approved for troubled borrowers.

Home-price appreciation is a welcome development for households whose nest eggs were shattered by the residential real estate bust that began a decade ago.

Losses on commercial mortgages declined in February, with a Florida shopping center topping the list of the largest losses, according to Trepp.

The national foreclosure inventory decreased 21.7% to about 456,000 in January, according to CoreLogic.

Servicers are taking a much-needed hard look at the full range of customer touch-points that they operate, and NMN's 10th annual Mortgage Servicing Conference promises to offer an engaging agenda of hottest trends and topics.

The mortgage industry provided about 420,000 loan modifications last year to homeowners struggling to make payments, according to Hope Now.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquency rates dropped in the fourth quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Oversight of the four largest mortgage servicers' compliance with the national mortgage settlement is officially over, the watchdog overseeing the process said Thursday.

PHH Corp. reported a bigger loss in the fourth quarter, on costs to restructure its business and a loss on sales of mortgage servicing rights.

Fannie Mae has sold a pool of about $13.2 million of nonperforming loans to New Jersey Community Capital.

The Treasury Department will invest an additional $2 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program into a federal fund that seeks to protect homeowners from foreclosure.

Mortgage loan delinquencies declined in January, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

The number of properties in foreclosure nationwide declined in January, according to RealtyTrac.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $40 million in grant money to organizations that provide counseling to prospective homebuyers.

The decision in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage Corp. has the potential to radically increase the number of lawsuits brought by borrowers, particularly on loans that were pooled into securitized trusts.

Lenders are still holding on to scores of delinquent mortgages that date to the real estate crash, but a surge in home values across the country is motivating them to move the most troublesome loans off their books more quickly.

Residential mortgage delinquencies dropped in the fourth quarter, as employment numbers improve and housing prices increase, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.