Foreclosures

The agency wants mortgage servicers to extend special forbearance plans to those affected by the partial government shutdown and evaluate borrowers for loss-mitigation options.

The strong economic headwinds from last fall facilitated a declining loan delinquency rate across the country, though areas hit by natural disasters had increased defaults, according to CoreLogic.

As the government shutdown enters its third week, mortgage servicers are activating the response plans they normally use during hurricanes and wildfires to assist federal workers who may have trouble paying their mortgages.

A Wilmington Township, Pa., man accused of illegally purchasing properties he formerly owned through a tax sale has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of deceptive business practices.

Home retention actions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the first three quarters of 2018 already eclipsed 2016 and 2017 while forfeitures kept declining, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Many servicers expect their Federal Housing Administration mortgage portfolios to grow in the next year or two, and that increase could coincide with an uptick in delinquencies, warns Altisource Portfolio Solutions.

Mortgage prepayment speeds fell to their lowest level in 10 years in November as rising interest rates took a toll on origination activity, according to Black Knight.

An agency report said servicing portfolios have shrunk by nearly half in 10 years as much of the mortgage market has shifted to nonbanks.

Other than in areas hit by natural disasters, delinquency rates are falling with help from a healthier labor market, but a rise in riskier lending habits could signal trouble for borrowers should housing conditions change, according to CoreLogic.

The government-sponsored enterprises are suspending eviction lockouts for the holiday season.

Weakening prices from the most expensive metro areas caused the first decline in available equity since the market started recovering from the housing crisis, according to Black Knight.

Casper's Parkway Plaza hotel has a new owner as GreenLake Real Estate Fund bid $15.5 million at a foreclosure sale to purchase the property.

Foreclosure activity is down nationwide from a year ago, but certain local housing markets are telling a different story.

The government-sponsored enterprises sold fewer nonperforming loans in the first half, but the drop-off in the number of sales year-to-year is less severe than it was in 2017 as a whole.

Two more real estate investors have admitted conspiring to rig bids at foreclosure auctions, bringing to nine the total who say they cheated at the public auctions held at South Mississippi courthouses.

That old fixer-upper house down the block may have seen better days, but in an environment where new-home prices are on the rise, older homes remain in demand in many markets.

October's loan delinquencies, especially those in serious delinquency, got much healthier after improving from the fallout of the last two hurricane seasons, according to Black Knight.

A National Fair Housing Alliance-led group plans to amend and refile a recently dismissed complaint against Deutsche Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions alleging racial discrimination in property preservation.

Over the last 20 years, at least 145,000 Detroit properties have been put up for sale in the annual Wayne County Tax Auction, and, of that number, an estimated 50,000 properties were occupied at the time of foreclosure.

Wells Fargo will lay off 1,000 workers primarily from its mortgage unit in the first major round of a previously announced plan to cut the bank's workforce by as much as 10% over the next three years.