Mortgage defaults

Four years into a $1 billion foreclosure prevention plan, Florida is not getting enough money into the hands of struggling homeowners and has enrolled fewer than 100 people into one of its five programs.

TCF Financial took $44 million in charges to rid itself of mortgages made before the housing collapse. A distressed-asset investor purchased more than $400 million in loans from the company, and another pool of bad mortgages may be marked for sale soon.

The Federal Housing Administration will make foreclosure protections available to a larger number of surviving spouses of deceased reverse mortgage borrowers.

Banks have made progress cutting their exposure to risky home equity lines of credit, ahead of a key 10-year threshold when billions of dollars of them will reset to higher monthly payments. But there are some prominent exceptions, especially among regional banks.

South Florida is inching closer to housing stability, according to a monthly report by Freddie Mac.

Payments to Philadelphia's city treasury and utilities, from mortgage foreclosures and delinquent tax, gas and water bills, surged to $58.3 million last year, a 40% jump from $34.4 million in 2013.

More than 300,000 South Floridians who lost their homes during the housing bust could be eligible to own again over the next eight years.

Mobile boards hung with candy-colored pages announcing the day's foreclosure hearings still stand sentry on the fourth floor of the Palm Beach County, Fla., courthouse — makeshift organizers erected during the unbridled early days of the housing crisis.

Thousands of struggling Michigan homeowners who got a break on their mortgage during the financial crisis will get a letter this year with a bit of bad news.

Although foreclosures had peaked in 2010 in many states and metropolitan areas, statistics show a different story for Maryland.

Recently disclosed emails and documents give the clearest evidence yet that high-level banking officials pushed subprime mortgage loans knowing some Detroiters couldn't pay them — helping spark a foreclosure crisis that devastated the city during the Great Recession.

Ocwen Financial Corp., one of the biggest U.S. mortgage servicers, rejected as "groundless" accusations by an investor group that the company’s practices created defaults on home-loan bonds backed by debt it oversees.

Freddie Mac is selling $410 million of deeply delinquent U.S. home loans in its second sale of the debt.

The national mortgage delinquency rate dropped in December after a significant uptick the previous month, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

BlueMountain Capital Management is claiming that "misconduct" by Ocwen Financial Corp. triggered a default in securities issued by an affiliate of the mortgage servicer.

MGIC on Tuesday reported an increase in its quarterly earnings, as the company slashed its losses and boosted net premiums.

Loan default rates increased for the fifth consecutive month in December, according to the S&P/Experian consumer credit default indices.

Local officials could have a new weapon, courtesy of state government, in a drive to thin out empty residences and buildings in St. Joseph, Mo.

A recently launched program in New York state is helping distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure.

Lower litigation costs helped Bank of America's mortgage unit curb its losses, while Citi's fourth quarter origination volume dropped 18% from a year ago.