Mortgage defaults

It was long believed down payment assistant programs were recipes for poor loan performance and future delinquencies, but that's not the case, according to a new report.

The share of severely underwater mortgages shrunk by over two percentage points compared with a year ago, as these borrowers benefited from the rise in equity levels, Attom Data Solutions said.

Early payment mortgage defaults went to the highest level in nearly a decade, particularly among loans included in Ginnie Mae securities, a Black Knight report said.

The outlook for hotels and suburban offices is still questionable, but the prognosis for other property types in the securitized commercial real estate market remains fairly strong, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The housing finance industry supports a proposed rule revision that would exempt banks regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from an RMBS disclosure requirement.

While foreclosures and distressed mortgages continue to descend overall, trends are moving in the opposite direction in a handful of states, according to Attom Data Solutions.

As global warming contributes to the spread of wildfires, those fires lead to the destruction of homes, mortgage delinquencies and defects. From Texas to California, these are the 15 housing markets with the highest wildfire reconstruction costs, according to CoreLogic.

National Cooperative Bank is starting a conduit to purchase Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages that are at least 60 days' delinquent with the aim of turning them back into performing loans.

The Chateau Hotel and Conference Center in Bloomington, Ill., is under new ownership after a judge agreed to enter a foreclosure judgment.

The Federal Housing Administration should monitor reverse mortgage servicers more closely and track related data that would shed light on a rise in defaults, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Foreclosure starts dropped to their lowest level in 18 years, and properties foreclosed on but not yet sold fell to a 14-year low in August, according to Black Knight.

Reverse mortgages are surging in Canada as more older people join the country's debt bandwagon.

While there was a slight rise in foreclosure filings in August over July, there was a decline when compared with the previous year for the 14th consecutive month, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The nationwide mortgage delinquency rate keeps descending lower, with June marking the 18th consecutive month of annual drops, according to CoreLogic.

Borrowers recovering from foreclosure might not be in as much hot water as perceived, with many maintaining healthy credit scores within a year, according to LendingTree.

While delinquent loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities continued trending downward overall, there was an uptick in the rate for more recent originations, a Standard & Poor's report noted.

Damage from Hurricane Dorian's storm surge has the potential to affect 668,052 homes, according to CoreLogic's latest analysis. Reports estimate a worst-case total of $144.6 billion in reconstruction cost value.

Foreclosure activity fell 21% in July compared to a year ago and rose 6% from June after twelve consecutive months of declines, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Mortgage debt hit an all-time high, but the share of homeowners with financing has fallen to a low not seen in 13 years, according to the Urban Institute.

Better.com has added new capital to support its growth and, in a separate deal, New Residential has agreed to use some its funds to buy property management firm DGG RE Investments.