Mortgage defaults

While the national foreclosure crisis no longer commands much attention, a seven-year-old lawsuit tied to the foreclosure of a Centerville, Ohio, home continues to wind its way through the federal court system.

The number of U.S. properties that were equity rich in the second quarter grew by 1.6 million properties from a year ago.

Defaults on second-lien mortgages have crept up on a year-to-year and a consecutive-month basis; and first-lien defaults are above where they were the previous month, but still below year-ago levels.

The mortgage delinquency rate reached its lowest point in nearly a decade in May due to tighter underwriting, according to CoreLogic.

Essent Group reported second-quarter net income of $72.1 million, an improvement from the $52.3 million of the same period last year.

Genworth Financial's U.S. private mortgage insurance business had an almost 50% increase in adjusted operating income, benefiting from lower-than-expected claim rates.

Old Republic International Corp. is again making noise about bringing its mortgage insurance subsidiary back to active status, while separating it out from the holding company.

Three California men who previously operated Star Reliable Mortgage were ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution and are facing multiyear prison terms related to a foreclosure rescue scheme.

Arch Capital Group's mortgage insurance business had second-quarter underwriting income of $184 million, up 343% from the $41.4 million for the same period last year.

A former California mortgage lender agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle civil fraud allegations that its lending practices in the Southeast caused taxpayers to lose millions of dollars when homeowners defaulted on their loans after the Great Recession.

First-lien mortgage defaults in June were down 4 basis points from the previous month and 5 basis points from where they were the previous year at 0.6%.

Canadians may be shouldering near-record household debt but homeowners have been managing it better than those that don't own property.

Last month's spike in defaults due to loans maturing drove the greatest month-over-month surge of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquencies in six years, according to Fitch Ratings.

Morgan Stanley received credit for $30 million of consumer relief, completing 85% of the obligations required by its February 2016 settlement with New York State.

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The Pine Tree Plaza in Sterling, Ill., will be auctioned online after a string of tenant departures put the property in foreclosure.

The proposed site in Danvers, Mass., of a Registry of Motor Vehicles office is scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction, casting doubt on when, or if, the registry will actually end up there.

The owner of a $50.9 million Manhattan condo that is scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction next month is Kolawole "Kola" Aluko, a Nigerian businessman accused in court filings of defrauding that country's government.

Another luxury condo at Manhattan's One57 is scheduled for a foreclosure auction — the second time in a month that a property seizure is being sought at the Billionaires' Row tower following a mortgage default.

Mortgage delinquencies declined 7% in May compared with April, a partial recovery from the 13% increase of the previous month.