Mortgage defaults

The Basel III capital requirements are making it hard for banks to stay in the servicing business, said David Motley, president of Colonial Savings. Their exodus from the market indirectly hurts consumers, he argued.

Fannie Mae is making technological updates and implementing policy and operational changes as part of an effort to improve servicing.

Property valuation firm LRES has launched a new service that provides mortgage servicers with comprehensive lien alerts.

The sale will include Fannie Mae's sixth "community impact" pool of loans.

The number of foreclosures completed in December fell 40% from a year earlier, according to CoreLogic.

Homeowners are reaping the rewards of higher home prices, as the number of seriously underwater properties dropped by 1 million from one year ago, Attom Data Solutions said.

While Arch Capital had a slight increase in year-over-year net income to $64 million, the total was affected by $25 million of costs related to the purchase of United Guaranty.

The rise in home values is good news for homeowners looking to tap the equity in their homes to pay down debt or make big purchases, but some consumer groups fear it could lead to a new wave of loan defaults.

Loans that had modifications completed since 2014 are redefaulting faster than those modified in previous years, according to Fitch Ratings.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank, one of the biggest underwriters of bonds tied to U.S. commercial real estate, say now it's time to short indexes of the securities.