Mortgage defaults

The inventory of homes at some stage of foreclosure fell 27% in February from the year before, according to CoreLogic.

FirstKey Lending priced a $241 million securitization of fixed-rate loans it made to landlords for the purchase of single-family homes.

Radian Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer S.A. Ibrahim said the mortgage insurer is poised to expand after its first profitable year since 2006.

Fannie Mae has released details of its first bulk sale of nonperforming loans, just one day after announcing its plans to go ahead with these transactions.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Orlando Resort seems a world away from the nearby Florida neighborhood nicknamed "Crime Hills." But magic is spreading.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group's fight against a billion-dollar government lawsuit over mortgage-backed securities is ending where it started: with the banks blaming the housing crash.

The number of borrowers who could reap the benefits of refinancing has grown to 7.1 million as interest rates have fallen, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

The shift in market composition is fueling concerns that if defaults rise, the Federal Housing Administration would have a harder time making lenders eat the losses on poorly underwritten loans.

Clayton Homes, the manufactured-housing business owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., uses aggressive sales and lending practices that traps some borrowers in homes that are difficult to resell, the Seattle Times reported.

FirstKey Lending is securitizing $241 million of fixed-rate loans it made to landlords for the purchase of buy-to-rent, single-family homes, according to a presale from Kroll Bond Ratings Agency.

Bank of America is asking the Justices to overturn lower-court rulings that mortgage loans with a secondary lien on a debtor's asset can be "stripped down" to zero when the collateral is completely underwater. The decision could affect an even wider range of second liens.

The federal government awarded the California Housing Finance Agency more than $450,000 to support a program that provides counseling to homeowners facing foreclosure.

Large mortgage servicers continued to shed delinquencies as overall loan performance improved in the fourth quarter, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday.

Financial institutions are far from drowning because of underwater mortgages, with the impact of these loans mostly behind them, according to Fitch Ratings.

It's was anything but a winter wonderland for the housing market, according to a report by Freddie Mac.

The latest securitization of reperforming residential mortgages offers investors less protection against future losses than the previous deal, and has earned correspondingly lower safety scores from Fitch Ratings.

The Justice Department's Clifford White is putting all mortgage servicers on notice that they too will be punished if they flout bankruptcy rules.

With mortgage giant Freddie Mac finding increased demand this week in the nascent market for its risk-sharing securities, competitor Fannie Mae said it was taking steps to draw more buyers for its own notes.

MGIC Investment Corp. former Chief Executive Officer Curt Culver, who presided over an 85% stock-price decline during his tenure, received compensation valued at about $8 million for his last full year in the top job.

Ocwen Financial Corp. agreed to sell servicing rights on a $25 billion portfolio of home loans and said it's out of compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing standards.