Mortgage defaults

An audit of Ginnie Mae financials identified four "material weaknesses" and one "significant deficiency," primarily related to the accounting of $6.6 billion in defaulted loans made by the failed lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

Embattled mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial faces up to $26 billion in damage claims by bondholders and a greater risk of being fired as a mortgage servicer on thousands of small, private-label trusts.

Ocwen Financial Corp., the mortgage servicer under attack for its handling of home loans, slumped the most in more than a month after receiving notices that it was being fired from overseeing debt backing two bond deals.

New Residential Investment Corp. posted net income of $54 million in the fourth quarter, as the company gears up to close its acquisition of Home Loan Servicing Solutions.

Ocwen Financial Corp., the mortgage servicer under attack for its handling of home loans, is being fired from overseeing debt backing two bond deals, according to notices sent to bondholders.

The rate of delinquencies of 90 days or more has trended downward since 2009, but servicing costs have generally been rising, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is not the way it used to work.

Since one out of every five households belongs to an HOA, lenders and servicers must understand the necessary rules and regulations and exercise extreme caution when processing these delinquent properties.

One in three struggling homeowners who received a loan modification through the Home Affordable Modification Program ultimately redefaulted on those loan.Meanwhile, the program that was supposed to help some 4 million families avoid foreclosure has helped only a fraction of that amount, according to a report presented to Congress.

The mortgage delinquency rate fell to the lowest in more than seven years in the fourth quarter as the improving job market and stricter lending standards kept more borrowers current.

Foreclosure starts in January rose to their highest level in 13 months, even as the national mortgage delinquency continued to fall, according to data from Black Knight Financial Services.

American Homes 4 Rent is pushing the maturity envelope with its latest single-family rental securitization.

Mortgage technology firm ISGN has released its latest loan servicing system, LoanDynamix, which boasts a strong focus on compliance.

It's not quite too big to fail, but Ocwen is the country's largest servicer of subprime mortgages. So if it were forced to sell itself, or even failed, the transfer of some $410 billion in servicing rights could create havoc in the mortgage market, industry experts said.

Although the new rules address many of the issues presented by non-borrowing spouses, one of the rules' principal shortcomings is that they do not sufficiently outline the rebalancing of principal that is often required to substitute these new borrowers.

New Residential Investment Corp., a U.S. real estate investment trust, agreed to buy Home Loan Servicing Solutions for about $1.3 billion.

NMI Holdings, the parent company of National Mortgage Insurance Corp., reported a net loss again in the fourth quarter as it saw growth in new insurance written.

California has delivered less than half of $2 billion in federal aid to help victims of the housing crash.

Prospects have improved for homebuyers who were frozen out of the American dream by investors who plunked down cash to buy houses in distressed markets.

Sellers across Washington and California have a lot to smile about, as cities in these two states ranked among the strongest housing markets in January, according to Pro Teck Valuation Services.

So far, HomeSafe Georgia has distributed $130 million in 129 Georgia counties.