Mortgages

Ocwen Financial is fighting back against a group of large bondholders that have accused the Atlanta mortgage servicer of improper servicing practices and an alleged breach of trust.

Sales of previously owned homes fell short of a 5 million annual rate in February for a second month, showing an industry struggling to gain traction amid rising prices and a lack of inventory.

Ocwen Financial Corp. said investors in mortgage-backed securities who criticized its servicing policies are trying to force more foreclosures.

Nationwide foreclosure activity in February approached its lowest point since the financial crisis, mortgage analytics firm Black Knight Financial Services concluded in its monthly "first look" report.

A new loan program will allow borrowers to put down even less than the 3% down payment mortgage programs to be offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This move and others like it, while laudable, will no doubt ensure increasing default rates.

Bank of New York Mellon is building out a new investment firm with the mortgage specialist Amherst Holdings. The move is its second major commitment to a fixed income-related fund this year.

Freddie Mac is selling more than $1 billion of soured U.S. home loans in its largest sale of the debt. Potential buyers are bidding on three pools of nonperforming loans, with unpaid principal balances of about $660 million, $249 million and $125 million.

Many housing markets have seen more homes become trapped underwater during the fourth quarter although the nationwide negative equity rate didn't change, according to analytic firm Zillow.

Ocwen Financial has delayed filing its 2014 results and announced the sale of more servicing rights. The embattled Atlanta servicer was initially expected to report fourth-quarter and full-year results on Monday.

Lennar Corp., the second largest U.S. homebuilder, is raising its bet on rental housing as the pace of sales continues to drag.

Citigroup's failure to pay 24,000 people owed money as part of a settlement with the government over foreclosure abuses has prompted Maxine Waters, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, to call for an investigation into whether banks missed other borrowers.

Wells Fargo is partnering with the National League of Cities to offer a webinar designed to mitigate foreclosures to the general public.

The CFPB wants to expand banks' data reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. But this would impose even greater costs upon local financial institutions that are already overburdened by regulation.

As the temperature have crept up, mortgage rates have gone down, making for a positive start to the spring home-buying season, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a challenge to JPMorgan Chase's $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department.

The percentage of mortgage loans refinancing as part of the overall origination market continued to grow in February following January's blockbuster month, according to data released Wednesday by Ellie Mae.

The agency's interpretation of a Respa rule could put an end to the long-standing practice of mortgage lenders paying real estate agents and homebuilders to send business their way.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a contentious policy Thursday allowing customers to describe their banking experiences more fully on the agency's complaint portal.

If successful, Provident Bank in Massachusetts and Cincinnati Federal in Ohio would become the first new mutual holding companies since 2011, giving some hope that the structure could make a comeback.

Lennar Corp., the second-largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat estimates as the year's busiest buying period gets under way.