The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the government-sponsored enterprises) servicers will not be permitted to make a first notice or filing for foreclosure that would be prohibited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Protections for Borrowers Affected by the COVID-19 Emergency Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Continue Reading

Forbearance levels are looking better across the board as volume decreases for all types of mortgage loans, according to the weekly report from Black Knight. Keeping with the strong trend of early-month improvements, overall volumes dropped by 61,000 or 2.7%. Forbearance volumes for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell by 13,000, or -1.9%. Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and VA plan volumes Continue Reading

Amending Regulation X to give servicers and homeowners more time to work through options The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a notice of proposed rulemaking on Monday that would amend Regulation X to provide a special pre-foreclosure review period prohibiting servicers from starting foreclosures until after December 31, 2021. Under current CFPB Continue Reading

Black Knight has released the results of its latest McDash Flash Forbearance Tracker, finding that the trend of mid-month forbearance increases continues to rise. Black Knight has found that the number of active forbearance plans increased by 15,000, a 0.6% rise over last week, with portfolio-held and privately securitized mortgages accounting for the largest weekly increase at 12,000 (1.8%). Continue Reading

On the first day of his administration, President Joe Biden issued a slate of executive orders, including one that called on federal departments and agencies to extend their bans on evictions and foreclosures through at least the end of March. As with the previous extensions, this act is designed to provide ongoing relief to homeowners and renters feeling the negative financial impact of the Continue Reading

Despite federal and local efforts to halt foreclosures and evictions during a global health crisis, losing a home has become a real threat facing millions of Americans, especially as preventative moratoria expire in December and January. Several reports and publications have examined the implications and possible solutions. An article by USA Today's N'dea Yancey-Bragg, for example, examines the Continue Reading

Due to forbearance plans, home foreclosures are at record lows, but skyrocketing serious-delinquency rates point to a rough road ahead. That is, according to CoreLogic, provider of property-data analysis, which just released its monthly Loan Performance Insights report for August. It showed, nationally: •Overall delinquency rate for August was 6.6%. •The rate for early-stage delinquencies (30 to Continue Reading

UPDATE: The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and HUD announced, shortly following FHFA's similar announcement, the third extension of its foreclosure and eviction moratorium through December 31, for homeowners with FHA-insured single family mortgages covered under the Coronavirus Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. According to a statement, "this extension provides an additional four Continue Reading

As of May 7, nearly 4.1 million homeowners are in forbearance plans, representing 7.7% of all active mortgages, according to the latest forbearance data from Black Knight. They account for $890 billion in unpaid principal and includes 6.4% of all GSE-backed loans and 11% of all FHA/VA loans. At today’s level, mortgage servicers need to advance a combined $4.5 billion/month to holders of Continue Reading

The housing market is set to remain a bright spot in the face of a possible recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Redfin. Because the housing market was strong going into the 2020 recession, there’s currently no reason to expect a major crash in home prices, Redfin notes. As Redfin states, the driving factors for this 2020 recession are unrelated to real estate, which Continue Reading