According to a new report by Moody’s Investor Service, Freddie Mac loans refinanced under the Home Affordable Refinance Program will continue to outperform pre-crisis Freddie loans that did not enter the program, but will also continue to lag behind post-crisis Freddie loans. The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) was instituted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in March 2009, designed Continue Reading

This past week the United States Senate passed legislation designed to help protect military servicemembers, veterans, and their families from foreclosure. Sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), the legislation was included as part of the larger banking regulation bill passed by the Senate and makes permanent a one-year foreclosure grace period for service members leaving active Continue Reading

Although they did see a small uptick as last year ended, first mortgage default rates remained flat year-over-year, according to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices covering data up through January. According to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices released on Tuesday, the default rate for first mortgages inched higher between December 2017 and January 2018, Continue Reading

Attom Data Solutions today released its 2017 U.S. Year-End Home Equity and Underwater analysis, which revealed that the number of seriously underwater properties — meaning they had a loan-to-value (LTV) of 125+ — decreased 0.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2017 to 9.3 percent, the smallest year-over-year decrease in the share of seriously underwater properties since Attom began tracking in Q1 Continue Reading

Mortgage delinquencies hit a 23-month high as 2017 wrapped up, surging by 164,000 year-over-year, according to the latest Mortgage Monitor Report from the Data and Analytics Division of Black Knight, Inc. However, that figure only tells part of the story. Outside of hurricane-affected areas, Black Knight reports that the national mortgage delinquency rate was actually 11 percent below long-term Continue Reading

Convinced struggling borrowers to sign over title, then stole their equity The former owner of a California foreclosure rescue firm admitted in court last week to stealing struggling borrowers’ homes during the housing crisis. Sergio Barrientos pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and bank fraud. According to court documents, from about Continue Reading

According to mortgage delinquency data compiled by Black Knight, Inc., in November 2017, 90-day delinquent loan inventory saw the largest month-over-month increase in nine years due to the impacts of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. November increases in severely delinquent mortgage inventory have been observed in nine out of the past 10 years, according to Black Knight, but the spike in 90-day Continue Reading

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today announced eviction moratoriums for the holidays, designed to help buy struggling homeowners time to explore their options. Fannie Mae will suspend evictions of foreclosed single-family properties during the holiday season from December 18, 2017, through January 2, 2018. This suspension applies to single-family and 2-4 unit properties. The moratorium doesn’t Continue Reading

YTD 2017 Home Flips Still on Pace to Equal 10-Year High of 2016; Lowest Ratio of Flips Per Investor Since Q2 2008 ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation's largest multi-sourced property database, today released its Q3 2017 U.S. Home Flipping Report, which shows that single family homes and condos flipped in the third quarter yielded an average gross flipping profit of $66,448 per flip, Continue Reading

Biggest Year-over-Year Drop in Number of Seriously Underwater Since Q2 2015; Share of Equity Rich Properties Increases to New High of 26 Percent IRVINE, Calif. — Nov. 16, 2017 — ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s largest multi-sourced property database, today released its Q3 2017 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that at the end of the third quarter of 2017 there Continue Reading