Current Default News

• BofA Offering Up to $30K in Relocation Assistance for Short Sales May. 18th 2012
  Just days after Bank of America officially announced its nationwide program offering up to $30,000 in relocation assistance for short sales, a Massachusetts-based real estate company revealed in a blog that one of its clients was approved to receive $10,000. In order to be eligible for the relocation assistance, BofA stated that the short sale must be initiated by the end of this year and close by September 26, 2013. Also, the amount offered is determined on a case-by-case basis, with variables such as the value of the home and amount owed factored into the equation.

• Judicial States Will Lag Behind Recovery: Capital Economics May. 18th 2012
  While the housing market is starting to show signs that it is strengthening, for some states, recovery still seems to be in the very distant future. According to a report from Capital Economics, one factor that will determine the speed of recovery for individual states is the type of foreclosure procedure. Paul Diggle, author of the report, said that many of the judicial states, which are struggling to clear their backlog of foreclosures, will lag behind during recovery. However, Rob Pitingolo, research assistant with the Urban Institute, noted that it's not the judicial process itself that is the problem, but a lack of resources.

• MGIC Files Lawsuit Against Freddie Mac and FHFA Over Pool Dispute May. 18th 2012
  MGIC Investment Corporation announced Thursday that its Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation subsidiary filed a lawsuit against Freddie Mac and its conservator, FHFA. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the dispute is in regards to a disagreement over aggregate loss limit under certain pool insurance policies.

• Median Home Prices Rise in April: RE/MAX May. 18th 2012
  The RE/MAX: National Housing Report found that the national median home price rose for the third straight month in April, indicating that the housing recovery in 2012 is continuing. The report surveyed 53 metropolitan areas and found that the median home price was $161,000, 3.2 percent higher than in March and 5.9 percent higher than in April 2011. February marked the first time in 18 months that home prices experienced an increase, and data from March and April shows a positive trend.

• Gerner & Kearns Appoints New Associate May. 18th 2012
  Gerner & Kearns, Co., L.P.A. announced recently that Michael Lubes has been appointed as an associate in the firm's Collections Practice Group.

• American InfoSource Acquires Ascension Capital Group May. 18th 2012
  American InfoSource LP: (AIS) announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Ascension Capital Group, Inc., (ACG).

• Cityside Hires Chief Business Development Officer May. 17th 2012
  Clinton Alcorn joined Cityside Management Corporation as chief business development officer.

• As Economy Improves, Prices to Hit Bottom in 2013 After Dropping: Fitch May. 17th 2012
  Fitch Ratings released a report projecting another 7.8 percent drop in U.S. home prices before the market reaches sustainability, according to the rating agency's fourth quarter sustainable home price (SHP) report. This is a decrease from last quarter's prediction of a 9.1 percent drop. As long as economic growth is steady and inflation runs close to 3 percent annually, Fitch believes home prices will finally hit bottom in late 2013, and then move towards a slow recovery.

• Story of Recovery Will Lack Uniformity: Demand Institute May. 17th 2012
  While the U.S. housing market appears to be on the road to recovery, it will be a rather patchy one, with some regions seeing home prices rise as high as 5 percent and others falling flat, according to a report released from the Demand Institute, which is jointly operated by The Conference Board and Nielsen. According to the report, three variables will indicate the speed of recovery for individual states: state-level unemployment rates, the proportion of foreclosure inventory relative to total inventory, and the extent of recent price declines.

• Southern California Home Sales Figures Rise May. 17th 2012
  According to numbers released by DataQuick, last month's home sales numbers in Southern California experienced a modest climb from last year. Median home sales prices in Southland rose year-over-year in April for the first time in 16 months. The median price paid for a home in Southland was $290,000 this year, up from $280,000 in March 2012 and April 2011. This increase is attributed to gains in the region's coastal counties, where home sales made up 71.5 percent of the area's total, an increase from last year's 68 percent. Also cited as cause for this year's higher numbers is the fact that foreclosed and discounted properties made up a smaller portion of sales.

• OCC Directs Allonhill to Cease Foreclosure Review May. 17th 2012
  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has removed Allonhill from the Independent Foreclosure Review due to concerns about third parties.

• Wells Fargo Brings NeighborhoodLIFT to Florida May. 17th 2012
  Wells Fargo & Co. is taking its NeighborhoodLIFT program to Florida in June to help stabilize neighborhoods affected by the foreclosure crisis.

• Rogers Townsend Brings on Three New Attorneys May. 17th 2012
  Rogers Townsend & Thomas, PC, announced the addition of three new attorneys to the firm's Charlotte office.

• Gateway Mortgage Group Establishes Omaha Branch May. 17th 2012
  Gateway Mortgage Group is expanding its operations with a new branch in Omaha, Nebraska. The new location will be staffed by eight loan officers, including Kent Geschwender, a former branch manager of MetLife Home Loans. The Omaha branch will be the company's largest.

• Week After Week, Rates Continue to Break Record-Low Numbers May. 17th 2012
  Just when it seemed like they could not fall any further, fixed-rate mortgages continued to drop, breaking record-low numbers once again, according to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage market survey. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.79 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending May 17, slipping from last week's average of 3.83 percent. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also fell, ending the week at 3.04 percent (0.7 point). Bankrate.com, which releases a weekly survey using data provided by the top 10 banks and thrifts in the top 10 markets, reported a record-low average for the 30-year fixed, which dropped below 4 percent.

• Initial Unemployment Claims Creeping Up May. 17th 2012
  First time claims were unchanged at 370,000 for the week ended May 12 after the number of initial claims filed for the previous week was revised upward, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists had expected initial claims would decrease to 365,000. The Labor Department had initially reported 367,000 claims filed for the week ended May 5. The revision turned that report to an increase of 2,000 from a previously reported decline of 1,000. Continuing claims — reported on a one week lag — increased 18,000 to 3,265,000 after the preceding week's report was bumped up to 3,247,000 from an originally reported 3,269,000, coincidentally another 18,000 increase from the original report.

• Combined Foreclosure Activity Wanes, Up in Certain States: RealtyTrac May. 16th 2012
  Foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - totaled 188,780 in April 2012, which is the lowest monthly total since July 2007, according to RealtyTrac's Foreclosure Market Report. April foreclosure activity also fell 5 percent from the previous month and was down 14 percent from a year ago in April. When analyzing foreclosure activity according to judicial processes, non-judicial states declined both yearly and monthly, while judicial states decreased monthly but not yearly.

• HUD Studies Suggest Counseling Keeps Owners in Homes May. 16th 2012
  Buying a home is the biggest financial investment many people will ever make. It's also an investment that, in recent years, has become lost for millions. According to data from CoreLogic, since September 2008, there have been 3.5 million completed foreclosures. Through counseling, HUD found homeowners are more likely to stay in their properties, even when facing foreclosure. HUD released reports on two types of counseling: pre-purchase and foreclosure prevention. In both studies, HUD found housing counseling significantly improved the likelihood homeowners remained in their homes. For those who enrolled into pre-purchase counseling, HUD found that 35 percent of participants became homeowners within 18 months of pre-purchase counseling and only one of those buyers fell behind on mortgage payments.

• Auction.com Names New Managing Director May. 16th 2012
  Auction.com announced that Andrew Platt will be the new managing director for the New York-based capital markets team. Platt is a former senior member of the fixed income teams at UBS, Bank of America and Lehman Brothers.

• RealtyProx Releases Updated Short Sale Software May. 16th 2012
  RealtyProx announced the release of an updated version of its short sale processing software developed to automate short sale transactions and save time for real estate professionals.