Foreclosure Deals, an online provider of foreclosed home sale listings and information industry, has announced that foreclosures increased by four percent nationwide during July and still have fallen in the month of August. The month's total of 325,225 homes represents a 10 percent decrease from foreclosure totals in June 2009, and indicate that the trend of rising bank repossessions is continuing well into the summer.Read more

The July Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) shows that foreclosure starts are on the rise, with seriously delinquent loans—those six or more months delinquent—dominating new foreclosure actions. The increase in foreclosure starts is consistent with the Department of Treasury's latest report that approximately half of all Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) trial modifications resulted in cancellation, though 45.4 percent of those have resulted in alternative (non-HAMP) modifications.Read more

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan has announced an agreement with the nation’s top mortgage lenders to offer selected state and local governments, and non-profit organizations a “first look” or right of first refusal to purchase foreclosed homes before making these properties available to private investors. The National First Look Program is a first-ever public-private partnership agreement between HUD and the National Community Stabilization Trust (Stabilization Trust).Read more

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged Coppell, Texas-based American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. (AHMS) with using illegal debt collection tactics and improperly misleading struggling homeowners. According to state investigators, AHMS collections agents used aggressive and unlawful tactics to collect payments from Texas homeowners who had difficulty meeting their payment obligations. The defendant also failed to credit homeowners who properly submitted their payments on time.Read more

Attorney General Terry Goddard has announced that Edward L. Carpenter of Phoenix, a minister and former mortgage broker, has been found guilty by a Maricopa County Superior Court jury of 10 charges related to his operation of a fraudulent mortgage "rescue" business. Carpenter was convicted on five counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, all Class 2 Felonies, and five counts of fraudulent schemes and practices, all Class 5 Felonies.Read more

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.85 percent of all loans outstanding as of the end of the second quarter of 2010, a decrease of 21 basis points from the first quarter of 2010, and an increase of 61 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey. The non-seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased two basis points to 9.40 percent this quarter from 9.38 percent last quarter.Read more

According to a report issued today by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, increased use of loan modifications resulting in significant payment reduction has succeeded in creating more sustainable loan modifications. The number of foreclosures continues to outpace the number of loan modifications being made, but there are reasons to be optimistic about the improvement in loan modification performance. The State Working Group’s data indicate that some recent modifications are performing better than loan modifications made earlier in the mortgage crisis.Read more

DRI Management Systems Inc., a provider of default process management software, has announced its new Web-based loan servicing application for the mortgage industry, Rincon. The Rincon platform sets new standards for performance in default management software, a technology segment virtually created in 1985 by DRI and its Chief Executive Officer Duke Olrich, during the savings and loan crisis. Back in those pre-Internet days, the levels of functionality now available in Rincon could only be imagined.Read more

A group of homeowners has filed a class-action lawsuit against Aurora Loan Services LLC, claiming the mortgage company duped them into paying tens of thousands of dollars each to have troubled mortgages reviewed by the company with promises of loan modifications, only to have their property foreclosed with little or no notice. The suit states that Aurora reaped more than $100 million in what the court documents call "illicit profits" from the alleged scheme.Read more

The New York State Banking Department has issued new regulations that address the business practices of mortgage loan servicers and establish additional consumer protections for homeowners. Part 419 of the Superintendent’s Regulations, which go into effect Oct. 1, 2010, are a follow-up to the adoption of Part 418 in July 2009, which established standards and procedures for the registration of mortgage loan servicers in New York.Read more