A report by RealtyTrac shows that foreclosure activity decreased on a year-over-year basis in 178 of the nation’s 211 metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more. The report found a decrease in foreclosure activity in the top 10 metropolitan areas in the first half of 2011 compared to the first half of 2010. Seattle was the only exception with a nearly 10 percent increase in foreclosure activity from the first half of 2010. Seattle’s foreclosure rating is now 57th among all metro areas, up from a 97th ranking in the first half of 2010. California, Nevada and Arizona cities represented the top 10 metro foreclosure rates and 15 of the top...

Four of the top five mortgage servicers continued to gradually pare down their portfolios during the second quarter of 2011, while Wells Fargo inched further toward the top of the industry, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Absent any blockbuster mergers or servicing acquisitions over the past few years, the major trend in the servicing business has been the winding down of distressed subprime and Alt A portfolios. Bank of America, still the largest servicer in the industry, has seen its portfolio shrink steadily since ... [includes one data chart]

Wells Fargo and Bank of America continued to pull ahead of the field, adding Ginnie Mae servicing to their portfolios faster than the overall market grew during the second quarter of 2011. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis found the two companies holding 54.9 percent of Ginnie servicing outstanding at the end of June. Third-place JPMorgan Chase trailed overall growth in the market, while CitiMortgage and PNC Bank actually [includes one data chart]

The Federal Trade Commission announced last month that it will not enforce most provisions of its Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rule against real estate brokers and their agents who help struggling homeowners obtain short sales from their lenders or servicers. The stay applies only to real estate professionals who are licensed and in good standing under state licensing requirements; comply with state laws governing the practices of real estate professionals; and assist or attempt to assist consumers in obtaining short sales in the course of securing the sales of their homes. ...

Wells Fargo was fined $85 million by the Federal Reserve late last month over allegations that Wells did not adequately detect and prevent instances of fraudulent loan applications and the steering of prime borrowers into higher-cost nonprime loans.The Federal Trade Commission said it is mailing 450,177 refund checks worth almost $108 million to homeowners who were allegedly overcharged by Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. ...

Mortgage industry officials are pressing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to create a true legal safe harbor as it takes over a rulemaking project to implement ability-to-pay requirements enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. Although the Federal Reserve drafted the proposed ability-to-pay rule, it did not take a firm stand on defining the legal protection lenders will get from originating “qualified mortgages.” Late last week, the project – which implements amendments to the Truth in Lending Act – was passed on to the CFPB. The Fed proposed rule contains ...

Loan servicers must deal with increasing paperwork and time demands, and they are often unequipped for new reporting requirements resulting from the Dodd-Frank Act. Firms such as SourceHOV say they can provide servicers with a strategy for dealing with the additional work new regulations are creating. One of the more onerous requirements is the need to handle qualified written requests. Servicers are also required to acknowledge receipt of any request. “Servicers really have two options when it comes to compliance,” said Michael Zwall, the director of mortgage services for SourceHOV, a consulting firm. “First, a servicer can decide to develop ...

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) announced late last week the creation of a special fund that will use the state’s allocation of federal Hardest Hit Fund dollars to purchase distressed loans in the Chicago area and permanently modify them to affordable levels. The Mortgage Resolution Fund will extract $100 million of Illinois’ $445.7 million of HHF resources for the cause. The MRF will buy delinquent loans from lenders and capital markets trading desks at net present value, and each qualifying debt will be “brought into alignment with current values.” Chicago has suffered a ...

JPMorgan Chase officials say they plan to liquidate the company’s giant $154 billion mortgage portfolio to “close to zero” as it works through the bank’s mortgage losses and litigation of loan-servicing and foreclosure practices. During the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon noted that the company will continue to reduce its mortgage holdings by 10 percent to 15 percent a year “forever.” Last year, the company reduced its mortgage holdings by $19.3 billion. JPMorgan reported earnings of ...