Mortgage Delinquency Rate Hits All Time High in 2Q

Mortgage Delinquency Rate Hits All Time High in 2Q
Associated Press

The delinquency rate on U.S. mortgage loans hit an all-time high in the second quarter, but the pace of growth for the rate slowed, a possible sign the mortgage crisis may be beginning to turn the corner. Data provided by credit reporting agency TransUnion shows the ratio of mortgage holders who are 60 days or more behind on their payments increased for the 10th straight quarter, to 5.81 percent nationwide for the three months ended June 30.

Signs of Stability in Housing Starts
Wall Street Journal

Home construction unexpectedly fell 1% in July along with building permits, but the declines were concentrated in the multifamily category. Housing starts fell 1.0% to a seasonally adjusted 581,000 annual rate compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. June housing starts, for instance, climbed 6.5% to 587,000, revised from an originally reported 3.6% increase to 582,000

Florida Court Wants Mandatory Mediation on Foreclosures
Wall Street Journal

The Florida Supreme Court's residential foreclosure task force recommended Monday that all cases involving primary homes should be mediated and that judges should expedite cases dealing with vacant and abandoned properties. The recommendations will go to the justices, who are looking for ways to help the court system cope with a flood of foreclosure cases caused by the national recession and Florida's housing bust. Florida has one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates. It was third at 3.4% behind Arizona and California in June

Vermont Mortgage Laws Shut the Door on Bust — and Boom
Wall Street Journal

In plenty of other states, Andrea Todd would have been a homeowner years ago. Here, she bought just this month — a difference that helps explain how Vermont avoided the housing bust, and shows the possible pitfalls in President Barack Obama's plan to tighten mortgage regulation. Vermont's strict mortgage-lending laws largely prevented the state's residents from signing the types of dubious home loans written in other markets across the country. Its 1990s legislation made mortgage lenders warn customers when their rates were relatively high, and put the brokers who arranged loans on the hook if their customers defaulted. Now, by at least one measure, the state has the lowest foreclosure rate in the U.S. And in what officials believe is the first state law of its kind, Vermont declared that mortgage brokers' fiduciary responsibility was to borrowers, not lenders.

Fed Survey: No Return to Normal in Near Term
American Banker

Despite some encouraging economic signs, a clear majority of bankers surveyed by the Federal Reserve Board do not expect underwriting standards for residential real estate, commercial mortgages or credit cards to normalize before 2011. In the central bank's survey of 55 senior loan officers at domestic institutions, some said it could take even longer for standards to return to the levels that prevailed before the crisis hit.

Tax Bills Put Pressure on Struggling Homeowners
New York Times

Hard times are causing more homeowners to fall behind on their property taxes. But in thousands of cases, they are not responsible to their local governments, but to private companies that charge double-digit interest and thousands of dollars in service fees.