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Category: News and Trends

Equifax: Debt Climbs for First Mortgages, but Declines in Home Equity Lending
Equifax, Atlanta, reported the total balance of outstanding first mortgages rose to more than $8.3 trillion in January, a 2.1 percent increase from a year ago.

MBA, Trade Groups Urge Extension of Servicemember Relief Act Foreclosure Protections
The Mortgage Bankers Association and a half-dozen industry trade groups sent a letter to leadership of the House Financial Services and House Armed Services Committees, urging them to support legislation that restores and extends a one-year extension of foreclosure protections for members of the armed services.

HOPE NOW: 1.45 Million Servicing Assistance Actions in 2015
HOPE NOW reported its member companies offered nearly 1.5 million foreclosure alternatives in 2015, including 420,000 completed permanent loan modifications.

Black Knight: As Interest Rates Drop, More Qualify to Refinance
Thanks to the extended refinance boom, everyone who could have refinanced their mortgages have already done so, right? Think again, says Black Knight Financial Services, Jacksonville, Fla.

Clear Capital: Lower Distressed Housing Saturation Points to Stronger Spring
Clear Capital, Reno, Nev., said home price appreciation continued fall quarter over quarter, but pointed to lower distressed saturation levels as a harbinger of a stronger spring home market.

Pro Teck: Recovery Between Judicial, Non-Judicial Foreclosure States Remains Stark
Pro Teck Valuation Services, Waltham, Mass., said despite falling home delinquency and foreclosure rates, the stark difference between states that use a judicial foreclosure process and those that minimize court actions continues to show up in recovery rates in those state’s cities.

CoreLogic: Distressed Just 10% of December Home Sales
CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said distressed sales accounted for just 10 percent of homes sold in the U.S. in December, with real estate owned sales at just 3.4 percent.

RealtyTrac: Home Flipping at Highest Level since 2007
RealtyTrac, Irvine, Calif., said nearly 180,000 U.S. single-family homes and condos flipped in 2015, up for the first time in four years and at the highest level since 2007.

MBA Chart of the Week: Cumulative STACR Debt Note and ACIS Transactions Year-End 2015
Freddie Mac’s 2015 10-K filing provides this week’s chart. It demonstrates the degree to which new forms of back-end single family credit risk transfers, begun in 2013, have distributed credit risk.