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Foreclosure

Wells Fargo Posts $3.8B Profit for Q1 as Loan Quality Improves

Wells Fargo reported record earnings of $3.8 billion for the first quarter of 2010. That's up 48 percent from the same period last year, and up 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. The lender's first-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates, but the market didn't look too kindly on the underlying numbers that showed revenue was down $1.2 billion from the previous quarter. That decline included a $741 million drop in mortgage banking fee income. While revenue slipped, Wells Fargo says its numbers were boosted by improving loan quality.

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Oklahoma AG Pursuing Own Settlement with Servicers

State attorneys general have not only lost the collaboration of federal regulators in their effort to craft a universal settlement with servicers to resolve issues exposed by recent robo-signing investigations, but individual counsels are falling from their own ranks. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is reportedly breaking from the group to pursue his own agreement with mortgage servicers that specifically addresses his state's concerns.

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California Mortgage Defaults Drop to Four-Year Low, Foreclosures Rise

While mortgage defaults declined in California during the first quarter of 2011, foreclosures edged up. DataQuick reports that a total of 68,239 notices of default were recorded during the period, down nearly 16 percent from a year earlier. It was the lowest period of activity for default filings in the state since the second quarter of 2007. Homes lost to foreclosure tallied 43,052 during the first three months of this year, while short sales made up an estimated 18 percent of statewide resale activity.

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HUD Launches Campaign to Shut Down Foreclosure Rescue Scams

On Monday, HUD launched a new campaign in Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles called ""Know It. Avoid It. Report It."" The targeted operation aims to direct distressed homeowners to trusted resources and counselors for help to avoid foreclosure. It also solicits the support of homeowners in shutting down scammers who target the elderly, Hispanics, and African Americans.

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Posey Bill Aims to Stimulate REO Sales

Rep. Bill Posey (R-Florida) has introduced legislation to support the sale of REO homes. His bill, The Housing Recovery Act of 2011, would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt retirement plan distributions from early withdrawal penalties as long as the money is being used to purchase a residence that has been in foreclosure for a year or more.

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LPS Records 12% Drop in Mortgage Delinquencies

Lender Processing Services (LPS) reports that the nation's mortgage delinquency rate plunged to 7.78 percent at the end of March. That figure includes loans that are at least 30 days past due but not yet in foreclosure. March's delinquency rate is down nearly 12 percent from the month before and 20 percent below a year ago. At the same time, though, the nation's foreclosure rate edged up to 4.21 percent. Altogether, LPS says there are 6,333,000 homes in the U.S. that are delinquent or in foreclosure.

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Florida Court Given Deadline to Answer Charges of Rushing Foreclosures

An appellate court has given judges of the foreclosure court system in Lee County, Florida, 20 days to respond to a petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which alleges the county circuit courts ignore procedural safeguards in order to rush foreclosures through and clear out their backlog of cases. The ACLU says this special ""mass foreclosure docket"" in Lee County sees as many as 200 cases a day, a pace that ""systematically denies homeowners an opportunity to defend their homes against foreclosure.""

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Government Returns $2.3M to Victims of Foreclosure Rescue Scam

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has mailed 1,410 refund checks totaling $2.3 million to consumers allegedly defrauded by Home Assure LLC, a so-called mortgage foreclosure rescue service. The FTC alleged that the company charged consumers an up-front fee of $1,500 to $2,500, and falsely claimed its ""special"" relationships with lenders would enable the company to secure favorable loan modifications or stop foreclosure altogether - promises the federal agency says the company did not keep.

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Washington Governor Signs Act for Lender-Funded Mediation

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire signed the Foreclosure Fairness Act of 2011 into law Thursday. The new law goes into effect July 13. It gives homeowners facing foreclosure access to housing counselors, including meeting with the bank and an independent mediator to review options to keep their homes. Support for such mediation will be funded, at least in part, by lenders, who will pay a $250 fee for every new notice of default they file.

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Waters Introduces Bill Calling for Mandatory Loss Mitigation

Mortgage servicing practices have taken center stage on Capitol Hill, with a flurry of bills being penned to make servicing reforms the law of the land. Rep. Maxine Waters of California has revised a bill she's brought to the table several times before that would compel lenders to engage in what she says are ""reasonable loss mitigation activities"" for all delinquent homeowners. The legislation would place responsibility for modifying first and second liens with the servicer of the primary mortgage and would institute several reforms outlined in recent settlements with regulators.

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