Government

Sometimes, to bring attention to what one considers to be an unjust law or policy, an act of rebellion occurs. In Ohio, three current but underwater borrowers have decided to go on a mortgage strike as an act of civil disobedience against FHFA's stance on principal reduction and the lack of help to address underwater mortgages. Rather than paying their mortgage servicer, the three Ohio homeowners will pay their principal and interest to an attorney who will hold their payments in an escrow account.

The fall of an Illinois bank brought the year's national bank failure tally to 43, FDIC announced Friday. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's Division of Banking closed First United Bank in Crete, Illinois, appointing FDIC as receiver.

Illinois will set aside nearly $1.4 million from the national mortgage settlement to provide legal representation for renters who reside in buildings that may go into foreclosure.

More than 800 homeowners from across Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska came together with local business leaders, real estate professionals, politicians, and civil rights leaders this week in support of homeownership. Speakers at the rally put the importance of homeownership into perspective when they told the audience that during the worst of this recession, roughly 3.2 million Americans were out of work as a result of the housing downturn.

Both existing and new home sales are on the rise, but no amount of improvement in the housing sector will bring relief to the overall economy, which continues to struggle, according to Capital Economics. Economists at Capital Economics suggest the Fed's launch of QE3 may bring the 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate even lower. While this may entice more home buyers, ""the bottom line is that housing is unlikely to become a significant driver of GDP growth,"" Capital Economics states.

On Thursday, a temporary restraining order was issued to prohibit St. Louis County from implementing or enforcing an ordinance that would require lenders to notify borrowers of their right to mediation, South & Associates, P.C. announced Friday in an email to clients.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a $7.8 million settlement with eAppraiseIT and its parent corporation, CoreLogic, formerly known as First American Corporation. The settlement is in regards to allegations that eAppraiseIT violated appraiser independence laws by conspiring with Washington Mutual (WaMu) to inflate home values.

Consumer spending rose $57.2 billion, 0.1 percent, in August but personal income improved just $15 billion, 0.5 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. While the increase in spending matched economist expectations, the increase in incomes was half of what had been forecast.

A judge in Georgia dismissed a suit from a borrower alleging wrongful foreclosure. Senior District Judge J. Owen Forrester of the Northern District of Georgia ruled in favor of defendants CitiMortgage, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), and Pendergast & Associates, P.C.

Mortgage performance for loans serviced by large national and federal savings banks weakened in the second quarter of 2012, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported Thursday. The percentage of current and performing mortgages stood at 88.7 percent at the end of Q2, a slight drop from Q1, when 88.9 percent of loans were current and performing. However, the share of seriously delinquent mortgages fell 0.8 percent from Q1 to 4.4 percent, the lowest level in three years.