A digest of recent court cases affecting real estate.

Nationally, banks modified 558,000 mortgage loans in the first half of 2011 – a 42% decrease from the 968,000 modifications made in the first half of 2010, says a report by a private-sector trade group of mortgage industry professionals. A drop in delinquencies also accompanies this staggering nosedive in modifications. Nationally, 2.7 million loans were [...]

As California begins the slow crawl back to economic stability, Florida remains stuck in the swampland of the economic downturn. The similar circumstances of the two states at the height of the Great Recession leave many questioning what differences led to a swifter recovery pace in the West. The more efficient foreclosure process in the [...]

Whether financing residences, second homes or investment properties, homeowners with million-dollar mortgages are defaulting on their loans at a rate greatly exceeding that of the rest of society. One in seven million-dollar mortgages (14%) are in serious delinquency; by comparison, only one in 12 for mortgages below the million dollar mark (8.3%) are seriously delinquent. [...]

As federal educational aid increased at the turn of the century, more middle-and-lower income families were eager to send their children to college. Without asking many questions, or knowing the questions to ask about whether they were able to foot the $20,000-$40,000 tuition, high school graduates became college students in droves in the last ten [...]

Notice of Defaults (NODs) recorded in May 2010 totaled 23,911. That is: a 17% drop from April one month earlier (28,897); and a 44% drop from May one year earlier (42,203). Notice of Trustee Sales (NOTS) totaled 27,841 in May 2010 had a similar trend: a 12% drop from April one month earlier (31,594); and [...]

Nationally, many struggling or underwater homeowners have begun to take advantage of a financial strategy which has become well know to first tuesday readers: they default on their mortgage, but continue to stay in their home until the lender forces them to leave. Voilà, the strategic default, otherwise known as exercising your put option in [...]

As a harbinger of future times, the number of permanent loan modifications canceled due to borrower re-default doubled between February and March of 2010. The trend is ominous: 1,005 modified loans were canceled in January, 1,499 modified loans were canceled in February and 2,879 modified loans were canceled in March. Though most permanent modifications were [...]

Premium borrowers may be even more likely to default on their mortgages than subprime homeowners, according to a study released by Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). Currently, the mortgage default rate for all homeowners nationally is 4.5%. The rate for premium homeowners is 0.32%. Traditionally, borrowers were far more likely to default on their credit card [...]

Recordings of notices of defaults (NODs) on trust deed loans in January 2010 rose 9.5% on a daily average basis from December 2009, according to Foreclosure Radar reporting. January 2010 had 19 recording days, compared with the 22 recording days in December 2009. A daily average basis tracks the number of foreclosures filed during the [...]