DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/1536040
49 June 2025 J O U R N A L June 2025 » rowers have a meaningful opportunity to be reviewed for loss mitigation before the servicer can make the first notice or filing required for foreclosure on certain mortgages. In addition, the rule would temporarily permit mortgage servicers to offer certain loan modifications made available to borrowers experiencing a COVID-19-related hardship based on the evaluation of an incomplete application. The CFPB's "Protections for Borrow- ers Affected by the COVID-19 Emer- gency Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Regulation X; Rescission" will be posted in the Federal Register and is set for publication in the Federal Register on May 16, 2025. It would become effective 60 days after publication, and comments from the public will be accepted 30 days after publication. President Joe Biden formally put an end to the COVID-19 national emergency when he signed a bipartisan congressio- nal resolution to bring it to a close after three years on April 10, 2023—just weeks before it was set to expire. The national emergency allowed the government to respond to the virus and support the country's economic, health, and welfare systems. "The Bureau finds that it has good cause to remove, without prior notice and comment, language relating to the COVID-19 pandemic added by the 2021 COVID RESPA Rule, as prior notice and comment is unnecessary," states the new rule. "Both the temporary additional ear- ly intervention live contact requirements and the temporary special COVID-19 loss mitigation procedural safeguards have been sunset by their own terms, and the COVID-19 Public Health Emer- gency expired on May 11, 2023." FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY CONTINUES ITS 'GRADUAL CLIMB' A ccording to ATTOM's U.S. Fore- closure Market Report for April, a total of 36,033 U.S. properties reported foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions, or bank repossessions—up 0.4% from the prior month, and up 13.9% from a year ago. "April's foreclosure activity contin- ued its gradual climb, with both starts and completions up annually," said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. "While volumes remain below historical norms, the year-over-year increases may suggest that some homeowners are beginning to feel the effects of persistent economic pressures." For the study, ATTOM counted the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the ATTOM Data Warehouse during April. Data was collected from more than 3,000 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 99% of the U.S. population. ATTOM's report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction—Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate-Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). Foreclosure Completions Rise ATTOM found that lenders repos- sessed 3,580 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in April 2025, down 2.9% from last month, but up 23.3% from a year ago, marking the sec- ond month of REO numbers increasing annually. Counter to the national trend states that had at least 50 or more REOs and that saw the greatest annual decline in April 2025 included: • South Carolina (down 45.9%) • Maryland (down 42.5%) • Ohio (down 22.4%) • New York (down 17.3%) • New Jersey (down 11.5%) Among the 225 metropolitan statis- tical areas with a population of at least 200,000, that saw the greatest number of REOs included: • Chicago (220 REOs) "The labor market is relatively healthy, which is helping mortgage performance remain strong. However, compared to one year ago, there are fewer borrowers current on their mortgages. Also, more borrowers in loan workouts—particularly those with FHA loans—are having difficulty staying current." —Matt Layton, SVP of Consumer Analytics, LegalShield