Topic: Foreclosures

Months after the first invitations were mailed, only a small percentage of eligible borrowers have accepted a chance to have their foreclosure cases checked for errors and maybe win restitution. USA Today reports.

Average U.S. rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgages fell to record lows for the third straight week. The steady decline has made home-buying and refinancing more affordable than ever for those who can qualify. The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Suspected drug gang killers dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey in one of the country's worst atrocities in recent years..

Five years into the foreclosure crisis, one in 10 U.S. children has been or will be affected by the nation's surge in foreclosures, a new report says.

The U.S. housing market is not out of the woods. 101,939 U.S. homes received a first-time notice in March, the biggest monthly increase since October.

The Obama administration wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start reducing loan balances for troubled borrowers, but with safeguards to prevent them from purposely defaulting to obtain relief.

Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures.

Timely repayments improved on all 11 of the consumer loan categories tracked by the American Bankers Association in the final quarter of last year, the first time that has happened since 2004, according to the organization's chief economist.

With home prices down more than a third from their peak and the market swamped with foreclosures, large investors are salivating at the opportunity to buy perhaps thousands of homes at deep discounts and fill them with tenants. The New York Times reports.

The residential rebound is under way in fits and starts, but it is volatile, and it is local.

Residential real estate in Texas and other central states is a well-oiled machine. Literally — energy production in the central U.S. has helped bolster the region’s economies, and that has translated to the local housing markets.

In Seattle, greater demand for inner-city homes and low inventory have driven many deals above their asking prices, while investors have returned to Portland to pick up bargains.

While the entry-level homebuyers market is making a comeback in Boston, high-end luxury properties are once again the object of bidding wars in New York, with demand outpacing supply for the first time in five years.

In cities like Denver, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque, inventory is down, traffic is up and prices are stabilizing.

Sales are up, inventory down, but prices are generally still weak.  If you're looking for a success story, however, try Grand Rapids, Mich., Cedar Falls , Iowa and Green Bay, Wis.