Los Angeles Times – The settlement replaces a failed process in which bank regulators required large mortgage servicers to hire consultants to audit foreclosures for wrongdoing.

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Wall Street Journal – The vast majority of borrowers being compensated for mortgage-related abuses will get $1,000 or less apiece as part of a $9.3 billion settlement between U.S. and banks.

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Los Angeles Times – Roughly 20,000 borrowers escaped their “negative equity” positions during the final three months of last year, CoreLogic reported.

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Payments to 4.2 million borrowers are scheduled to begin April 12 following an agreement reached by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board with 13 mortgage servicers.

The agreement, which was reached earlier this year, provides $3.6 billion in cash payments to borrowers whose homes were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010 and whose mortgages were serviced by one of the following companies, their affiliates, or subsidiaries: Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

The payments will range from $300 to $125,000. For borrowers whose mortgages were serviced by 11 of the 13 servicers – all servicers but Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – checks will be sent in several waves beginning with 1.4 million checks on April 12. The final wave is expected in mid-July 2013. More than 90 percent of the total payments to borrowers at those 11 servicers are expected to have been sent by the end of April. Information about payments to borrowers whose mortgages were serviced by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will be announced in the near future.

In most cases, borrowers will receive a letter with an enclosed check sent by the Paying Agent – Rust Consulting, Inc. Some borrowers may receive letters from Rust requesting additional information needed to process their payments. Previously, Rust sent postcards to the 4.2 million borrowers notifying them of their eligibility to receive payment under the agreement.

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San Diego Union Tribune – Borrowers who were in the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 may want to watch their mailboxes closely, because starting mid-April Federal officials will send out postcards to more than 4 million people across the nation to let them know cash is coming their way – part of a $9.3 billion deal between banking regulators and mortgage servicers that settle foreclosure-abuse allegations.

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DSNews – While still at an elevated level, foreclosure inventory is fading and has fallen for 15 straight months as of January 2013, CoreLogic reported.

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Wall Street Journal – Owners of luxury properties who fall into arrears typically have more time and options to keep their homes before they’re repossessed.

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According to CoreLogic’s National Foreclosure Report, 61,000 foreclosures were completed nationwide in January. This is down from 75,000 completed foreclosures in January 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 17.8 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures rose from 56,000 in December 2012 to the January level of 61,000, an increase of 10.5 percent. As a basis of comparison, prior to the decline in the housing market in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 per month between 2000 and 2006. Completed foreclosures are an indication of the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure. Since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been approximately 4.2 million completed foreclosures across the country.

Approximately 1.2 million homes were in some stage of foreclosure in the U.S., known as the foreclosure inventory, as of January 2013 compared with 1.5 million in January 2012, a 21 percent year-over-year decrease. This was the 15th consecutive month with a year-over-year decline. Month over month, the foreclosure inventory was down 3.3 percent from December 2012 to January 2013. The foreclosure inventory as of January 2013 represented 2.9 percent of all homes with a mortgage compared to 3.5 percent in January 2012.

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Los Angeles Times – The real estate website ForeclosureRadar.com reported a 60.5 percent decline in California default notices in January from December.

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CNN Money – Notices of default, scheduled auctions, bank repossessions and other filings fell to 150,864 last month, a 7 percent decline from the previous month and a 28 percent drop from January 2012, according to RealtyTrac.

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