Mortgage | featured news

U.S. regulators' efforts to settle with banks over improper mortgage foreclosures are being hampered by infighting among the groups involved in the talks, and a settlement may take a while, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The average U.S. borrower in the throes of foreclosure hasn't made a mortgage payment in 17 months, up from nearly 11 months two years ago.

The Obama administration on Friday released its long-awaited proposal for overhauling the mortgage market, calling for gradually shutting down bailed-out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reducing the government's now huge role in housing finance.

Bank of America Corp's Countrywide mortgage unit has been sued by investors claiming they were victimized in a "massive fraud" when they bought mortgage-backed securities.

JP Morgan Chase & Co. has overcharged thousands of military families for their mortgages, including families of troops fighting in Afghanistan, NBC News has learned.

In a ruling that may affect foreclosures nationwide, the Massachusetts high court has voided the seizure of two homes by Wells Fargo & Company and US Bancorp after the banks failed to show that they held the mortgages at the time of the foreclosures.

Allstate Corp has sued Bank of America Corp and 18 other defendants over losses it said it suffered on more than $700 million of mortgage debt it bought from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Regulators have opened a new line of inquiry in their mortgage foreclosure probe and are asking big Wall Street banks about the beginning stages of mortgage securitization, two sources familiar with the probe said.

Bank of America Corp has started negotiating with powerful mortgage investors that accused the bank of failing to buy back bad home loans, in an apparent shift in the lender's stance.

The percentage of U.S. consumers who are delinquent on their mortgages could fall to about 5% by the end of 2011, from an expected 6.2% at the end of this year, according to a leading credit bureau. But it would still be well above historical levels.