A reort from the Wall Street Journal. "The mortgage-market slowdown is stirring up interest in a humdrum segment of American home lending: the rights to the arcane task of handling monthly payments. Sales of so-called mortgage-servicing rights jumped 14% in 2018 from a ear earlier, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. In the final three months of 2018, the servicing changed hands on loans worth $183 billion, up 27% from the previous year."

"The increase in servicing transfers is the latest ripple effect from a slowdown in the housing market, which has forced lenders to slim down, consolidate or close up shop. Many of the sellers are independent mortgage lenders that don’t have deposits to fund themselves or other lines of business that can help them withstand a downturn."

"'The name of the game when you’re in lean periods of origination and you’re not a bank is that you need sources of cash,' said Eric Schuppenhauer, president of home mortgages at Citizens Financial Group Inc. 'You’re just trying to make it to the next good origination period.'"

"Ditech Holding Corp., which filed for bankruptcy this week, could sell its servicing rights, analysts say. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. estimated Ditech has servicing rights on $104 billion of loans that it could sell."

From KY3 on Missouri. "Some properties owned by Chris Gatley's 417 Rentals, LLC are facing foreclosure. The foreclosures can take place since 417 Rentals, LLC bankruptcy case has been dismissed. Many renters facing foreclosure told KY3/KSPR they were unaware this was taking place."

From News 5 Cleveland. "Northeast Ohio housing experts say it's yet another indication of how hard our area was hit by the 2008 housing crash. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, Northeast Ohio has six zip codes where more than half the homeowners have mortgage loans that have a higher balance than what their home is currently worth."

"Former Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis told News 5 there are ways to recover housing values in these neighborhoods, but he said it will be a slow and difficult process. 'It's the greatest financial crisis of our lifetime,' Rokakis said. 'It's tragic for a lot of reasons. It's tragic because it has proved to be a wealth stripper. All those people out there, 65, 70, 75 year old, who because of the mortgage crisis, have seen their houses lose 50, 60, 70 percent of its value.'"

From New Jersey TV News. "Senators told horror stories at a State House committee meeting about foreclosed apartment buildings that end up vacant and abandoned, leaving officials in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Union City with no one to even contact. Sen. Brian Stack claimed tenants get lured out by mortgage holders."

"'They’ll send a realtor or somebody there called Cash for Keys, which I encourage every tenant not to participate in, because where do they go from there? And that’s been a major problem,' he said. 'I can’t even get them out there to board properties most of the time. We send letters out, constantly. I was out there, we were boarding up properties, 10:30 last night I was on the scene with the police department, that the property’s not secure.'"

The Houston Chronicle in Texas. "Home sales fell for the third straight month in January, as buyers closed on 362 fewer homes than they did last year at the same time, according to the Houston Association of Realtors."

"'January appears to have delivered a perfect economic storm of sorts, with some consumers focused on paying off holiday credit card bills, others concerned about the recent bump in mortgage rates and still others that may have felt the squeeze from the partial government shutdown,' Shannon Cobb Evans, the association's chair, said in a statement."

From AZ Big Media on Arizona. "On a mission to make trading-in your home as easy as trading-in your car, Knock announced the expansion of its revolutionary Home Trade-in platform to Phoenix."

"Signs are pointing toward buyers increasingly being deterred by overvalued home prices: In January closed sales were down 12.6 percent year over year, and listings under contract were down 15 percent. In 2018, 66 percent of listings that did sell did so for less than their original asking price, according to the latest National Knock Deals Forecast."

From Miami Today on Florida. "In Miami’s overbuilt high-end condominium market, a complex game of cat-and-mouse is being played, as sellers try to push their advantage and buyers shop for bargains, observers say."

"'The No. 1 metric in our industry to measure the health of the market is the number of remaining months of supply: today’s inventory divided by the average number of monthly sales,' said Ron Shuffield, CEO of EWM Realty International. 'The remaining supply of Miami-Dade condos priced at $1 million or more reflected 57 months’ supply (based upon fourth quarter 2018 sales). The optimum supply for properties priced in excess of $1 million ranges from 12 to 18 months. This over-supply, of almost a five-year inventory, will continue to place pressure on pricing.'"

"The inventory of units priced at $1 million or more locally as of Dec 31, 2018, has 'risen to the highest number in history, 3,092 units actively for sale in the Southeast Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service,' Mr. Shuffield said. 'This inventory reflected an 11.6% increase over the number of high-end condos that were for sale on Dec 31, 2017, (3,092 units versus 2,771 units). and, a 44.4% increase from the active inventory on Dec. 31, 2015, (3,092 units vs 2,142 units).'"

"'In the high-end condominium sector, we are seeing a market with more certainty,' said Henry Torres, president and CEO of The Astor Companies. 'In Coral Gables, nobody is giving anything away when it comes to pricing.'"

A press release from the California used house salespeople. "Lower seasonal home prices allowed more Californians to afford a home purchase in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous quarter, but higher interest rates pushed affordability lower compared to the previous year, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) said today."

"Housing affordability in Santa Barbara County jumped from 18 percent in fourth-quarter 2017 to 32 percent in fourth-quarter 2018, primarily due to a sharp drop in the median home price, which fell from $710,000 in fourth-quarter 2017 to $514,950 in fourth-quarter 2018."