Federal officials jointly announced Tuesday the results of the Distressed Homeowner Initiative, which is the first nationwide effort focusing on fraud schemes that targets struggling homeowners. Their efforts so far have led to 530 criminal defendants (including 172 executives) being charged in 285 federal criminal indictments. The cases involved more than 73,000 homeowner victims, and losses are estimated to be in excess of $1 billion.

The National Association of Mortgage Field Services re-elected VP of White Van Real Estate Services, Kris Katoa, for a third term as a board member. Katoa has been a member of NAMFS for more than 13 years and previously served two terms on the organization's board and on the committee for its 2011 National Conference.

In September, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) wrote $2.2 billion in primary mortgage insurance.

Ocwen will buy the Dallas-based servicer and originator from private equity firm WL Ross & Co. The breakdown for the transaction includes $588 million in cash and $162 million in Ocwen convertible preferred stock. Atlanta-based Ocwen won't need to raise additional equity capital to complete the transaction.

Clayton Holdings LLC selected James Meleones to serve as senior managing director of Commercial Real Estate services.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, Inc. announced it was named in the S&P SmallCap 600 index and took the fifth spot in Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies.

The popularity of FHA mortgages is slowing down, while the use of mortgage financing is growing overall, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. FHA-backed transactions made a slight increase in August to 25.9 percent from 25.5 percent in July. The percentage is down from January, when FHA transactions accounted for 27.3 percent of all home purchase transactions. Overall, mortgages were used to finance 68.9 percent of home purchase transactions in August, an increase from 67.5 percent in July.

Proposals found in Basel III to raise capital requirements for mortgage loans would increase borrower costs for traditional mortgages and make nontraditional mortgages less available at regulated banks, according to a commentary from Fitch Ratings. "U.S. regulators' 'notice of proposed rulemaking' addressing capital requirements and risk-weighted asset calculation criteria would, if adopted, ultimately push banks away from all but the most conventional lending," Fitch said.

Lately, the expectation has been for home prices to continue rising, but a recent report from Zillow put a damper this view. Home prices dropped in August month-over-month after rising for nine consecutive months. However, the drop was mere a 0.1 percent. At an average of $152,100, prices were still up on a yearly basis, showing an increase of 1.7 percent. The larger markets to see monthly price decreases were Chicago (-0.7 percent), New York (-0.3 percent) and Boston (-0.2 percent) metros.

Community banks should be exempt from pending regulations on high-cost mortgages since they were not responsible for the mortgage crises, the Independent Community Bankers of America stated in a release. In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it was proposing rules for high-cost mortgages, which would be determined based on interest rates, points and fees, or prepayment penalties. The proposals for high-cost mortgages include a ban on prepayment penalties and a general ban on balloon payments. Late fees would be capped.