Fewer borrowers are redefaulting on their modified mortgages, according to a new report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Only 12.7 percent of borrowers who had their loans modified in 2013 have redefaulted after six months. In 2009, the redefault rate stood at 32.2 percent and during the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2008, the redefault rate was 44.8 percent. A redefault on a modified loan is defined as when the borrower’s payment is 60 days past due or more. "By reaching out early servicers are able to make better decisions for them" and offer them more and different loss mitigation options, read more.
Multi-Indicator Market Index. In July, Freddie's MiMi indicator showed that 8 of the 50 states and 11 of the 50 metros surveyed were on an improving three-month trend. That marks a stark difference from last year at the same time period, when every state, plus the District of Columbia, and every metro was on the improving trend, Freddie Mac reports. The good news is, overall, the housing market continues to improve and is up 5 percent on a yearly
Nearly 946,000 homes returned to positive equity in the second quarter, meaning the mortgage holders owe less on their loan than the property's worth. With the most recent quarterly increase, CoreLogic estimates the total number of mortgaged homes with equity across the country has surpassed 44 million. In total, borrower equity increased year-over-year in Q2 by approximately $1 trillion nationwide—"evidence that things are moving solidly in the right direction," said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic
pockets across the country, Forbes reports. Well, hold on to your straw hats, because one of the most interesting investments to catch their fancy recently is farmland. Iowa is particularly seeing strong price gains. For example, a survey this spring of local farmland brokers in Iowa put the average price for the highest quality farmland there at $11,674 per acre and for midgrade land at $8,300 per acre, according to a survey. The prices have fallen 5 percent from a year earlier but are still up well over historical standards, Forbes.com notes. As comparison, in the 1990s, midgrade farmland fetched less than $1,700 per acre. See more: 
double-digit gains in 2012 and 2013. For the better part of this year, investors have been slowly trickling out of the home buying market, but in August they apparently cut off the cash flow in a big way. The drop has been long expected. Home prices jumped dramatically last year and are still higher by nearly 5 percent from a year ago, while the supply of cheap, distressed properties fell. When calculating for potential returns, the math simply doesn't work as well anymore for investors.