RealtyTrac: Foreclosure Filings Fall to Lowest Level in Nine Years

RealtyTrac reported that the number of new foreclosure filings in the first quarter is at its lowest level in more than nine years, NationalMortgageNews.com reported today. Nationwide foreclosure filings were reported on 289,116 properties, down 8 percent from the first quarter of 2015, marking the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2006, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. Moreover, first-quarter activity was below pre-recession levels in 78 out of the 216 metropolitan areas analyzed in the report. Among the metro areas that posted foreclosure activity below pre-recession levels were Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Atlanta. Metro areas above pre-recession levels include New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Commentary: Dodd-Frank in Retreat

Deep cracks are appearing in the foundations of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted in 2010, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary today. A federal judge has knocked down a major decision from the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Also, a federal appeals court panel is questioning the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulators officially declared yesterday that most of the nation's banking giants are still too big and too complicated to fail. Dodd-Frank's failure on its own terms virtually guarantees that someone will reform it, according to the commentary. The question is whether it will be the judicial or legislative branch.

Sales Surge for Lawyer's Book on Oil Company Bankruptcy Amid Industry Downturn

When the first edition of Deborah D. Williamson's When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy was first released in 2012, demand for the book was tempered by high crude prices. Four years later amid a pronounced downturn in the oil and gas industry, demand for the book has been so great that Williamson recently produced a second edition of When Gushers Go Dry, the San Antonio Business Journal reported on Tuesday. "It's an introduction to bankruptcy for oil and gas attorneys, and it's an introduction to the oil and gas industry to bankruptcy attorneys," Williamson said. Williamson revised the second edition with the addition of new case law, as well as sections on plugging abandoned wells, financing techniques to stay out of bankruptcy, oil field service companies, the midstream sector and safe harbor laws. "I think that it is something that is timely and something that people are interested in right now and it's current. We've got decisions that came down as recently as March 8th,"Williamson said.

Pre-order your copy of ABI's revised and expanded When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy, Second Edition. Print copies will be available at the onsite bookstore at the Annual Spring Meeting.

Commentary: Student Debt Is Holding Back Millennials? Not So Fast

The conventional wisdom among student activists and and elected leaders is that high levels of student debt are causing young Americans to delay key milestones like buying a home, getting married and having kids. However, new research presented in a commentary in yesterday's Wall Street Journal paints a more complicated picture. It suggests student debt is indeed a barrier for a significant minority -- college dropouts -- but that it's generally not holding back those who earned degrees, according to research from Navient Corp., which services federal and private student loans. It was spun off from SLM Corp. -- owner of private lender Sallie Mae -- in 2013. Navient teamed up with private research firm Ipsos and surveyed more than 3,000 people between ages 22 and 35. Among 25-to-30-year-olds who borrowed for college and earned a bachelor's or higher, 38 percent held a mortgage -- the highest of any other group. Among those with a bachelor’s or higher who still owed student debt, 35 percent held a mortgage -- the second-highest. The lowest rate? Those who took out student debt but never earned a degree: Just 14 percent had a mortgage. Among all 25-to-30-year-olds, 22 percent had a mortgage.

Latest ABI Podcast Looks at Challenges of Representing Creditors' Committees

ABI Resident Scholar Melissa Jacoby talks with Mark E. Felger of Cozen O'Connor (Wilmington, Del.) and Paul Hage of Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss (Southfield, Mich.) about the challenges that professionals face when representing creditors' committees. Felger and Hage are co-authors of ABI's Representing the Creditors' Committee: A Guide for Practitioners, available for purchase in ABI's Bookstore, and in the onsite bookstore at the Annual Spring Meeting.

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