Kate Berry has covered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for American Banker since 2016. She joined the publication in 2006 covering mortgage lending and the financial crisis. Berry also has covered big banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. She has won five awards from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and has worked at several news organizations including the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Associated Press. Berry began her career as a clerk at the New York Times.
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The backlash is intensifying against banks and mortgage servicers that try to foreclose on homes without all their ducks in a row.
June 15 -
Many proposed refinancings and purchase loans have been scuttled because the appraiser could not find enough comparable sales of similar homes, compounding the slide in home lending.
June 14 -
Banks and mortgage servicers are not repossessing a massive backlog of distressed properties, which is likely to further depress home prices and prolong the housing crisis.
June 11 -
Banks and mortgage servicers are not repossessing a massive backlog of distressed properties, which is likely to further depress home prices and prolong the housing crisis.
June 11 -
Fed economists count underwater borrowers as renters to calculate homeownership rate; with tax credit gone, purchase apps crater; and more.
June 9 -
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have begun modifying loans for a group of borrowers too well off to qualify for the Obama administration's program.
June 8 -
At one meeting, "people looked at me like I was a three-headed monster," Clifford Rossi recalls.
June 3 -
The largest online mortgage lender expands to include FHA loans; a member of the SourceMedia family has a play opening downtown this weekend; and more.
June 2 -
Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday that most of the home-mortgage borrowers it had planned to offer principal reductions under a company program will instead be funneled to a government initiative that gives the servicer incentive payments.
June 2 -
FHFA disputes FHA chief's market share claims; Fannie's non-optional option for lenders; Florida judge derides the "chaos" of "Foreclosure World."
May 26 -
"Our appraisal quality and timeliness has gone up, not down," says one lender who gave the job of ordering appraisals to employees outside the sales force.
May 26 -
In a surprise reversal, the delinquency rate on single-family mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration has fallen in each of the last three months amid record volume.
May 24 -
The Treasury Department extended the deadline to Sept. 30 for mortgage servicers to sign Sarbanes-Oxley Act-type agreements certifying that they are in compliance with the Making Home Affordable Program.
May 21 -
A year ago, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became de facto legislators of industrywide standards for home appraisals. Soon they will be front-line enforcers, too.
May 20 -
California's push to ban deficiency judgments on refinancings; rising delinquencies suggest foreclosure crisis has yet to peak; rising incidence of protests suggest same.
May 19 -
State supervision of nonbank mortgage lenders — an industry group that was a key part of the "shadow" financial system widely blamed for the crisis — is becoming as tough as federal oversight of depositories. And in some ways, tougher.
May 17 -
The Treasury Department wants companies receiving federal incentive payments for modifying troubled loans to sign an agreement certifying they are in compliance with the Making Home Affordable initiative's more than 800 requirements.
May 13 -
People claiming to be Census takers swamp an REO manager with calls about vacant homes; why S&P didn't rate the Redwood deal; and more.
May 12 -
In its efforts to support the housing market's tenuous recovery, Fannie Mae took on slightly more risk with the new loans it bought or guaranteed in the first quarter.
May 10 -
The financial turmoil in Greece could trigger a rebound of mortgage refinance activity in the United States. Or not.
May 7
