U.S. foreclosure filings edged up 3% in January as judicial foreclosure states began to see a thaw in delayed foreclosure activity, RealtyTrac said.

The Irvine,Calif.-based firm said foreclosure starts picked up for the first time since the fall 2010 robo-signing crisis in the states of Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Nationwide, the firm reported 210,941 foreclosure filings in January, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions. While that's up 3% from the previous month, it's still down 19% from January of last year.

By the end of January, one in every 624 housing units was in foreclosure, RealtyTrac said.

Daren Blomquist with RealtyTrac ...

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.87 percent this week, matching last week’s all-time record low. As for other rates, they ticked up slightly this week, but still hovered around record lows compared to historical standards, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.

“A strong January employment report added upward pressure to most mortgage rates this week,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent as the economy gained 243,000 jobs last month, the largest gain since April 2011.

Here’s a closer look at rates for the week ending Feb. 9:

30-year fixed-rate ...

CitiMortgage will pay $158.3 million as part of a settlement with the government over mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

Government officials said the Citigroup ($33.36 0.44%) unit acknowledged that it failed to comply with FHA requirements and submitted certain loans that were not eligible.

The settlement amount will help cover a $688 million budget deficit in the FHA insurance fund.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said the goverment filed and settled the lawsuit against CitiMortgage Wednesday.

"For far too long, lenders treated HUD's insurance of their mortgages like they were playing with house money," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "We are pleased that, with tod...

Federal Reserve officials agree the housing market improved slightly the last few months of 2011, but the growing inventory of distressed and foreclosed properties keeps stunting growth.

At its meeting on Jan. 24-25, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to keep the target fed funds rate at next to nothing, where it’s been for more than three years. The FOMC said it will probably keep the rate at 0% to 0.25% through late 2014, as well.

Some members said economic conditions, including high unemployment and inflation at or below the FOMC objective, “could warrant the initiation of additional securities purchases before long. Other members indicated that such policy action could become necessary if the economy lost momentum or if in...

More than 95% of refinancing borrowers chose fixed-rate loans in the fourth-quarter of 2011, Freddie Mac said in its quarterly product transition report.

The GSE said refinancing borrowers overwhelmingly continued to prefer fixed-rate loans even if their original loans were adjustable-rate mortgages.

Of those borrowers in a 30-year, FRM, 43% decided to refinance into shorter loan terms of 15- or 20-years, Freddie's report said.

Meanwhile, 58% of borrowers with hybrid ARMs moved into fixed-rate loans during the fourth quarter, while the remaining 42% chose to refinance into the same type of loan product they held earlier.

"Fixed mortgage rates averaged 4% for 30-year loans and 3.30% for 15-year loan produ...

Crucial housing market metrics are beginning to look better to start the year, but the recent uptick may only be the result of a delayed foreclosure process.

At the end of January, most metro areas saw prices stabilizing, even picking up in some of the hardest hit areas like Miami and Las Vegas, according to Altos Research.

The average home price in Miami was $465,068, up more than 7% from the previous three months. In Vegas, where prices were cut by more than half during the downturn, prices increased 2% over the same period, cresting more than $140,000.

Inventory is also declining in these cities.

"In many markets, tight inventory of quality properties is another contributing fact...

A look at stories across HousingWire's weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues:

JPMorgan Chase ($38.47 0.47%) expects home prices to stabilize in the spring "given recent improvements in housing indicators and economic data, though we recognize that the long-run demand-supply picture remains challenging."

Analysts still project another 5% drop in prices from the third quarter to a bottom in the first half of this year that will equate to a 35% decline from the peak.

For the year, JPMorgan Chase expects home price to drop 1.6% from a year ago with net housing demand of roughly 1.6 million units.

Analysts said the recent decision by the Federal Housing Finance Age...

Integra Group Real Estate, a brokerage firm that specializes in REO, formed a short-sale department in Arizona.

The new department will process short sale transactions for all communities, but the firm said Hispanic homeowners are more than twice as likely to be impacted by subprime loans than non-Hispanics in the area. Integra said it would provide bilingual support and expertise to help these homeowners achieve short sales instead of foreclosures.

"The short sale department enables homeowners to sell the property with the appropriate valuation in the shortest time and avoid the ramifications of having a foreclosure on their credit history," said Eric Lichtenheld, president of Integra Group.

Pima County, which inclu...

Stronger job creation from the Dakotas and Nebraska to Oklahoma and Texas is translating into stable home price trends and, in turn, record home affordability.

The National Association of Realtors housing affordability index rose to a record 184.5 in 2011, based on the median home price, median family income and average mortgage interest rate.

An index of 100 is defined as the point where a median-income household has exactly enough income to qualify for the purchase of a median-priced existing single-family home. The higher the index, the greater the household purchasing power.

Housing affordability conditions improved in most metropolitan areas because of softer existing-home prices and record-low mortgage interest rates i...

Home prices in South Florida jumped in the fourth quarter as international buyers and investors nabbed affordable inventory.

In Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale is the county seat, existing single-family home and condo sales increased 6% to 6,572 sales in 4Q 2011 from 6,225 in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

In Miami-Dade County, sales of existing, single-family homes and condos increased in 4Q 2011 to 5,839 sales from 4,722 in the comparable year-ago period.

The median sales price for single-family homes in Broward County in the fourth quarter hit $188,900, which is 5% higher than the fourth quarter of 2010. The median price of condos increased 11% to $77,300...