More appraisers are using technology to fulfill appraisal orders, according to a recent survey conducted by ValuFinders Inc., a provider of valuation services to national lenders, brokers, and government agencies.
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Fannie Mae announced this week that it will reinstate a requirement for homeownership counseling and education for first-time home buyers obtaining one of its MyCommunityMortgage loans, which give lenders a conforming alternative for low- and moderate-income borrowers, or a loan that relies on nontraditional credit to qualify.
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The Federal Reserve recently approved new regulatory statutes requiring mortgage lenders to disclose to borrowers how much interest rates differ between prime mortgages and the higher-priced subprime loans offered to less-affluent borrowers.
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As the nation’s housing crisis continues, millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure. Short sales are a viable option for homeowners in default to escape the threat of formal foreclosure. DepotPoint Inc.
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First American CoreLogic, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, today released the industry’s first state-level assessment of negative equity estimates for all single-family residential properties in the United States.
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Cyberhomes.com, an online real estate information site for consumers from Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 provider of products, services and technology solutions to the financial and real estate industries, has been named one of the xTop Web sites of 2008x by PC Magazine.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), has added two new members to its Congressional lobbying team on Capitol Hill: Len Wolfson has been named MBA’s Director of Legislative Affairs, and Catherine Cruz Wojtasik has been appointed AVP of Legislative Affairs.
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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced that 400,000 homeowners have refinanced their mortgages with HUD’s affordable mortgage insurance program. Since expanding its refinance program in September 2007, HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has helped more distressed homeowners keep their homes by utilizing FHA’s safe and affordable mortgage financing.
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First American Title Insurance Company announced yesterday that Mark S. Webber has been named state manager for Nevada. Webber, who also has served as Utah state manager since joining the company in 2004, will now oversee all of First American’s direct and agency operations in both states.
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 133 into law last month. The bill, sponsored by the California Land Title Association (CLTA), goes into effect on January 1, 2009 and requires that title insurance sales people be registered with the state.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for federal funds - the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight - by half a point to one percent on Wednesday. Other central banks around the world followed suit, also reducing rates or announcing that they were considering the move.
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Colorado-based Mortgage Cadence Inc, a provider of enterprise lending solutions (ELS) for the financial services industry, recently announced that it is helping Senior Lending Network, a program of World Alliance Financial Corp and a recognized leader in reverse mortgages, automate back office workflow for its reverse lending and document preparation process.
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Champion Mortgage, a division of Nationstar Mortgage LLC, announced the launch of its REO Financing Partner Program yesterday. The program, developed specifically with today’s distressed market conditions in mind, has shortened turn times on REO foreclosure sales by 30 percent, which in turn has helped decrease loss severity on REO properties by over 10 percent, the company said.
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Melville, New York-based Lend America recently rolled out a specialized program that it says will enable institutional investors, such as Wall Street banks and hedge funds, as well as other first lien holders to quickly recapture principal from their non-performing residential mortgage portfolios.
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According to a report on PR Newswire earlier this week, mortgage fraud activity dropped during the third quarter. This conclusion was based on data from the FraudBlogger Index published by MortgageDaily.
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Standard & Poor’s released its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices yesterday, reporting on data through August 2008. The study is considered one of the leading measures of U.S. home prices and shows continued broad based declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the country – a trend that prevailed throughout the first half of 2008 and has continued into the second half.
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HOPE NOW announced yesterday that, due to the continuing efforts of HOPE NOW and the broader mortgage industry, 2.47 million homeowners have avoided foreclosure and been able to stay in their homes since the organization began its efforts in July 2007.
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Many in the industry look to California as a sort of barometer by which to gage housing trends and activity. Being one of the hardest hit areas by the current housing crisis, some are hoping the state’s foreclosure woes and spiraling property prices will soon signal a bottom to the housing downturn.
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Earlier this month, DSNews.com reported that a Cook County, Illinois sheriff had suspended all foreclosure evictions in his jurisdiction because of the growing number that involved renters. Since then, Sheriff Thomas J.
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There’s no shortage of issues the presidential candidates must be prepared to contend with if elected – with the foreclosure crisis and what to do with the secondary mortgage market ranking close to the top of the list.
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