Article Archive for August 2010
By Carrie Bay | 08/31/2010
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says American Home Mortgage Servicing is using illegal debt collection practices and misleading struggling homeowners, resulting in foreclosure for some borrowers. Abbott brought formal charges against the company on Monday. State investigators allege that the mortgage servicer's agents used aggressive and unlawful tactics to collect payments and then in some cases, intentionally failed to properly credit homeowners.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/31/2010
The FDIC said Tuesday that the number of banks on the agency's so-called "Problem List" has risen to 829, up from 775 at the end of the first quarter of 2010.
The number of troubled institutions now under the FDIC's watchful eye is the highest it's been since March 1993, when the savings and loan crisis was in full swing. The 2010 failed-bank tally stands at 118.
More banks may be deemed as "problem," but the FDIC says the banking sector overall enjoyed its most profitable quarter since the start of the recession.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/31/2010
Home prices rose in June for the third consecutive month - a precipitate of the homebuyer tax credit that sparked a flurry of purchase activity in the spring. Buyer demand, though, has now dropped off substantially, and it's a trend that will likely rob the market of the recent rebound in home prices.
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday, home prices rose 1.0 percent in June compared to May. While June itself was positive, growth rates have already decelerated in 14 of the 20 metros included in S&P's study.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/31/2010
The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act includes new appraisal management rules as well as stricter laws and firmer penalties for lenders. The bill's appraiser independence standards will give lenders new options on managing appraisers, and lenders are scrambling to evaluate options to decide what will benefit their businesses. An October deadline is looming for the issuance of new appraiser independence rules, which are expected to be more stringent than the Home Value Code of Conduct (HVCC).
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By Carrie Bay | 08/31/2010
U.S. consumers are less satisfied with their experience during the loan modification process than they are during loan origination, namely because mortgage servicers are missing the mark when it comes to delivering on best practices, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The company's survey found that mortgage servicers fail to adhere to a time frame for approval, don't provide the customer with status updates, and repeatedly ask borrowers for the same information. BB&T ranks highest in customer satisfaction among mortgage servicers.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/31/2010
Mutual of Omaha Bank has hired Steven D. Johnson as a senior mortgage loan officer in Austin, Texas. Johnson is a 15-year veteran of residential lending. Prior to joining Mutual of Omaha Bank, he was a mortgage loan officer at Amcap Mortgage in Austin. As the co-founder of the Northland Funding Group in Austin, he served as EVP for seven years.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/31/2010
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation announced Monday it will enter the wholesale market with select banks, credit unions, and brokers. Using its expertise in Federal Housing Administration (FHA), agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rural development lending, the retail lender plans to build a national wholesale platform, funding third-party originations through fulfillment, broker, and correspondent business lines.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/31/2010
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. recently announced the appointment of Cheryl Nolda as president of its Home Lending Solutions business. Nolda has 27 years' experience in the financial services industry and oversees the company's residential mortgage and home equity businesses. Citizens Financial is continuing to expand its mortgage business, with plans to hire 400 new loan officers by 2013.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/30/2010
Moody's Investors Service says it expects home price appreciation to be "soft" for the next couple of years.
The company says there were 1.8 million more vacant homes sitting on the market than what is considered the norm at the end of the second quarter, reflecting a rise in the number of homes that lenders are repossessing. According to Moody's, it will not be until 2012 that demand and supply conditions are balanced enough to drive price appreciation that matches the pace of inflation.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/30/2010
In a rare break from what has been the norm throughout the recession, this weekend saw no bank closings. Since January 2008, more than 280 banks and thrifts have collapsed, most as a direct result of problems in the real estate markets. The research firm Foresight Analytics estimates that 200, and possibly 300 to 400, banks are at risk of failure over the next 12 to 24 months, but the company says a number of community banks have begun to shed some of their problem commercial real estate loans.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/30/2010
Marix Servicing LLC, a Phoenix, Arizona-based specialty mortgage servicer, will be acquired by Walter Investment Management Corp. through an agreement with Marix's parent company Marathon Asset Management. The acquisition, which is expected to close in the next 30 to 60 days, will create one of the nation's top 10 servicers of subprime mortgages.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/30/2010
Freddie Mac released the results of its second quarter Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index (CMHPI) Monday. The index measures property values based on home loans originated in Q2 and purchased by Freddie and its sibling mortgage financier Fannie Mae.
The CMHPI Purchase-Only Series for the United States registered a 3.1 percent increase in the second quarter relative to the first quarter. For the first time since the second quarter of 2009, prices rose in all nine Census divisions.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/30/2010
Accounting firms Eisner LLP and Amper, Politziner & Mattia, LLP, recently merged to create EisnerAmper LLC's real estate group, doubling the size of the firm's real estate practice. The New York-based firm is now the largest non-Big 4 firm in the greater New York metropolitan region and the 14th largest in the nation. The company now offers developers, property owners and managers, and others in the industry a broader array of professional services.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/30/2010
Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF), a provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services, recently announced that Stephen Skok is the firm's new managing director in the debt placement group in its Chicago office. Prior to joining HFF, Skok worked for Jones Lang LaSalle, Cohen Financial, Lincoln Property Company, and CBRE. A 23-year veteran in the commercial real estate industry, Skok has been involved in more than $5 billion of commercial real estate transactions.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/30/2010
After a worse than expected falloff in home sales during the month of July, buzz about a possible revival of the federal homebuyer tax credit has begun to surface.
Sales of previously owned homes plummeted 27 percent last month, hitting their lowest mark in 15 years. New home sales also took a dive, dropping nearly 13 percent. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan says the July numbers were worse than was expected and are cause for concern, and he's not ruling out a return of the tax credit incentives.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/30/2010
Fannie Mae is implementing a new policy this week regarding home appraisals. Beginning Wednesday, lenders will be prohibited from making changes to appraisers' valuations - a practice that has become more widespread and is commonly referred to as "appraisal cutting."
Fannie officials say they have identified cases where the lender reduced the opinion of market value in the appraisal report based upon underwriter judgment or automated valuation models, prompting the GSE to place a ban on so-called appraisal cutting.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/27/2010
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) offered the industry a ray of hope when it reported Thursday that foreclosure starts were down nearly 10 percent in Q2, but the brightness quickly faded when Lender Processing Services (LPS) released its own dataset.
MBA's numbers were based on data through the end of June. LPS reports that by the end of July, foreclosure starts had jumped back up by 24.5 percent. It's the fourth highest level ever recorded by the company.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/27/2010
All eyes were on Jackson Hole, Wyoming Friday, as leaders of the world's central banks convened for an annual retreat in the small, quiet town along the Teton mountain range. The most anticipated attraction - Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, as market analysts, economists, and Wall Street looked for some semblance of the Fed's plan to deal with the nation's lukewarm economic recovery. Bernanke insisted that he doesn't believe the U.S. will revert into another recession, but he promised to react swiftly if the recovery doesn't pick up.
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By Carrie Bay | 08/27/2010
The percentage of home loans 90 or more days past due held by the nation's two largest mortgage companies has declined yet again.
Fannie Mae's single-family serious delinquency rate has fallen to 4.99 percent. It's the fourth straight month that Fannie has reported a decline. Freddie Mac's serious delinquencies dropped to 3.89 percent, the fourth decrease in five months. The reciprocated declines seem a welcome herald, but researchers say they're merely the consequence of an increase in GSE foreclosures.
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 08/27/2010
CoreLogic has announced the launch of its new Short Sale Monitoring Solution. The company says it's the industry's first short sale fraud prevention and pricing technology. The solution alerts lenders to "risky" pending and closed short sales. It matches details against other pending loan applications in CoreLogic's database and public records for the same property, and continues to watch properties for a period specified by the lender after short sales have closed.
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