News

REO Allegiance, a leader in nationwide mortgage field services, announced Friday that it has changed its name to First Allegiance to more accurately reflect its broad areas of expertise.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the February edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard on Friday. The report found that new home sales rose, foreclosure completion were down, and home prices remained stable.

Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced in a press release Friday that a federal jury in New Haven has convicted Jesse C. Litvak, a registered broker-dealer and former managing director at New York investment bank Jefferies & Co., Inc., of multiple offenses involving schemes to defraud customers trading in residential mortgage-based securities (RMBS).

Wells Fargo announced its support of the American Land Title Association's (ALTA) Best Practices in its Settlement Agent Communications issued March 6, 2014. The lender said the Best Practice guidelines for sound business practices should ideally already be in place for businesses providing title and closing services for its customers.

As of the end of 2013, CoreLogic estimates the number of mortgaged residential properties with equity totaled about 42.7 million, representing a share of about 86.7 percent. Due to a slowdown in the quarterly growth rate of the company's Home Price Index, the share of homes with equity versus underwater homes was mostly unchanged from Q3 to Q4.

A report released this week by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and First American’s Leading Markets Index showed that the economy and housing market are functioning at a level about 87 percent of their pre-crisis normal levels. The report measures metro markets based on housing permits, home prices, and employment.

A new study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests that fast-tracking foreclosures on vacant properties could provide states with substantial savings. Researchers Kyle Fee and Thomas J. Fitzpatrick used two judicial states, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to show that savings from fast-tracking could save at least $24 million annually.

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in February, beating expectations after two weak months but still failing to impress, according to a report from the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg anticipated a consensus forecast of 150,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate edged up to 6.7 percent from January’s five-year low of 6.6 percent.

“Mortgage rates were down this week as real GDP was revised downwards to 2.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2013,” said Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Fixed residential investment negatively contributed to GDP decreasing 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter.”

Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), issued a letter to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, acknowledging the agency "has significant concerns that the explosive growth at Nationstar and other nonbank mortgage servicers may create capacity issues that put homeowners at risk."