Mortgage Servicing News articles from July 2007

Mortgage Servicing News archives from July 2007

Still No Sign of Recovery in Home Prices.
July 1, 2007... New York -- Housing markets nationally saw values slide during the first quarter, according to quarterly data from Standard & Poor's and Freddie Mac. In 13 of 20 metro areas covered by the report, home values declined, according to the...

Home Prices Still Stalled.(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Metropolitan One-Year March/Feb Area March '07 Change Change Atlanta 133.27 2.0% 2.0% Boston 168.52 -4.9% 0.0% Charlotte 130.44 7.4% 0.3% Chicago...

VA Automates Loan Administration.
July 1, 2007... Washington -- The Department of Veterans Affairs' multiyear effort to revamp its mortgage servicing operation is due to cross the finish line with the rollout of its automated loan servicing information system now slated for November. The...

Foreclosure Fraud Hits FL.
July 1, 2007... Tampa, FL -- A federal jury here has found five people guilty of multiple counts stemming from an indictment alleging a scheme to cheat homeowners out of the equity in their homes and to defraud mortgage lenders, including federally insured...

Analytics Firm Sold to MVCG.(Group, Mountain View Capital)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Washington -- SN Capital Markets LLC of Denver - the largest servicing analytics company in the U.S. - has been sold to Mountain View Capital Group. No price was disclosed. Both firms are privately held. Mountain View also is based in...

Servicers Ask For Guidance.
July 1, 2007... Washington -- Servicers, lenders and others involved in the securitization of subprime loans are turning to the Financial Accounting Standards Board for guidance on what is permissible in modifying and restructuring residential mortgages that...

Report: Mortgage Insurers Likely to See Losses Rise.
July 1, 2007... New York -- While the market has worried about the performance of subprime loans originated in 2006, analysts at Fitch Ratings say the concerns may extend to earlier origination vintages as well. And that will put continued pressure on the...

Moody's Refines Subprime Analysis.
July 1, 2007... New York -- Moody's Investors Service will expand and refine its analysis of subprime home loans slated for securitization starting July 1, and the changes will most affect stated-income loan programs and loans made to first-time homebuyers...

School of Servicing Set For August.(educational aspects of mortgage bankers association)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Washington -- CampusMBA, the educational wing of the Mortgage Bankers Association, has scheduled a new classroom-based course for single-family mortgage servicing professionals. The program is scheduled for Aug. 14-16 in Jacksonville, Fla....

New Century MSR Sale Fetches Higher than Expected Price.
July 1, 2007... New York -- Carrington Capital Management has received Bankruptcy Court approval to purchase New Century Financial Corp.'s loan servicing business for $188 million. The price is considerably higher than the original $139 million offer from...

Insurance Market Recovering After Wild Ride in '06.
July 1, 2007... San Antonio -- The insurance market has seen some "significant stabilization" in 2007, following a wild 2006, according to Jeremy Burr. Speaking at the MBA's Commercial Real Estate Asset Administration Conference here, at a panel session...

Editorial: B&C to Affordable Housing.(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... It's not just subprime lenders that are tightening underwriting standards. Recently, Fannie Mae said that it was adjusting - raising, actually - the pricing on one of its signature affordable housing product lines, MyCommunityMortgage, in...

Point of View: Dealing with Post-Petition Delinquency Issues.
July 1, 2007... Mr. Moss is an attorney with Wilson & Associates, a creditors' rights law firm. Often debtors who file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy do so mainly to avoid losing their home to foreclosure. In an ideal case, the debtor will file the bankruptcy...

Subprime Woes Drive Up Demand for Due Diligence.(influence of due diligence on services of mortgage services)
July 1, 2007... New York -- The mortgage industry today is experiencing something of a dichotomy. For some, it's the best of times; for others, it's the worst. Just ask subprime mortgage lenders and they'll tell you about the worst of times. But for prime...

Industry Leader Dies at Age 83.(Obituary)
July 1, 2007... Washington -- Preston Martin, who served as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and was involved in the formation of Freddie Mac, died of heart disease May 30 in San Francisco at the age of 83, according to the San Francisco Chronicle....

Analysts Anticipate Higher Prepayment Activity for May.(beliefs, opinions and attitudes of financial analysts about mortgages)
July 1, 2007... Analysts were predicting an increase in May prepayment rates for 30-year mortgages in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities, citing a higher number of business days and seasonal housing turnover. In the Mortgage Strategist,...

Mortgage Insurance-in-Force Resumes Double-Digit Growth.
July 1, 2007... Arlington, VA -- Among the beneficiaries of the tighter mortgage market is the mortgage insurance industry, according to a report from analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here. It issued the report following the release of the April...

Housing Downturn Drags on Economy.
July 1, 2007... Washington -- It's not just loan performance that has suffered as a result of the housing downturn. The whole economy has received a jolt, according to a research note from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA estimates that...

EverBank Buys Servicing, Other Assets from NetBank.
July 1, 2007... Jacksonville, FL -- EverBank, one of the nation's largest privately held financial services companies, has agreed to buy NetBank's mortgage servicing portfolio and other assets in a deal that will give EverBank $7 billion in assets and $6...

Analyst is Skeptical About Countrywide.
July 1, 2007... Arlington, VA -- Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey have downgraded their rating on the stock of Countrywide Financial Corp. to "market perform" from "outperform." Analysts Paul Miller, Annett Franke and Steve Stelmach said the lower...

Servicing Values Starting to Creep Up Along With Rates.
July 1, 2007... The mortgage industry has plenty of worries right now, with fallout from the subprime crisis continuing to spread and origination volume on the decline. But fortunately for servicing executives, interest rate risk on mortgage servicing...

Ginnie Mae Adds Depth to Reverse Mortgage Market.(United States. Government National Mortgage Association)
July 1, 2007... Washington -- Ginnie Mae is on track to securitize its first pool of FHA-insured reverse mortgages in September that would allow lender/issuers to sell the federally guaranteed mortgage-backed securities to Wall Street dealers and other...

Commercial Servicers Face Host of New Challenges.
July 1, 2007... Commercial servicers are faced with a number of challenges in a complex and evolving environment. Increasingly loans are being split up, there are insurance issues in the aftermath of some major storms in recent years, as well as the ongoing...

Will REITs Face Funding Squeeze?
July 1, 2007... New York -- As rating agencies tighten up ratings for commercial mortgage debt securitizations, some deals relying on such funding may not be closed. Risk associated with real estate investment is being underpriced, according to John Kriz....

Mistakes & Solutions: REO Expert gives advice to asset management companies.
July 1, 2007... Whether in REO disposition or outsourcing environments, many asset management companies struggle with these issues and opportunities to improve. You can't do everything yourself and retain efficiencies, according to C.J. Gehlke, president...

CoreLogic Reveals Detroit Area as Riskiest Market in Latest Report.
July 1, 2007... New York -- The Detroit area tops the list of the highest risk markets, according to First American CoreLogic Inc.'s most recent Core Mortgage Risk Monitor. The CMRM is a quarterly publication tracking an economic index that forecasts the...

Mortgage Insurance Companies of America Private Mortgage Insurance Activity April 2007.
July 1, 2007... Primary Primary Insurance Insurance Period Cures Defaults Ratio April 06 34,866 35,570 98.0% May 06 29,433 41,450 71.0% June 06 31,588 42,477 ...

Foreclosure Nightmare Persists Especially in the Southeast.
July 1, 2007... Sacramento, CA -- Even though "the worst of the U.S. housing slump may be over," with 364,000 homeowners facing foreclosure so far this year, "the foreclosure nightmare" that haunts many of the nation's homeowners is not over, according to...

Williams & Williams To Acquire Mortgage Investors' Collateral Risk.
July 1, 2007... New York -- A major stumbling block with real estate-owned properties is that real estate is not liquid. The longer a property stays vacant, the faster the property deteriorates and therefore the faster its value depreciates. These types of...

Luminent Provides Loan Performance Data.
July 1, 2007... San Francisco -- Luminent Mortgage Capital has provided performance data on its portfolio of pay-option and hybrid mortgage loans at nine months of seasoning, hoping to dispel concerns about credit quality. The analysis released by the...

LOGS Unveils Proactive Home Retention Services.
July 1, 2007... Northbrook, IL -- LOGS Network here has created a home retention assistance business to work with residential borrowers whose delinquent loans have been referred to foreclosure or bankruptcy attorneys. The new business, operating under the...

Massive Home Value Decline Unlikely Despite Overvaluation.
July 1, 2007... New York -- It is unlikely that the mortgage industry will witness massive declines in home values across the country in the near future despite recent subprime woes, according to a recent report by the GeoStat Advisory, a Laguna Hills,...

Coalition of Consumer Groups Calls for Foreclosure Moratorium.
July 1, 2007... San Francisco -- Under the umbrella of the California Reinvestment Coalition, 150 community and consumer organizations recently called on some of the country's largest mortgage lenders "to declare a temporary moratorium and direct homeowners to...

Florida Auction Generates Millions.
July 1, 2007... Sarasota, FL -- Auction sales appear to have become a popular venue in the sale of luxury homes adding to the types of property available in this marketplace. It is part of what is seen as a growing real estate sales trend nationwide. Up...

Transnational Delisted from AMEX.
July 1, 2007... San Francisco -- Transnational Financial Network, a wholesale and retail mortgage banker operating principally in the Southwest and California, has notified the American Stock Exchange that it intends to voluntarily delist its common stock from...

Jumbo Performance Showing Signs of Credit Improvement.
July 1, 2007... New York -- In a rare bit of good news on the loan performance front, Moody's reported that the serious delinquency rate on securitized, prime credit quality jumbo mortgages improved slightly in March. That reverses a trend of credit...

TowerGroup Sees Unintended Bankruptcy Reform Results.
July 1, 2007... Needham, MA -- Needham, MA-An analyst at TowerGroup here says that while more time is needed to assess the impact of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005, the early indications are that "initial optimism may need to be tempered in the face of...

Guidance on Nontraditional Loans Focuses on Lender Practices.
July 1, 2007... New York -- At the Regulatory and Legislative Roundup at the MBA National Secondary Market Conference here, Scott Polakoff, deputy director and chief operating officer, Office of Thrift Supervision, discussed the nontraditional guidance that...

Bankers Worry B&C Woes Could Spill Over Beyond Housing Sector.
July 1, 2007... New York -- Financial services industry executives cite the cost, risk and burden of regulatory compliance as their top concern these days, according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers during the company's annual forum. But...

Fannie Warns on Continuing Interest Margin Pressure.
July 1, 2007... Washington -- Fannie Mae's profit rose to $6.3 billion in 2005, up almost 28% from $5 billion in 2004, but the company advised that it expects to see 2006 earnings decline when it completes its financial report for last year. Much of the...

Bruce Paradis.(appointment of Jim Jones Residential Capital Corp.)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Mr. Paradis, chief executive of Residential Capital Corp., will retire on June 1. He will be replaced by Jim Jones, who currently serves as the firm's chief operating officer and president. ResCap is the parent company of mortgage giant GMAC...

Lenders Refocus on Borrower's Capacity to Pay.(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.)
July 1, 2007... New York -- With the loosening of underwriting standards in recent years, lenders often made loans without paying enough attention to all of the "three C's" of underwriting, an executive from Freddie Mac said at the MBA National Mortgage...

Securitization Forum Provides Guidance on Modifications.
July 1, 2007... New York -- The American Securitization Forum provided subprime lending guidance on issues that included loan modification and urged caution on the possible expansion of mortgage assignee liability at its annual meeting here last week. In...

Special Report: Mortgage Fraud.
July 1, 2007... There is no question that financial fraud is becoming more sophisticated. There's a lot of money in the business of financing real estate transactions. Unfortunately, that means there is no shortage of crooks who would like to steal some of it....

Technology Reduces Friction Between Lenders, Investors.
July 1, 2007... New York -- As buybacks continue to rise and investors look more for quality over quantity, technology can play a role in easing the friction between lender and investor to ensure that all loans sold into the secondary market are of a better...

Servicers Are Under Pressure to Find Problems Early.
July 1, 2007... Tampa, FL -- Mortgage servicers are under pressure to help the mortgage securities market detect potential fraud earlier and update investors about progress in addressing loan problems, according to executives at Digital Risk here. Peter...

Walzak Is Automating Analysis of Process Risk.(Walzak Risk Analysis)
July 1, 2007... New York -- Walzak Risk Analysis, a firm founded in 2005 by Rebecca Walzak and Robert Chernin, thinks one element of risk analysis may be overlooked in today's lending environment, process management risk. Underwriting and due diligence...

Early Detection Is Key To Fighting Loan Fraud.
July 1, 2007... Las Vegas -- A former Nevada mortgage regulator told attendees at the recent SourceMedia Nonprime Lending Symposium here that the key to combating mortgage fraud is in having procedures in place to focus on prevention and early detection. ...

Servicing People.(Reliable Defeasance LLC appointed Mark Schultz)(Reed Smith appointed Stephanie D. Cohen)(Credit Suisse Bank appointed Irena Renata Stevanovich )
July 1, 2007... CALIFORNIA Beverly Hills-Reliable Defeasance LLC has named Mark Schultz as managing director. Prior to joining Reliable, Mr. Schultz was chief financial officer and financial director of Hopkins Real Estate Group, and prior to Hopkins...

Fitch Affirms Countrywide's 'A'.
July 1, 2007... New York -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed Countrywide Financial Corp.'s long-term issuer default rating of "A" and short-term issuer rating of "F1," the rating agency said last month. The ratings affect approximately $34 billion of debt and...