Mortgage Servicing News articles from July 2008

Mortgage Servicing News archives from July 2008

Little Relief on Foreclosure Front.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- The delinquency and foreclosure rates again reached new highs in the first quarter, and the kicker is that this is not the bad news. Rising default and foreclosure rates had been anticipated. The bad news is that there's...

Lenders Ramp Up Modifications.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- Mortgage companies will become more aggressive in restructuring loans for struggling homeowners, even borrowers that are six months behind in their payments, according to a bankruptcy attorney who works with major lenders and...

Fitch: Decline May Last to '09.
July 1, 2008... New York -- The managing director and lead homebuilding analyst at Fitch Ratings, Robert Curran, said during a housing teleconference that few positive signs are showing up in the housing market, which is experiencing a steep cyclical decline,...

Beckmann IsLeaving Citi.
July 1, 2008... O'Fallon, MO -- Bill Beckmann, president of CitiMortgage, will leave the unit by the end of June, Mortgage Servicing News has learned. In a memo, Citigroup said Mr. Beckmann is stepping down "to spend more time with his family." A...

MetLife Back in Mortgages with First Horizon.
July 1, 2008... Bridgewater, NJ -- Thirteen years ago insurance giant MetLife said goodbye to mortgage banking. Last week it re-entered the business by agreeing to purchase the national lending business of First Horizon National Corp. of Memphis. "MetLife...

Franklin Credit Gets Subservicing Business.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Franklin Credit Management here has entered into an agreement to service loans for a third party. On May 28, Franklin Credit Management entered into agreements to service approximately $245 million in residential home-equity...

FIS May See Fallout from BoA Deal.
July 1, 2008... Jacksonville, FL -- Countrywide Financial Corp. was one of the last big servicers to use entirely internal systems for automation of loan servicing data systems. Fidelity National Information Services, which counts Bank of America among...

Fremont Sells Rest Of MSRs to Litton.
July 1, 2008... Brea, CA -- Troubled Fremont General Corp., parent of Fremont Investment & Loan, has agreed to sell its remaining mortgage servicing rights to Litton Loan Services, a division of Goldman Sachs. The servicing rights on a $12.2 billion home...

Editorial: Glass Half-Empty.(Editorial)
July 1, 2008... Those of us who held out hope for a soft landing a year or two ago underestimated the depth and severity of the housing market downturn. Those of us who thought the correction would be over relatively quickly also have been disappointed. ...

Point of View: The Price of Risk Creep: By James Lockhart, Director, Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
July 1, 2008... Excerpts of Mr. Lockhart's remarks about the housing downturn's impact on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the 44th annual conference on bank structure and competition in Chicago are presented as our viewpoint. As nontraditional lending...

When Will Housing Recover? Let's Talk About Oil.
July 1, 2008... We're approaching the one-year anniversary of Bear Stearns' decision to throw its two subprime hedge funds into bankruptcy, a move that cost investors about $20 billion. A few weeks after that Countrywide co-founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo,...

Prices Still Falling in Many Places.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Recent data on home sales and prices continue to paint a disturbing picture of the housing sector, with prices continuing to decline in much of the country. Perhaps the most disturbing news came on the home values front, with...

Silver State Sees Red Ink in 1st Quarter.(Silver State Bancorp )(Financial report)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... Henderson, NV -- Silver State Bancorp here reported a net loss for the quarter ended March 31 of $14.4 million, compared to net income of $5.6 million reported for the first quarter of 2007, directly reflecting a significant increase in the...

Prepayment Speeds Fall, But Is Dip Temporary?
July 1, 2008... Overall prepayment rates for mortgage-backed securities declined 6% in April from a constant prepayment rate of 16.8 CPR to 15.8 CPR, according to Credit Suisse. Writing in the "April 2008 Fixed Rate Prepayment Commentary," Credit Suisse...

New Index Tracks Consumer Debt Load.
July 1, 2008... Phoenix -- Debt Settlement USA here has launched The Consumer Debt Index, a quarterly statistical analysis that will measure the degree to which American consumers are suffering under an increasing burden of credit card, car payment, home...

Hedging Hurts PHH's Results.
July 1, 2008... Mount Laurel, NJ -- PHH Corp.'s mortgage production revenue jumped nearly 78% in the first quarter, but the company still lost money overall from its home loan business. The company said that despite an increase in margins on conforming...

Rates Creep Up; Is Hedging a Factor?
July 1, 2008... In recent weeks, long-term mortgage rates have edged up to their highest level in several months (though they remain low by historical standards). In early June, Freddie Mac reported that the average rate on 30-year conforming loans was...

How to Build a Relationship With the Right Vendor.
July 1, 2008... As REO inventory increases, some lenders opt to outsource the properties while others opt to avoid inventory pile-up through other methods. Communication with the servicer should benefit the vendor because not only does the vendor have a...

Servicers Need be Proactive With ARM Resets.
July 1, 2008... Dallas -- As servicers get ready and start to deal with adjustable-rate mortgage payment resets, the multifaceted national effort to save homeowners in distress is an endeavor that requires proactive intervention and sometimes, unpopular...

How to Operate Effectively as Market Changes.
July 1, 2008... Dallas -- At the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference here, panelists said the old act of providing $500 to $1,000 upfront to borrowers in default for "cash for keys" is changing. Lorenz Schwarz, president, Phoenix Asset Management,...

Vegas Foreclosure Bus Boosting Home Sales.
July 1, 2008... Las Vegas -- Re/Max Central here has launched a foreclosure bus tour for consumers and investors. "Re/Max Central believes it is a great time to buy Las Vegas real estate or a Las Vegas foreclosure as interest rates are at near-record lows,...

Hope Now Impact in Foreclosure Prevention Grows.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- In April, mortgage servicers provided loan workouts to about 183,000 homeowners reaching "the highest monthly amount" since the program started in July 2007, according to Hope Now, an alliance of servicers, counselors and...

American Home Veteran Now Eyeing REO Market.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Don Henig, former president of third-party lending at American Home Mortgage, Melville, N.Y., has found a new career after mortgages: investing in foreclosed properties at public auctions. Since the end of November, Mr. Henig...

Servicers Turn to REO Auctions.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Fitch Ratings, estimating that the volume of real estate-owned that is managed by mortgage servicers increased by 441% between the end of 2005 and the end of 2007, says that an increasing number of lenders are turning to auctions to...

States Are Taking Action to Help Mitigate Crisis.
July 1, 2008... Washington, DC -- One in 33 homeowners is projected to be in foreclosure over the next two years, primarily as a result of subprime loans made in 2005 and 2006, according to a new report released by The Pew Charitable Trusts. In some states,...

Loss Mit Experts Expand Role in Servicing.(Kondaur Capital Corp.)
July 1, 2008... Santa Ana, CA -- Kondaur Capital Corp., a buyer of loans with regulatory, underwriting and performance issues, has formed a special team of "Combat Loss Mitigators" to meet current challenging conditions in the mortgage marketplace. In the...

Survey: Americans Financially Illiterate.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- Washington, DC-Recent survey findings highlight a growing need for financial education and credit counseling that helps customers avoid default and foreclosure, which in a backhanded manner also helps financial institutions...

National Housing Conference Updates State Site.(Conference news)
July 1, 2008... Washington -- HousingPolicy.org, the National Housing Conference online guide to state and local housing policy options, has expanded with new foreclosure prevention features that enable users to access updated information on how to preserve...

Realtors Target Non-English Speakers.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- The Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors has partnered with LLE Language Services to provide interpretation and translation to homebuyers and home sellers in 150 languages "to respond to this increasing demographic." ...

REOTrans Sees Billions In Online Home Sales.
July 1, 2008... Los Angeles -- REOTrans LLC, a provider of systems for managing and selling residential foreclosures, has sold over 150,000 real estate-owned homes at $22 billion in total through its Web-based platform since the inception of the company in...

Mission Capital Advises Commercial Executives.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Mission Capital Advisors LLC, a commercial, residential and consumer loan and asset sale advisor here, is accepting bids for a $108 million portfolio of 20 subperforming and nonperforming commercial mortgage loans that are secured...

Countrywide, New Vista Look for Qualified Buyers.
July 1, 2008... In an attempt to and help minimize the impact of foreclosures on neighborhoods by reaching out to consumers interested in residing in these communities, Countrywide Financial Corp. has teamed up with San Diego-based national REO management and...

Bankruptcy Rise Fuels Demand for Counseling.
July 1, 2008... Never did that old saying "Knowledge is power" ring truer than now when borrowers and lenders alike are reviewing past mistakes and future opportunities. The mortgage crisis is in full swing. In March 2008 alone, Consolidated Credit...

Top Residential Servicers at 3/31/08.
July 1, 2008... (dollars in millions) Servicing Volume % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 3/31/2008 3/31/2007 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $1,484,157 $1,351,598...

Fraud Prevention.
July 1, 2008... The news from Boston in mid-May was entirely too familiar to readers of business pages in local papers these days. Eleven individuals had been charged by the state's attorney general and federal authorities in a "large-scale mortgage fraud...

Misrepresentations Usually Presage Loan Defaults.
July 1, 2008... Maitland, FL -- Risk mitigation firm Digital Risk has found 50% to 60% of the subprime and alternative-A mortgages from the last few years that it has examined due to contract breaches contain significant misrepresentation or fraud, according...

Systems Help Ensure Appraiser Independence.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Given recent happenings around the Home Valuation Protection Program and the proposed Code of Conduct, it is becoming increasingly important to prove that lenders have a system in place that allows for appraisal independence....

DataVerify Using MERS To Find Unknown Liens.
July 1, 2008... Chesterfield, MO -- To combat one form of mortgage fraud, DataVerify, a provider of data verification and fraud detection, has created an electronic integration with MERS, the electronic registry for tracking ownership of mortgage loans and...

Firm Introduces Foreclosure 'Emancipation'.
July 1, 2008... Haupagge, NY -- Stable Footing here has begun offering a patented, voluntary homeowner protection plan as a marketing product to mortgage lenders with the aim of respectively better protecting the value of lenders' loans and borrowers' credit...

Banks Continue To Feel Pressure From Housing.
July 1, 2008... Rosemont, IL -- First-quarter performance for many lenders continues to reflect the challenges of managing credit weakness, resulting from exposure to the downturn in the residential real estate construction cycle. Taylor Capital Group...

Servicing People.(briefs)
July 1, 2008... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Thompson National Properties said that Darryll Goodman has joined the company as senior vice president, asset management. Previously, Mr. Goodman was senior vice president, asset management at Grubb & Ellis Realty...

IRS Rule Aids Loan Mods.
July 1, 2008... Washington -- Servicers of residential mortgage-backed securities no longer have to wait for a borrower to miss a payment or even ask for help before they can offer the homeowner a loan modification, according to an Internal Revenue Service...

S&P/GRA Indices Show CRE Slippage.
July 1, 2008... New York -- Standard & Poor's released the February results for its S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices, showing the rate of increase to be down slightly. The indices measure the change in commercial real estate prices by property sector and...