In the fourth quarter of 2012, commercial and multifamily mortgage debt continued to grow, reaching the highest level in four years, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt was up by $21.8 billion, or 0.9 percent, from the previous quarter and up $29.7 billion, or 1.2 percent, from the fourth quarter of 2011, the MBA reported.

Ally Bank, a subsidiary of Ally Financial, announced an agreement to sell mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) to Ocwen Financial Corporation for $585 million. The transaction includes MSRs with an unpaid principal balance of $85 billion and another $5 billion in agency MSRs created based on commitments made through the end of February. ""Ally continues to make significant progress in exiting its non-strategic mortgage activities. Going forward, the Bank's full focus and resources will be centered on its leading direct banking franchise and advancing its customer-centric deposit activities, as well as continuing to grow its key role in Ally's auto finance operation,"" said Barbara Yastine, president and CEO of Ally Bank.

A HOPE NOW Alliance event in New Jersey on Saturday attracted over 550 families impacted by Super Storm Sandy. The event brought together large mortgage servicers, nonprofit housing counseling organizations, and insurance companies to help homeowners in need of mortgage and insurance assistance.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at risk of losing billions as a result of fluctuations in interest rates, according to a white paper from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of Inspector General (OIG). According to the OIG's paper, an increase of just 1 percentage point in interest rates could cause the GSEs to lose nearly $2 billion in the fair value of their assets. To protect against interest rate risks, the OIG outlined its own suggestions, one of which included the use of derivatives.

Mortgages originated from 2010 and into early 2012 are seeing elevated prepayment rates as low mortgage rates continue to encourage refinance activity, Fitch Ratings explained in a recent report. Despite the high levels of prepayment activity, the rating agency suggested ""the credit implications have been modest to date due to the high overall credit quality of the original pools."" According to Fitch, prime RMBS mortgage pools issued since 2010 had an average conditional prepayment rate (CPR) of about 42 percent.

The evidence is clear that the recovery in housing is finally under way, but the question that remains open is whether the positive trends in housing are sustainable, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth A. Duke said in a speech at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mid-Winter Housing Finance Conference. In her view, the recovery does appear to be sustainable. ""I do not believe that a flood of houses on the market from households that are currently underwater or from bank REO is likely to materialize or to be sufficient to outpace growing demand,"" she said.

The housing market showed signs of progress across the board, but the overall recovery is still fragile, hence the need for efforts to prevent avoidable foreclosures, according to the Obama Administration Housing Scorecard for February. ""House prices are steadily rising above the mid-crisis lows in markets throughout the country, while inventories of new and existing homes are further tightening, and even estimates of the 'shadow inventory' are down,"" said HUD deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs Kurt Usowski. ""That said, we still remain considerably below long-term normal levels of home sales and production.""

Martin, Leigh, Laws & Fritzlen, P.C. announced Beverly M. Weber became a shareholder at the firm as of March 1.

New Jersey-based RedVision announced the acquisition of InfoTrack Real Estate Title Services, a title abstracting firm based in Illinois.

Jones Lang LaSalle grew its leadership team from coast-to-coast with three executive hires.