Butler and Hosch has named Michelle Mierzwa as national managing attorney for California and Ed Hill as SVP of client development. Mierzwa most recently served as general counsel at Cal-Western and has more than 10 years of experience as a litigation and appellate attorney specializing in the representation of residential finance lenders, servicers, investors, and trustees.

MountainView Servicing Group announced Wednesday the offer of two MSR portfolios with combined unpaid principal balances of $2.1 billion. One is a $635 million Fannie Mae A/A portfolio that will bid on September 19. The other contains Ginnie Mae MSR’s worth approximately $1 billion and approximately $500 million in MSR’s from Fannie Mae.

The total United States mortgage loan delinquency rate fell to 6.2 percent in August according to a new report by Lender Processing Services (LPS). August’s rate represented a 3.31 percent decrease from the previous month and a 9.71 percent decrease from August 2012.

Chicago-based Freedman Anselmo Lindberg has announced the hiring Robert J. Deisinger as a new client relationship attorney in its default practice group. Deisinger joins the firm with a specialty in mortgage foreclosures and default litigation.

Barclays forecasts U.S. housing prices to rise by 11.0 percent in 2013 and 7.0 percent in 2014, based on data through the second quarter. According to Barclays' Q3 Regional Housing Update, the company also expects the nationwide distressed property segment to fall from its current 3.8 percent of the market to 2.2 percent by 2017, with the most dramatic distress decline taking place in Florida.

The U.S. housing market may be starting to taper off in comparison to the strong growth of the last several months, according to a new survey by Campbell/Inside Mortgage Financing HousingPulse. The survey involves approximately 2,000 real estate agents nationwide, and data gathered showed a slower growth rate in home sales among first-time buyers, current homeowners, and investors.

Despite some softening housing measures, Moody's Analytics predicted this week that the market will remain strong through 2014 and 2015.

When Ron D’Vari and Thomas Heinemann discussed the possible winding down of Government Supported Entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one thing both agreed on was that possible reform of government’s role in the mortgage market needs to be preceded by sweeping changes in how loans are provided and capitalized.