Headlines

A report filed last week by the Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) states that GSEs Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ignored "red flags" with regards to a mortgage fraud scheme perpetrated by lenders Taylor, Bean, and Whitaker and Colonial Bank, which resulted in billions of dollars in losses for the GSEs.

Michigan-based real estate finance and credit law firm Potestivo and Associates announced earlier this month that Erica Julian has been promoted to be the firm's new foreclosure manager.

Foreclosure starts increased nationwide for the third consecutive month but are down 20 percent from last year, according to Black Knight Financial Services "First Look" at mortgage data for July 2014 released on August 26. Overall inventory fell by 1.65 percent from June down to 935,000 in July. The overall inventory is down 34 percent from July 2013 and has hit its lowest level since March 2008.

The Federal Reserve's recent Senior Loan Officer Survey, which explored the topic of lending in the post-QM/ability-to-repay environment, led to various interpretations of the rules' ultimate impact on mortgage lending so far. The survey found lending for prime residential mortgages at large banks has not changed much since the new rules went into effect.

On a monthly basis, the Home Price Index edged up 0.8 percent, slowing down from increases of 0.9 percent in both April and May. As of the latest index, prices remain 10.4 percent off their national peak of $268,000 in June 2006. Out of the 20 largest states, all posted month-over-month increases, with Florida leading at 1.2 percent. New Jersey and Texas followed at 1.1 percent each, with New York (0.9 percent) and California (0.5 percent) rounding out the top five.

June sales received a slight upward revision to a rate of 422,000, while May sales were also bumped up in a second revision to 454,000—still far below the 504,000 originally reported by the government.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and New York-based investment banking firm Goldman Sachs have settled a lawsuit alleging that Goldman Sachs sold faulty residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) to GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for which FHFA is conservator.

Inc. Magazine recently published its full list of the fast-growing companies for 2014, and for the third straight year, Florida-based Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC) has made the cut.

LenderLive Network Inc., an end-to-end mortgage services provider, announced this week the appointment of Kevin Cooke Jr. as SVP of business development for the company’s Loan Servicing Division.

Mortgage note holders in North Carolina can no longer voluntarily dismiss more than one non-judicial foreclosure without being banned from filing additional non-judicial foreclosures, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled earlier this week.