Loss Mitigation

Mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty Inc. trimmed its inventory of delinquent loans during the month of October by 136, as new delinquencies and cures came close to breaking even. The company ended the month with 110,614 loans in its primary delinquent portfolio, down from 110,740 at the beginning of October. The company says it wrote $2.07 billion in new primary mortgage insurance coverage during the month of October.

The nation's largest mortgage company says it lost $5.1 billion during the third quarter of this year. That combined with a $2.5 billion dividend payment to Treasury for past bailout money left Fannie Mae with a $7.8 billion hole to fill. Upon receipt of those funds, Fannie Mae's total debt obligation to U.S. taxpayers will be $112.6 billion. The GSE held 122,616 single-family REO properties as of the end of September, and completed 87,533 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter.

After declining between the first and second quarters of this year, Zillow says negative equity rose again in the third, reclaiming all of the previous quarter's decline and then some. Zillow's latest market analysis indicates 28.6 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage owed more on the loan than their home was worth as of the end of September. The company says a lower rate of foreclosure liquidations and relatively flat home values combined to increase negative equity over the three-month period.

The national mortgage delinquency rate edged up during the third quarter of 2011, marking the first increase in nearly two years, according to TransUnion. The credit bureau calculates the delinquency rate as the percentage of borrowers 60 or more days behind on their payments, excluding those that are already in foreclosure. The rate increased to 5.88 percent at the end of September. TransUnion expects the sudden upward movement to be a temporary one, driven by unanticipated financial shocks during the third quarter.

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) announced Monday that Nancy Murphy has joined the company as VP of investor relations. Murphy has 17 years experience as a finance professional. Her work includes financial strategy and analysis, business development, and relationship management. Most recently, Murphy directed investor relations for Stein Mart, Inc. and before that served as head of investor relations for Providian Financial Corporation.

Private investors in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) comprised of jumbo mortgage loans are dealing with a greater risk of strategic defaults, according to Moody's Investors Service. The company's analysts base this assumption on the fact that jumbo RMBS have large populations of current borrowers with high loan-to-value (LTV) ratios. In contrast, the subprime sector faces the lowest potential for future performance deterioration because its weaker borrowers are already delinquent or have defaulted.

CredAbility has announced the launch of its 2012 ""Reconstruye tu Futuro"" campaign, which will leverage grassroots efforts, social media networks, and traditional media communication to reach those in the Hispanic community who are at risk of foreclosure. With more than 50 million Hispanics in the United States and a downturn economy, CredAbility says Latino individuals and families have been more deeply impacted than other minority populations. By leveraging key financial tools, CredAbility aims to help Latino individuals, families, and communities recapture their American Dream.

Treasury has released a new progress report on its Making Home Affordable initiative, covering all the ""H"" acronyms. Since the program started in April 2009, 857,000 homeowners have received permanent loan restructurings under HAMP, and 894,000 have refinanced their mortgages through HARP. HAFA transactions tally just under 19,000. Officials say they continue to see a fall in mortgage defaults due in part to foreclosure prevention programs reaching more borrowers upstream in the process, but there's ""much more work to do.""

While the newly revised Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) includes several provisions aimed at widening the program's reach, Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Johnny Isakson of Georgia are asking the Obama administration to broaden the program even more by opening it up to homeowners with higher equity in their homes. Currently, the revised program is aimed at helping those with less than 20 percent equity. Lawmakers say nearly 12 million more borrowers would benefit if there were no equity restraints.

The nation's second largest mortgage company is asking the U.S. Treasury for another $6 billion in capital support after posting its largest quarterly loss in over a year. Freddie Mac says it recorded a net loss of $4.4 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, after shouldering a $4.8 billion loss on derivatives and a $3.6 billion provision for credit losses related to high levels of mortgage refinancing and lower mortgage insurance recoveries. The GSE's REO operations expense skyrocketed to $221 million in the third quarter, compared to $27 million for the second quarter.