Fannie Mae recently issued a new servicing guide regarding pre-foreclosure mediation for mortgage loans in Florida. Last December, the Florida Supreme Court issued an administrative order requiring mediation sessions before a summary judgment or foreclosure sale can be held. In adherence to this mandate, Fannie Mae will now require that servicers assign delinquent mortgage loans secured by properties in Florida to an attorney from Fannie Mae's retained network for mediation prior to the initiation of foreclosure proceedings.
Read More »CMBS Delinquencies Moderate, but Rate Still Above 8%: Reports
Special servicers of commercial real estate loans are feverishly pursing workouts and liquidations. Their efforts have helped to moderate increases in past dues, but delinquency rates, nonetheless, continue to rise. Two industry reports released last week served to drive this point home. Fitch Ratings says the delinquency rate on loans held in its rated commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) hit 8.48 percent in August. Moody's reported a similar increase to 8.10 percent.
Read More »Investigation Finds Criminals Making FHA Loans
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has failed to root out several executives with criminal records whose firms continue to do business with the agency, according to the Center for Public Integrity. The Center's investigation found that more than 34,000 home loans have been issued over the past two years by FHA-approved lenders that have employed people who were convicted of felonies, banned from the securities industry, or previously worked for firms barred by FHA. Nine percent of these loans are delinquent.
Read More »HUD Sees Stabilization, but Frailty, in Housing Market Conditions
Housing conditions continued to show signs of stabilizing during the second quarter, following a downward trend that began to reverse itself in mid-2009, HUD says in a new report. The federal agency immediately follows that assessment, though, with ""the housing market's recovery remains fragile."" HUD's quarterly commentary on the state of housing in the U.S. sums up a dichotomy of positives and negatives in market indicators. For example, sales and prices of existing homes rose in Q2, but fell for new homes.
Read More »GSEs’ Short Sales and Deeds-in-Lieu up 27% in Q2
Nearly 31,000 borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans forfeited their homes through a short sale or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure during the second quarter of this year. The figure represents a 27 percent increase over the previous three-month period. The GSEs also reported that their volume of permanent modifications under the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) increased 65 percent, but at the same time, foreclosure starts and foreclosure sales were also up by double digits.
Read More »Banks Have Recognized Two-Thirds of Loan Losses: Moody’s
Moody's Investors Service says U.S. banks have already written off nearly two-thirds of the real estate loans expected to go sour through 2011. The credit ratings agency projects banks will incur $744 billion of loan charge-offs between 2008 and 2011. Moody's analysts say an estimated $476 billion of these losses have already been recognized, leaving $268 billion, or 36 percent, remaining. So far, 68 percent of residential mortgage losses have been accounted for versus 49 percent of bad commercial real estate loans.
Read More »Specialty Servicer Looking for Short Sale Customer Service Staff
The national unemployment rate continues to rise - from 9.5 percent in July to 9.6 percent in August - but there's hope on the horizon in Depew, New York. AMS Servicing, LLC, a national specialty servicer for residential and small balance commercial mortgages, announced this week it has immediate openings for full- and part-time customer service call center representatives in Depew. The main function of this position is to provide customer service support to internal and external customers regarding the short sale of residential properties.
Read More »Fiserv Renames Loan Servicing Platform to LoanServ
Fiserv, Inc. said Wednesday that it has rebranded its Loan Servicing Platform with the name LoanServ. As a single-platform, real-time solution, LoanServ combines mortgage loans, consumer loans, indirect financing, home equity loans and lines of credit, and distressed loan functionality into one core system so that all of a borrower's retail loan relationships can be supported through one system. Fiserv says this complete picture of a customer's credit capacity is crucial for mitigating risk.
Read More »Bondholders Order Investigation of $26B in Countrywide RMBS
The law firm of Gibbs & Bruns LLP says its institutional investor clients have issued binding instructions to Bank of New York, serving as trustee, to open an investigation of ineligible mortgages behind more than $26 billion of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) issued by subprime lender Countrywide. The firm's clients hold more than 25 percent of the voting rights of the RMBS in question, and can demand the repurchase of mortgages that did not conform to required representations and warranties.
Read More »Five Brothers Simplifies Mortgage Documentation with DocPRO
Five Brothers, a provider of commercial and residential mortgage default management solutions, recently released its DocPRO Document Delivery Solution, which the company says speeds and simplifies the preparation, delivery, notarization, and tracking of mortgage documents. The company's CEO explained that the new technology saves clients both time and money with minimal effort on the client's part.
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