News

Fay Servicing, a Chicago-based special servicer, announced the launch of an initiative to create strategic partnerships with mortgage lenders and help train originators for careers in servicing. The program is designed to provide training to hone key skills such as managing initial calls with borrowers, meeting compliance requirements, and conducting a Personal Budget Analysis (PBA) for borrowers.

Today's resilient capital market has the capacity to adapt readily to the pending Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage (QM) rules set to take effect January 10, 2014, according to a white paper issued by CoreLogic. The paper titled, ATR/QM Standards: Foundation for a Sound Housing Market, provides an overview of the rules themselves and examines their possible impact on the market.

The recent fast-paced home price appreciation across the country led some markets to the brink of a bubble, but deceleration over the summer months has Zillow analysts breathing a sigh of relief as the bubble threat deflates. Home value appreciation has declined steadily for three months, according to Zillow, and half of the nation's 20 largest metros experienced negative appreciation in September.

Lender Processing Services provided the media with a first look at the company's mortgage performance statistics for the month of September. The industry's foreclosure inventory continued its downward trend, and while delinquencies were up slightly from the previous month, they were down when comparing the numbers year-over-year. All-in-all, there are 4,594,000 mortgages going unpaid in the United States.

Axios Valuation Solutions, a Fort Worth-based compliant appraisal services provider, announced the release of Desktop Appraisal, a new solution designed to combine the company’s technology and analytics with the expertise of local market appraisers to deliver compliant, reliable valuations.

Mortgage rates are inching higher and higher, but the market does not seem to be paying any heed as it continues to show signs of improvement, according to the HousingPulse Tracking Survey released this week. It indicates the emerging slowdown in home purchases appears to be largely seasonal with a number of key indicators--distressed sales, time on market, and purchase offers--still in positive territory.

Though Capitol Hill's gridlock over the debt ceiling was resolved--for now, at least--mortgage rates this week took a spill as market uncertainty spooked investors. Freddie Mac released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey Thursday, which shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage falling to an average rate of 4.13 percent for the week ending October 24, down from 4.28 percent last week and hitting its lowest point in about four months.

Alliant National Title Insurance Company, a title insurance underwriter that partners with independent agents, announced the hiring of Katherine Kitty Stevens, Esq. as VP of Florida agent training and business development.

A 10-person panel of jurors is holding Bank of America and a mid-level manager liable for high-risk mortgages originated by Countrywide through a program known as Hustle and then sold off to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After hearing arguments for four weeks in a Manhattan federal court, the jury returned a decision finding BofA liable on one charge of fraud in the civil case and finding Rebecca Mairone, former COO of one of Countrywide's lending divisions, liable on the one civil fraud charge she faced.

Redfin's Real-Time Bidding Wars report shows 58.3 percent of offers written by Redfin agents across the country faced bidding wars in September, down from 60.5 percent in August. Last September, 62.7 percent of offers faced competing bids. With competition diminishing, Redfin has also observed a fall in the number of homes selling at above asking price. On average across all tracked markets, buyers paid 0.4 percent below asking price (compared to 0.3 percent in August).