News

Poli Mortgage Group, Inc. and Norcom Mortgage recently announced they will be utilizing AllRegs, an information provider to the mortgage industry, to publish and maintain their library of mortgage underwriting guidelines.

Investors aren't the only major players driving the housing recovery. According to results from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey for March, first-time homebuyers and current homeowners are also building a strong presence as they dominate the non-distressed market. Investors accounted for 13.3 percent of the market share for non-distressed properties, while current homeowners represented 50 percent of the market. First-time homebuyers also made up a significant portion at 36.8 percent.

The Idaho Supreme Court dismissed a plaintiff’s wrongful foreclosure complaint against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) and defendants, affirming a district court ruling. The plaintiff in Edwards v. MERS et. al brought action against the defendants to stop a non-judicial foreclosure and argued MERS, the named beneficiary, could not legally act as the beneficiary.

Fitch Ratings found cumulative U.S. CMBS defaults moved higher in the first quarter as the office sector struggled. The U.S. CMBS cumulative default rate for fixed-rate CMBS rose to 13.6 percent in Q1 2013, up 18 basis points from the previous quarter, according to the rating agency.

Home prices will increase over the next three years as the economy expands and servicers work through their distressed inventories, according to a report from Moody's Analytics. Home prices will rise about 4.2 percent between the fourth quarter of last year and the fourth quarter of 2015, Moody's projected. The firm also anticipates foreclosures will have less of a hold on home prices in years to come as ""fundamentals that normally drive house prices"" come back into play, including ""job growth, demographics, affordability, and supply conditions.""

The nation's economy rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than economists had expected but more than six times the growth rate in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at a 3.1 percent pace. Residential fixed investment added $11.8 billion to GDP, down from the $15.3 billion contribution in the fourth quarter, and spending on non-residential structures actually subtracted from GDP, albeit a scant $200 million.

After months of robust and largely unsustainable annual home value appreciation, the national housing market finally showed signs of moderation in this year's first quarter, Zillow reported Thursday. Quarterly home value appreciation in the fourth quarter was 2.1 percent--indicating the market is slowing down to a more sustainable pace, says Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries. Looking ahead, the company's Home Value Forecast shows national home values rising 3.2 percent through March 2014, an annual appreciation rate more in line with historic norms.

The economic recovery, which began in 2009, has brought disproportionate gains to the wealthiest Americans, while the majority of households experienced a decline in worth, according to research released this week from the Pew Research Center. The top 7 percent of households--measured in terms of household wealth--experienced a 28 percent increase in net worth from 2009 to 2011, while the remaining 93 percent of American households experienced a 4 percent decline in worth, according to Pew.

A no-down payment loan program has quietly become the mortgage industry leader when it comes for foreclosure avoidance. For most of the last five years VA loans have maintained the lowest foreclosure rate of any major loan product, besting even prime loans. In the same span, the VA has helped nearly 300,000 military homeowners avoid foreclosure, mostly through supplemental servicing and encouraging lenders to explore viable alternatives.

CoreLogic, a leading residential property information, analytics, and services provider headquartered in California, announced its acquisition of Case-Shiller from Fiserv, Inc. The acquisition closed March 20.