News

Three industry organizations are coming together to host a legislative event in Washington D.C.

The former president of FirstCity Bank of Georgia, Mark A. Conner, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for bank fraud conspiracy and perjury, SIGTARP and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Sally Quillian Yates jointly announced Friday in a release. Conner, 46, was charged for his role in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to defraud FirstCity Bank and for hiding and lying about assets in his personal bankruptcy case.

As homeowners hold back from selling, home prices are benefiting, according to a report from Redfin, which tracked home prices in 19 U.S. markets. While prices remained flat month-over-month (-0.1 percent) from June to July, Redfin found prices rose 3.2 percent from July 2011 to July 2012. However, the number of homes for sale fell 28.1 percent during the same one-year period and also declined 5 percent from June.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed two notices with rules designed to protect homeowners from surprises or mistakes made by their mortgage servicers. CFPB first announced in April that it was considering several proposals to implement requirements laid out in the Dodd-Frank Act, the bill that created the bureau.

The GSE released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August on Wednesday, examining recent trends in home price indices and speculating on the impact of shadow inventory on home prices. While prices have shown positive growth in many states through this year, concerns about shadow inventory-the stock of single-family loans that are seriously delinquent-- have some experts worried about prices taking another tumble.

The Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight recently chose five new firms to serve as its eyes and ears on the ground as the $25 servicer settlement grinds forward. The new secondary professional firms - including BKD, LLP; Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP; Crowe Horwath, LLP; Grant Thornton, LLP; and McGladrey, LLP - will assist settlement monitor Joseph A. Smith, Jr., over the next three and a half years. Each firm will assist BDO Consulting, a division of BDO USA, LLP, and the primary professional firm responsible for evaluations.

A report from Lender Processing Services (LPS) revealed that in judicial states, the share of aging past due loans is significantly higher than in non-judicial states. In judicial states, nearly 60 percent of borrowers with loans in foreclosure have not made a payment in 2 years, whereas in non-judicial states, that percentage is at about 30 percent. Among those with loans 90 days or more past due, 50 percent of borrowers in judicial states have not made a payment in more than one year, compared to slightly more than 40 percent in non-judicial states.

Hawaii is seeing a number of lawsuits against banks related to allegedly unfair foreclosure sales practices, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday. Lawsuits have been brought against Deutsche Bank National Trust Co., Bank of America, U.S. Bank N.A., and Wells Fargo. In addition, a suit has also been filed against Routh Crabtree Olsen, a Washington firm with offices in Hawaii, for its alleged involvement.

After remaining steady in the first quarter of the year, the Interthinx Mortgage Fraud Risk Index rose again in the second quarter, climbing about 7 percent over the three-month period. Nevada and Arizona are the riskiest two states, followed by Florida, New Jersey, and Georgia, which made its way to the top five list for the first time since Interthinx began tracking mortgage fraud in 2009. Georgia took the place of California, which has been on the top five list since the inception of the index, according to Interthinx.

The latest National Delinquency Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) showed that delinquencies increased in the second quarter of 2012, a shift anticipated by the association. The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.58 percent as of the end of Q2, an increase from 7.40 in Q1. The second quarter's increased rate was still down from 8.44 percent at the same time in 2011.