News

For the first quarter of 2012, the number of Mortgage Loan Fraud (MLF) Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) submitted decreased 31 percent to 17,651 over a one-year period, according to a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) report. In the first quarter of 2011, 25,485 MLF SARs were submitted. The high level of submissions a year ago was fueled by mortgage loan repurchase demands, which prompted reviews of dated mortgages, according to FinCEN.

Following the news from Case-Shiller that home prices rose in April for the first time in seven months, IHS Global Insight and Capital Economics both released commentaries speculating on the unexpected news and the housing market's future. IHS attributed the uptick in prices to three factors: Current low mortgage rates, strong investor demand, and a drop in homeowners listing their homes for sale. Capital Economics pointed to tight supply conditions as a cause for the price gain and said that these conditions are unlikely to last with foreclosure and short-sale processes happening quicker than before.

A civil litigation case brought on by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against two former portfolio managers with Bear Stearns received approval from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The court approved the settlement on June 18, 2012, and Ralph R. Cioffi and Matthew M. Tannin were ordered to pay a total of $1.05 million in disgorgement and civil penalties, the SEC announced Monday. The SEC's complaint, which was first filed June 19, 2008, alleged that the Bear Stearns funds collapsed in June 2007 due to risky subprime mortgage-backed securities.

Increases in all aspects of Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio led to a higher (but still negative) annualized growth rate, according to the GSE's Monthly Volume Summary for May. The summary showed that Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio for the month shrank at an annualized rate of 9.4 percent, a drop from 14.1 percent in April but still far above March's 2.9 percent contraction rate. The negative annualized growth rate YTD is 6.8 percent.

The Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes rose for the first time in eight months in April, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday The 10- and 20-city indexes each rose 1.3 percent, to the highest levels this year. Year-over-year, the 10-city index was down 2.2 percent and the 20-city index off 1.9 percent, both improving from March.

Home price purchases were mixed month-over-month in May, with non-distressed prices up and short sales down, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. From April to May, transactions reported by HousingPulse survey respondents revealed the average price for non-distressed properties rose 1.7 percent, while the average price for short sales fell 0.7 percent. For damaged REOs, the average price went up 1.8 percent and for move-in ready REOs, the average price dropped 1.5 percent.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed suit Friday against Illinois tax officials for imposing unlawful taxes on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Several Illinois counties have attempted to collect transfer taxes from the GSEs, and some have threatened to reject future property transfers from the enterprises if they do not pay the state and county transfer taxes. Illinois officials have demanded transfer fees from both enterprises. Similar claims and demands have been made from other Illinois counties.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appointed Thomas J. Butler as the director of the agency's new Office of Credit Ratings.

Looking for a beach home? Perhaps not, but according to a report released by RealtyTrac, certain beach towns offer sizeable discounts that make vacation dream homes seem a little bit more accessible. Using home sales prices for distressed properties in the first quarter of 2012, the real estate database company ranked the top 10 beach towns to buy foreclosures in its June 2012 Foreclosure News Report. The top four beach towns had discounts averaging at least 20 percent compared to prices for non-distressed properties, and the top two had prices averaging less than $100,000.

Commercial real estate prices fell in April across nearly all sectors, according to Moody's/RCA Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI). The CPPI, composed of 20 indices, showed that CRE prices in the United States were down 0.6 percent in April. Prices fell across all sectors of the CPPI with the exception of the industrial sub-sector, which saw a price gain of 1.1 percent. Compared to the last quarter, the industrial sector posted the biggest gain of 3.9 percent, but that gain still lags the recovery in the core commercial sector of which it is a part.