News

As of April 2012, 1.5 million homes are in shadow inventory, which is a 14.8 percent decrease from last year in April when the number of homes hiding in the shadows was 1.8 million, CoreLogic reported Thursday. The current level of shadow inventory represents a supply of four months compared to a supply of 6 months a year ago. CoreLogic counts shadow inventory, also known as pending supply, by calculating the number of distressed properties that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure, and held as real estate owned (REO) by servicers, but not currently listed on multiple listing services.

First time claims for unemployment insurance rose to 3086,000 for the week ended June 9, from the prior week's 38,000, (revised from the originally reported 377,000) the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists had expected the report would show 3795,000 initial claims.

After seeing months of consistent decreases, May turned out to be a busy month for foreclosure activity. Foreclosure filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, were up 9 percent in May from the previous month of April, but still down 4 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for May 2012. Foreclosure filings were reported on 205,990 properties in May after two consecutive months below 200,000, but activity levels were still down on a yearly basis for 20 consecutive months now. In April, foreclosure filings totaled 188,780.

Mortgage applications jumped by 18 percent from the week earlier, riding a refinance wave to numbers not seen since 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group found that the Refinance Index climbed up by over 19 percent from the week before, reaching the highest level for an index since April 2009.

Williston Financial Group (WFG),the parent company of WFG Lender Services and WFG National Title Insurance Company, announced Monday the appointment of Donald O'Neill as EVP of institutional services.

In a letter filed Wednesday to FHFA, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) expressed its view that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should seek to align their operations as much as possible. The alignment would help set the stage and ease transition into the future for the GSEs, SIFMA suggests. SIFMA also submitted a list of steps and goals of FHFA's Strategic Plan to coordinate the GSEs and says they will require communication, careful planning, and a focus on the Enterprises' core activities from the industry at every stage.

Judicial Watch, a group dedicated to investigating and fighting possible government corruption, says it submitted a FOIA request on January 12 to CFPB seeking access to records of communications between the bureau, the White House, the Executive Office of the President, the Treasury, and Congress concerning Cordray's appointment to his post. That request also asked for records of communications between CFPB and the White House regarding Obama's visit to CFPB after the appointment, a move Politico referred to as a ""victory lap.""

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have and will continue to realize credit losses due to mortgages originated years before the conservatorship when the GSEs were deemed critical supervisory concerns, FHFA stated in its annual Report to Congress. In 2011, Fannie and Freddie borrowed $33.6 billion from Treasury, an increase from the year before when $28 billion was drawn. Of the $33.6 billion, $16.1 billion was used to fund dividend payments back to Treasury. The losses leading to the $17.5 billion drawn from Treasury were due to business decisions made by the GSEs in the pre-conservatorship days. Overall, the GSEs have drawn $187.5 billion from Treasury as of the end of 2011.

In a speech before the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Finance Council on Wednesday, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry warned banks and thrifts not to keep their eggs in one basket with CRE loans. Following up on his remarks in May about operational risk in banking institutions, Curry stressed that CRE credit is still a significant core risk area for banks and thrifts. Curry pointed out that national banks and federally chartered thrifts hold over $700 billion in total CRE loans, an amount that comprises 14 percent of their aggregate loan portfolios.

The North Carolina Association of Realtors (NCAR) announced June 6 that the organization has allocated a total of $50,000 to counseling agencies in the state to help homeowners in danger of foreclosure. Through a grant from the National Association of Realtors, NCAR awarded five $10,000 fellowships to counseling agencies in Boone, Greensboro, Kannapolis, Fayetteville, and Wilmington.