News

Freddie Mac released the results of its weekly mortgage rate survey Thursday, showing average fixed mortgage rates largely unchanged and near their record lows, helping to keep housing affordability high for those borrowers who are in the market. The 30-year fixed rate dipped from 4.00 percent last week to 3.99 percent. At 3.27 percent, the 15-year fixed rate averaged just slightly above its all-time low of 3.26 percent on October 6, 2011. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) rose slightly this week, but are coming off of all-time historic lows recorded last week.

About 885,000 borrowers have received permanent loan modifications so far this year, according to October data from HOPE NOW. The voluntary alliance of mortgage industry participants announced last month that the industry had completed 5 million modifications since 2007. October saw almost 80,000 proprietary and HAMP modifications. Sixty-plus day delinquencies declined 6 percent between September and October, and foreclosure sales fell 5 percent. Foreclosure starts, however, rose by 7 percent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is still headless. Senators had scheduled a confirmation vote Thursday for Richard Cordray - President Obama's pick to lead the newly formed watchdog agency. Republicans, though, blocked the process before lawmakers could even get to a final vote. Without a director, the CFPB does not have full authority to supervise non-bank mortgage lenders and debt collectors. President Obama told reporters that he is not giving up on putting Cordray in the top CFPB post.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) has added additional functionality to its MSP loan servicing platform that the company says will help servicers better track and manage loans belonging to military service members. LPS' Military Service Relief (MSR) workstation adds 30 fields to MSP to allow servicers to identify and process loans protected under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), while providing stop-gap measures to guard against foreclosing on military personnel.

Servicers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have completed almost 2 million foreclosure prevention actions for the two companies since they went into conservatorship in 2008, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) third-quarter report released Wednesday. More than half of these actions have been loan modifications, and of the remainder, about 676,500 have kept homeowners in their homes. About 269,700 were short sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure.

The U.S. Treasury said Wednesday that it will continue to withhold incentives from JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America for modifications, short sales, and deeds-in-lieu completed through government programs. JPMorgan is the only servicer participating in Treasury's Making Home Affordable program that was determined to need ""substantial improvement"" in complying with program guidelines during the third quarter. Bank of America moved up a notch on the assessment scorecard to needing only ""moderate improvement.""

Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Attorneys Title Agency (ATA), a full-service title company providing services throughout the state of Michigan, announced Wednesday that it has acquired the assets of Portage, Michigan-based Pinnacle Title Agency. The transaction closed on December 1. Pinnacle Title Agency will operate as an ATA office, and its employees will join the ATA team.

Home price indexes from CoreLogic and Lender Processing Services (LPS) both recorded continuing declines through October. CoreLogic's study shows national home prices dropped 1.3 percent month-over-month, marking the third straight decline. LPS' report indicates the same downward trajectory, with preliminary data pointing to a 1.1 percent decline for October, on the heels of a 1.2 percent drop in September. Looking forward, CoreLogic's forecasts indicate flat growth through 2013 for residential home prices.

The current year will close with a 7 percent yearly decline in mortgage delinquencies, matching last year's decline, according to predictions released Wednesday by TransUnion. The percent of borrowers 60 days or more delinquent will fall to 5.95 percent by the end of the year, and will fall to 5 percent by the end of 2012, the credit bureau says. However, despite yearly declines, TransUnion's forecasters expect a slight rise in delinquencies through the first quarter of 2012.

Stewart Information Services Corp. announced Wednesday the members of its new executive team. Recently appointed CEO Matt Morris created the executive team to align the organization for growth in the real estate services industry. Seven members make up Stewart's new executive team: Glenn Clements, George Houghton, Jason Nadeau, Mike Skalka, Allen Berryman, Murshid Khan, and John Arcidiacono.