News

Home prices rose in the third quarter of 2011, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) house price index released Tuesday. The index is calculated using home sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired mortgages. It rose 0.2 percent between the second and third quarters. Even with the marginal uptick during the summer months, FHFA's gauge shows that over the past year, home prices have fallen 3.7 percent when compared to the third quarter of 2010.

While incidences of mortgage fraud have remained steady over the past six quarters overall, submissions of fraudulent employment/income information are on the rise, according to the latest Mortgage Fraud Risk Index by Interthinx. Employment/income fraud on mortgage applications increased 8.8 percent during the third quarter of 2011. The sharp turns in this category of fraud throughout the past few years reveal certain market occurrences.

ServiceLink announced Tuesday that the company has appointed Chris Azur president. Azur served as EVP and COO of ServiceLink for the last four years. His areas of responsibility included the valuations, title, and closing operations for both the loan origination and default services markets. Prior to joining ServiceLink, Azur was with ATM Corporation. There he held the positions of EVP and COO from the time the company was established in 1993.

The national reading of Standard & Poor's closely watched Case-Shiller index registered a 3.9 percent decline during the third quarter of this year when compared to the same period in 2010. That's an improvement over the 5.8 percent decline posted in the second quarter, but S&P described home prices as weakening as the third quarter came to an end. The national index rose by only 0.1 percent from the second quarter. Three cities posted new index lows as of the end of September - Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

CoreLogic has announced a new set of services designed specifically to address the anticipated increase in refinance activity expected from revisions to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Many lenders are expected to look to third-party providers to help them manage the expected spike in mortgage refinancing. CoreLogic says its new HARP 2.0 offerings will combine the company's data and analytics with experienced teams of outsourcing professionals to improve operational pull-through.

About 2.5 percent of current mortgage balances in the U.S. transitioned into delinquency during the third quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Monday. That assessment reverses a recent trend of reductions in the measure of newly delinquent mortgage balances, going back to the third quarter of 2010. Some 264,000 individuals had a foreclosure notation added to their credit reports between June 30 and September 30. New bankruptcies over the period tallied 423,000.

A New York federal judge ruled Monday against the proposed $285 million settlement agreed to by Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October. Judge Jed Rakoff said he has ""regretfully"" concluded that the agreement is neither reasonable nor in the public interest. Rakoff's opposition is rooted in the lack of evidence needed to determine whether the settlement is sufficient and the fact that Citigroup did not admit fault. He has set a trial date of July 16 for the issue to be aired in public.

RealtyTrac said Monday that it has obtained a substantial capital investment from Renovo Capital LLC through the private equity firm's Renwood Opportunities Fund. According to RealtyTrac, Renovo's investment provides the capital necessary to fund growth and foster expansion into untapped areas of the market. RealtyTrac also announced changes at the top of its management team. Brandon Moore has been hired to take over as CEO, and co-founder James J. Saccacio will move into an executive advisor role.

Holistic financial counseling -- that which focuses on a borrower's entire financial situation -- can prevent both foreclosures and re-defaults, according to a recent study sponsored by special servicer Outreach Financial Services. Holistic financial counseling can save servicers up to $71.5 million in losses on a portfolio of 10,000 loans, according to the study. When holistic counselors review a borrower's entire financial status, they are generally able to diminish monthly spending by $200 to $300.

Bad real estate loans from the boom years of the last decade have forced 412 FDIC-insured lenders to shutter their operations since the start of 2008. No institution's balance sheet has been fully insulated from the downturn in the real estate markets, but data released by the FDIC suggests lenders are finding their way out of the storm. After rising since 2006, the FDIC's so-called ""Problem List"" of banks at risk of failure has contracted for two quarters in a row. At the same time, money set aside to cover expected loan losses has fallen nearly 50 percent from a year ago.