News

John J. Mack will step down as chairman of Morgan Stanley and leave the board as expected at the end of the year. Mack also will retire from a full-time role at Morgan Stanley and become a senior advisor to the firm at that time. James P. Gorman, president and CEO, was elected by the board to also take on the role of chairman, effective January 1, 2012.

Freddie Mac sent a letter to investors regarding bulk sales of foreclosed homes. The GSE offers investors the opportunity to purchase properties in bulk from HomeSteps - a division of Freddie Mac that offers sales of the GSE's foreclosed properties. The GSE says it has found most investors are interested in purchasing at 40 to 60 cents on the dollar below current list price, but Freddie is not considering such significant price cuts. The GSE says it is ""extremely mindful"" of how its pricing affects the market.

The housing industry relies on about 10 million broker price opinions (BPOs) each year, according to Franklin E. Rodebaugh, principal broker and president of American Wholesale Properties, Inc. BPOs are not going to go away, Rodebaugh said during a panel discussion at the Five Star Default Servicing Conference and Expo this week. He added that BPOs are ""becoming a far more exacting science than they've ever been before,"" and he believes there are a lot more changes in store for the BPO market.

Home price depreciation over the past few years has made housing more undervalued relative to incomes than ever before, yet home sales have continued to decline. Even more striking is that the dampened activity can be largely attributed to a weakening in demand from cash buyers and investors, according to the researchers at Capital Economics. The firm has found that since January, the number of homes purchased by cash buyers and investors has fallen by 26 percent.

HomeServices of America, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has formed a national title and closing network. The new network provides ""brick & mortar"" title and closing services in all 50 states. Local providers handle transactions, while the network provides a single point-of-contact for all title and closing services nationwide.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage both set new record lows this week, according to Freddie Mac's survey released Thursday. Freddie Mac's chief economist believes the new lows are the result of concerns surrounding the European debt market, which has driven investors to the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds and allowed mortgage rates to ease yet again. Freddie Mac puts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 4.09 percent and the 15-year rate at 3.30 percent.

Freedman Anselmo Lindberg, LLC has been added to Freddie Mac's Designated Counsel and Trustee network for the state of Illinois. The firm is already part of Fannie Mae's retained attorney network for Illinois and is now able to provide total GSE services to further meet its clients' needs. Freedman Anselmo Lindberg has been offering representation in Illinois as a full-service creditor's rights firm since 1980.

Santa Ana, California-based CoreLogic has exceeded 1 million active real estate listings on its Partner InfoNet program, which started operation in June 2010. Partner InfoNet is a revenue sharing program in which multiple listing services (MLSs) license their listing data to CoreLogic for use in risk management products for mortgage lenders, servicers, and capital markets. The program represents more than 300,000 real estate professionals.

At a hearing before a Senate subcommittee this week, witnesses urged Congress to help more underwater homeowners refinance their loans at current, record-low interest rates. The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) allows underwater homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates. However, the program has helped fewer than 900,000 of the more than 10 million underwater homeowners in the country.

IndiSoft, a technology development firm that focuses on systems for the default services industry, has expanded its management team, hiring Rosa Linnear as a new project manager and tapping Nandini Thosar as a software engineer. The company says as the industry's need for default management technology and expertise increases and more organizations select IndiSoft, it is paramount that the firm not only expands its team but finds the right individuals to best serve clients.