News

Home prices rose 0.8 percent in July, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase, according to the latest home price index from CoreLogic. Capital Economics responded to CoreLogic's report saying, its analysts ""are wary"" of reading too much into the ""fairly optimistic"" house price report because prices have yet to respond to the recent weakening in consumer demand. Despite the monthly increase, Corelogic says home prices are down 5.2 percent from where they stood a year ago.

Title insurance companies wrote $2.30 billion in premiums throughout the second quarter of 2011, down from $2.33 billion in the second quarter of 2010, according to the American Land Title Association's (ALTA) preliminary 2011 second-quarter market share analysis. At the same time, premiums increased in 21 states and Washington, D.C. The biggest premium gains were seen in Iowa and South Dakota. Fidelity underwriters claimed the largest market share, with more than a third of the new business.

HOPE LoanPort recently announced that the organization has now registered over 3,000 HUD-certified, nonprofit housing counselors in a little over a year of full operation. Counselors from more than 630 organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are now using the system to assist struggling homeowners. HOPE LoanPort is also upgrading its technology to comply with the Federal Housing Finance Agency's new guidelines for managing the GSEs' delinquent loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is the second regulatory body to file a petition with the New York federal court that is reviewing Bank of America's $8.5 billion settlement proposal to Countrywide mortgage investors. FHFA has filed a Notice of Appearance and Conditional Objection in order to obtain additional information related to the proposal, but the agency says it sees ""no basis"" to raise a substantive objection to the settlement at this time.

The average mortgage loan in foreclosure has been delinquent for 599 days, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). That's a record for the company's regular monthly study on mortgage performance trends. As of the end of July, LPS counted 2.2 million loans that were in foreclosure and nearly 1.9 million that were over 90 days past due but had not yet started the foreclosure process. The company also found that 38 percent of July's foreclosure starts were repeat foreclosures.

The National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) has teamed up with the REO property preservation firm Field Asset Services, Inc. to provide its members with information on local code enforcement officials and homeowners association (HOA) contacts. The organization's database contains approximately 12,000 code officials and 2,500 HOA contacts nationwide and has been tied to interactive search tools available via the NAMFS website.

Twenty-one members of New York's congressional delegation sent a letter to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller expressing concerns after he removed New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from the executive committee negotiating a settlement with several major servicers. The state's lawmakers say Miller's decision to oust Schneiderman ""sets a dangerous precedent"" for other attorneys general who, out of fear for what might happen, may choose silence over voicing their concerns with the proposed settlement.

Ginnie Mae has announced a new rule regarding buyouts of delinquent loans. Servicers may now buy out loans at the end of a successful trial payment plan, instead of waiting until a borrower has missed three payments. This new rule is in line with recently released Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guidelines requiring most loans to undergo a three- to four-month trial payment plan before a loan modification is made permanent. The new FHA guidelines go into effect October 1.

Home prices increased 3.6 percent over the second quarter of this year, after having fallen 4.1 percent in the first quarter, according to the latest S&P/Case Shiller index. With the second quarter's data, the national index reading recovered from the double-dip cyclical low hit at the end of the first quarter, but still posted an annual decline of 5.9 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2010. Nationally, home prices are back to their early 2003 levels, according to Standard & Poor's.

CoreLogic's board of directors is looking into various strategies to enhance shareholder value, including the possibility of selling the company. CoreLogic said Monday that its board has formed a committee of independent directors to explore a wide range of options to improve the position of its shareholders, which could take the form of cost savings initiatives, repurchases of debt and common stock, the disposition of certain business lines, or the potential sale of the company or a strategic business merger.