News

For the fourth week in a row, 30-year fixed mortgage rates held steady at just above 4.5 percent, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday. Freddie Mac calculates average interest rates based on data from about 125 lenders across the country. The 15-year rate remained unchanged from last week while the 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage dropped to a new record low.

Home prices in the U.S. rose in May, marking the second straight month of gains, according to CoreLogic. The company says national home prices, including distressed sales, increased 0.8 percent. CoreLogic asserts that the spring buying season has brought with it more demand for non-distressed properties, which has contributed to the short-term gains in prices. Some are holding out hope that the consistent upticks are evidence the five-year long decline in prices may be drawing to a close.

Allonhill, an independent third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, has hired Jim Sadler as managing director of business process management and analytics. He is responsible for refining the firm's business processes and operational strategy. Additionally, he will develop custom analytics to measure and report the company's performance and help put into operation a new client-facing implementation team.

Default technology provider IndiSoft has partnered with Hosting.com, a provider of cloud hosting and recovery services, to provide guaranteed, consistent compliance and SaaS integration services for IndiSoft clients. IndiSoft will refer its clients to Hosting.com for compliance, business continuity, and disaster recovery solutions. IndiSoft says the collaboration will allow it to effectively manage clients technology needs so they can focus on their core business.

Been waiting for the spring homebuying season to hit? According to a new industry report released Wednesday, it may be settling in. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says contracts in place for sales of existing homes rose 8.2 percent in May compared to the trade group's upwardly revised reading for April and are 13.4 percent higher than in May 2010. NAR's latest reading marks the first time since April 2010 that contract activity has come in above year-ago levels.

There were 4,084,557 mortgages in the United States 90 or more days delinquent or in foreclosure as of the end of May, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). With foreclosure sales at 78,676 at month end, the volume of seriously past due loans over-shadowed the number of completed foreclosures by 50 to 1. In fact, LPS says there are still significantly fewer foreclosure sales than there were before foreclosure moratoria were put into place last fall. The biggest drops have been seen along the East Coast.

The performance of first-lien mortgages serviced by large national banks and thrifts improved in the first quarter as troubled loans worked through the system, according to a report released Wednesday by federal regulators. Their analysis of servicing portfolios as a whole found that loans serviced for government agencies and the GSEs are outperforming those held by banks and thrifts on their own books. Nevertheless, delinquencies improved across all risk categories and for all asset owners, while newly started foreclosures declined sharply.

California-headquartered Kinecta Federal Credit Union now provides its brokers and business partners with HomePath mortgages from Fannie Mae. HomePath is the GSE's venture for marketing and selling REO properties, and it offers special financing terms for the purchase of select Fannie Mae-owned properties. Currently, Kinecta is the only approved credit union in California and one of only five in the nation to offer HomePath mortgages.

Bank of America will pay investors $8.5 billion to compensate them for Countrywide's dealings years before the subprime lender was acquired by BofA. The settlement resolves nearly all of BofA's first-lien repurchase exposure from Countrywide-issued bonds. It involves 530 trusts and $424 billion in securities. The company has also agreed to implement certain servicing changes, which will cost some $400 million. BofA says the cleanup will leave it with a loss for the second quarter, but the market has responded positively to the news.

Northlight Financial LLC, a New York-based manager of private equity debt investments, has announced the formation of a limited partnership, Northlight LP. The fund will provide asset-backed loans to middle market companies, acquire whole loans in the secondary market, and purchase distressed assets in the commercial, industrial, and real estate sectors. It will initially deploy $100 million in capital.