News

Equifax announced this week that it has named Jeff Flory and Jeff Schwartzel as enterprise business directors, responsible for leading efforts to acquire new customer relationships for the consumer credit reporting agency. Flory brings more than 19 years of experience to the company, most recently as VP of business development for Financial Asset Services. Schwartzel has over 12 years of industry experience. He previously served as business development executive for Deluxe Financial Services.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin recently signed legislation to restrict Wall Street home resale fees, also known as private transfer fees. The fees require that a private third party receive a percentage of the final sale price of a home every time the property is sold, typically for 99 years. Oklahoma is the 30th state to restrict their use. On the federal level, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued a proposed rule that would prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from investing in mortgages with these fees.

RealtyTrac has released a new report detailing foreclosure sales activity during the first quarter. Altogether, third parties purchased a total of 158,434 bank-owned and short sale homes during the first three months of this year. That's down 36 percent from a year earlier. At this pace, it would take three years to clear the current inventory of properties already on the banks' books or in foreclosure. REOs sold at an average discount of 35 percent in Q1, while short sale properties carried a mark-down of nearly 9 percent.

GMAC Mortgage said Tuesday that the company has signed contracts with all states participating in the Treasury Department's Hardest Hit Fund (HHF). The HHF program was established to provide targeted aid to homeowners in states hit hard by the economic and housing market downturn, specifically, states where unemployment rates are above 12 percent and home prices have experienced the steepest drops.

Negotiation talks continued this week between state attorneys general and the nation's largest mortgage servicers to settle robo-signing allegations, and those on the states' side of the table began throwing out big numbers to convince servicers they should ante up. Attorneys general advised representatives from the five largest servicing shops that they would be on the hook for at least $17 billion from civil lawsuits alone if the two parties don't reach a settlement agreement.

In an effort to align and communicate with the vendor community, the REO property preservation firm Field Asset Services has formed a Vendor Advisory Council. This panel brings together field service providers from across the country and will provide the company with guidance regarding responsiveness, predictability, quality, turn times, bid response rates, and technology adoption.

With millions falling behind on their mortgage payments and declining property values eating away at home equity, short sales are increasingly being looked to as an alternative to foreclosure. CoreLogic says the number of short sales has tripled in the last two years, and they're expected to increase another 25 percent in 2011. Such growth, though, can open the gate for fraudulent activity. CoreLogic estimates lenders, servicers, and investors may incur potential losses in excess of $375 million this year from ""suspicious"" short sales.

Quandis, Inc., a provider of default management technology solutions, recently launched a service that runs searches on active military personnel. The technology was developed to allow mortgage servicers to comply with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which dictates that servicers and foreclosure attorneys must follow certain processes before foreclosing on an active person in the U.S. military.

Urban Lending Solutions has hired Dennis Postlewait and Darlene Burnham to serve as senior vice presidents of business development for the company's appraisal subsidiary. Urban Lending Solutions provides loan modification services, underwriting, valuations, and other real estate information solutions for the mortgage industry. Postlewait and Burnham are both responsible for development and growth of strategic accounts.

The U.S. housing market could experience a severe double-dip contraction marked by lower home sales and depressed house prices if Congress fails to raise the federal debt ceiling, according to the Center for American Progress, a nonprofit research group. The Center says inaction to raise the debt limit would spark a return of the economic pain of the past few years as foreclosures would remain at record highs for an even longer stretch. Not raising the limit by early August threatens to put the U.S. itself on the verge of default.