News

Mark Oman, senior EVP and head of the Home and Consumer Finance Group at Wells Fargo & Company, plans to retire at the end of this year. Oman previously announced his intention to retire in 2008 but stayed on to help the bank with its acquisition of Wachovia. Oman joined Wells Fargo in 1979 and helped to grow the company into the largest originator of home mortgages in the nation and the second largest servicer of mortgages.

Fiserv, Inc. on Monday released an analysis of home price trends in more than 375 U.S. markets. While residential property values are continuing to fall on a year-over-year-basis in three-quarters of the metros, Fiserv sees signs of stabilization on the horizon. The company contends that the slide in prices has greatly improved home affordability. This dynamic, combined with growing economic strength, has prompted Fiserv's projection that average U.S. home prices will stabilize in the third quarter of this year.

The FDIC confirmed Monday that Sheila Bair will step down from her post as chairman of the federal agency, effective July 8. Chairman Bair had previously announced her intention to depart the agency following the expiration of her term. No replacement has yet been named.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says it's seeing ""signs of healing"" in consumer credit markets, as evidenced by a decline in new foreclosures, bankruptcies, and mortgage delinquencies during the first three months of this year. About 368,000 borrowers had a foreclosure notation added to their credit reports in the first quarter, while new bankruptcies dropped to 434,000. At the same time, about 2.4 percent of current mortgage balances transitioned into delinquency, the second straight quarterly improvement in this measure.

Incidents of fraud reported by mortgage professionals during the 2010 calendar year were down 41 percent compared to the previous 12 months, according to data released Monday by the LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute. The company says misrepresentation on loan applications and verifications of deposit, along with appraisal and valuation issues, were the most blatant fraud problems last year. However, multiple industry reports indicate that identity, bankruptcy, and income-related frauds are on the rise.

Real estate data company MRIS recently unveiled an enhancement to the MLS system with a tool to simplify photo uploading for real estate professionals. Dubbed Media Connect, the company says its technology supports agent listings with 80 percent faster upload times. The MRIS system currently hosts more than 70,000 active real estate listings with over 1 million new photos added so far in 2011.

Home values in the U.S. fell faster in the first quarter of 2011 than they have in any quarter since 2008, when the market experienced its worst performance, according to Zillow. The company's index of residential property values fell 3 percent during the first three months of this year when compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. As a result, negative equity hit a new high-water mark with 28.4 percent of homeowners with mortgages owing more on the loan than their home is worth.

As part of its expansion into the fixed income, high yield, and leveraged finance market, New York-based global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. announced several new hires last week. Matthew Zolin, Lori Samuels, and Erin Andrews all joined the firm from Chapdelaine Credit Partners. Zolin was named managing director of high yield trading, Samuels was hired as managing director of credit product, and Andrews joined the firm as a senior loan trader.

Federal regulators stepped in this weekend to shut down Coastal Bank in Cocoa Beach, Florida, making it the 40th FDIC-insured institution to fail so far this year. Miami's Premier American Bank, N.A., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bond Street Holdings, Inc. entered into an agreement with the FDIC to purchase essentially all of the assets, and assume all of the deposits and certain other liabilities, of Coastal Bank. According to Premier American, this transaction makes it the sixth largest independent bank in Florida.

North Carolina real estate firm Jewell Realty, which specializes in bank-owned REO, foreclosed, and distressed properties in the commercial real estate sector, has launched a new Web site, which the company says is primarily a one-stop resource for quality commercial REO properties and other choice commercial bank foreclosures. Buyers can search for a private residence, a community development, a warehouse, an office building, and even open land.