News

Texas continues to perform noticeably better than other states in the real estate market, local Realtors say, by avoiding an excess supply of foreclosures and other distressed properties. Economists say the state has managed to maintain balance between home inventory and demand, and this, combined with the fact that Texas has maintained strong property values, indicates the market is absorbing foreclosed and other distressed properties.

Default management and residential valuation provider Integrated Asset Services, LLC (IAS) has named former Lehman Brothers executive Paul E. Sveen as its new CEO. A 25-year veteran of the industry, Sveen spent 19 years with Lehman, where he held executive leadership roles in the firm's structured finance and securitization businesses, and at Aurora Loan Services, Lehman's largest residential mortgage company.

Fannie Mae sponsored a special open house event Wednesday in Philadelphia to mark the opening of its latest Mortgage Help Center. The Philly location is the ninth in a series of planned nationwide centers to provide assistance to homeowners in default or at risk of foreclosure. Fannie Mae president and CEO, Mike Williams, joined representatives from the Philadelphia area public and private sectors to mark the occasion.

The Supreme Court of South Carolina issued an administrative order on Tuesday halting all pending foreclosure actions and foreclosure sales on May 9th, until the lender can demonstrate they have worked with the borrower to pursue a loan modification or other loss mitigation option. Chief Justice Jean Toal says the purpose of the statewide order is to ensure mortgage foreclosures are not inappropriately concluded while an alternative resolution is being negotiated - the practice commonly referred to as dual-tracking.

A new report released by Lender Processing Services this week (LPS) indicates foreclosure activity picked up significantly during the month of March. LPS says the foreclosure inventory stood at 2.2 million loans as of the end of March - a new all-time high. The number of new foreclosure actions increased 33 percent from the previous month. At the same time, though, delinquencies dropped to their lowest level since 2008. LPS says new problem loans are now less than half 2009's peak levels.

Brock & Scott PLLC announced Tuesday the expansion of its practice into Florida with the opening of a new office in Ft. Lauderdale. The firm provides legal representation in the areas of default law, including foreclosure, creditor bankruptcy, evictions, and REO; collections; and real estate services. With the addition of its Florida practice, Brock & Scott's coverage area now extends to six states.

Clayton Holdings has partnered with MBSData to provide loan-level data risk identification analytics and reporting solutions to fixed-income-mortgage investors. According to a statement from the two companies, their combined technology platform is designed to help investors manage residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) risk more effectively. The new offering will cover 98 percent of the active deal universe of private-label RMBS.

The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and its mortgage unit, claiming that Germany's largest bank ""repeatedly lied"" to get into a program to select mortgages to be insured by FHA against default. Once part of the program, U.S. authorities say Deutsche Bank ""recklessly"" selected mortgages that violated the program rules ""in blatant disregard"" of whether borrowers could make their mortgage payments. The U.S. government is seeking $1 billion in damages and penalties.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. is seeing signs of strengthening in markets the firm classifies as ""distressed,"" enough so that the private mortgage insurer is relaxing its requirements for loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and minimum credit scores. PMI also announced that it has removed four markets from its ""Distressed Markets List,"" however the mortgage insurer plans to add the entire states of Arizona and Florida to the list in July. The company's analysts have also updated their forecast for sales of existing homes and price projections.

The operations of MDA DataQuick, MDA Lending Solutions, and MDA MindBox have been integrated, effective May 2. The private investment firm TPG Capital purchased the three companies in January. The resulting combined company, which operates under the name DataQuick and headquarters in California, delivers real estate information solutions powered by data, analytics, and advanced decisioning to lenders, servicers, real estate companies, and secondary market investors.