News

A new homeowner outreach program launched by Default Resource aims to enhance the interaction between servicers and struggling homeowners. The company said it created the program to help troubled borrowers stay in their homes while assisting servicers in loss mitigation efforts. The program includes borrower outreach, door-knocking, and in-person initiation of the loan resolution or short sale process.

Freddie Mac said Monday that its full menu of relief policies for borrowers affected by disaster is being extended to homeowners whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the recent storms in the South and are located in counties that the president has declared to be major disaster areas. The GSE says it has instructed its servicers to work with borrowers with Freddie Mac-owned mortgages affected by these storms to grant forbearance on their mortgage payments for up to one year.

After two years of no issuance, the credit quality of commercial-mortgage backed securities (CMBS) issued post recession has been strong, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service. Since issuance resumed in 2010, Moody's has rated eight ""new generation"" or CMBS 2.0 conduit deals, and the company says contrary to some market reports, current underwriting is vastly improved compared to four years ago. As the credit cycle continues, however, the ratings agency expects the leverage of the loans in transactions to increase.

An estimated 210,000 homeowners received permanent, proprietary loan modifications from mortgage servicers during the first quarter of 2011, according to data released by HOPE NOW Monday. That's down nearly 20 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, and 40 percent fewer than the third quarter of 2010. While the quarterly totals indicate a significant slide in modification activity, servicers reported an uptick during March, but HOPE NOW's data also show an increase in foreclosure activity for the month.

MERSCORP, Inc., which operates the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) database, has appointed mortgage industry veteran Bill Beckmann as president and CEO. Beckmann was formerly chairman and CEO of CitiMortgage, Inc. He replaces R.K. Arnold, who resigned as MERS' president and CEO in January.

The research firm and ratings agency DBRS says it has learned from various servicers that although Congress never authorized bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences, these ""cram-downs,"" as they have been termed, are currently being performed in some courts. The agency's analysts say the amount of the cram-down varies by state, property value, and borrower situation but usually includes a reduction in the principal amount of the loan to fair market value.

Urban Lending Solutions Appraisals LLC (ULSA) recently licensed the use of new appraisal management software from FNC, a real estate information technology firm. ULSA is a subsidiary of Urban Lending Solutions, a provider of loan modification services, underwriting, valuations, and other real estate information solutions in the mortgage business.

Home sales in the Phoenix metro are heating up thanks to the popular foreclosure market, according to ForeclosureDeals.com. The site reports that there were more than 10,000 home sales in the Phoenix area in March with nearly 1,500 of those sales foreclosure homes. The company says foreclosure properties there offer discounts from traditional home prices as high as 50 percent or more, making them popular with buyers. Lenders also report higher than normal turnout at foreclosure sales and auctions in Arizona as a whole.

State and federal banking regulators shut down five institutions over the weekend - two in Georgia, two in Florida, and one in Michigan. This latest round of closings brings the number of bank failures to 34 for the 2011 calendar year. The largest of the closings was the Park Avenue Bank in Valdosta, Georgia, with $953.3 million in assets.

The research firm Delta Associates says distress in the commercial sector is maintaining its plateau. The company's analysts report that despite a $5 billion increase in the volume of commercial properties in foreclosure and lender REO over the last two months, the level of distress has remained in the $175 billion to $190 billion range since the spring of last year. They warn that the months ahead, though, could test the staying power of the stabilization seen thus far.