News

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has sided with consumer advocacy groups that say private transfer fee covenants, also referred to as Wall Street home resale fees, place a hidden financial burden on homebuyers and home sellers. FHFA sent a proposed rule to the Federal Register this week, which would limit Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks from dealing in mortgages on properties the federal agency describes as ""encumbered"" by certain types of private transfer fee covenants.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC, a specialty and component mortgage servicer focusing on highly delinquent loans, is expanding its partnership with technology developer IndiSoft. Wingspan will use additional RxOffice portals from IndiSoft to explore foreclosure alternatives, such as short sales, for homeowners who do not qualify for loan modifications or are unable to retain their homes.

Atlanta-based Johnson & Freedman, LLC, a member of the Fannie Mae Retained Attorney Network and Freddie Mac Designated Counsel Program, recently promoted January N. Taylor to partner. As a foreclosure attorney, Taylor manages the foreclosure processes for Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia. She also manages the firm's title department, which supports foreclosure, bankruptcy, REO, and litigation in reviewing and clearing title issues.

This week, mortgage rates showed mixed results, according to a study released by Freddie Mac, which is compiled using data gathered from around 125 lenders across the country. Mortgage rate data released this same week from Bankrate, shows more steady rates, using data from the top 10 banks and thrifts in the top 10 U.S. markets.

Clear Capital has released new home price data, with an encouraging, albeit cautious, analysis. The company reports that through the end of January, national home prices are down 1.6 percent on a rolling quarter-over-quarter basis. But despite the negative quarterly price change, Clear Capital says U.S. home prices stopped declining in early January and have posted their first uptick since mid-August 2010. The company says the likely explanation for the sudden increase is the slowing of the rate of REO sales.

The delinquency rate on loans held in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) rose again in January to hit its highest reading in history, despite new issuance and falling spreads, according to Trepp, LLC. The New York-based firm closely tracks the CMBS and commercial mortgage market, and it found that the percentage of loans 30 or more days delinquent, in foreclosure, or REO climbed 14 basis points last month to 9.34 percent. The value of delinquent loans in commercial mortgage bonds now exceeds $61.4 billion.

Last year the Florida State Courts Administration asked its legislators for $9.6 million to try to clear its massive backlog of foreclosures. Since the courts received the money and began working through the backlog in July 2010, the state has cleared more than 110,000 foreclosures from its system. That, however, leaves more than 350,000 foreclosures to work through.

Though servicers seem to be having minimal success with the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), final 2010 data released by HOPE NOW shows that its members completed 1.24 million proprietary loan modifications last year. That number is more than double the 512,712 HAMP modifications completed by servicers last year. HOPE NOW's data show that there were 1.06 million foreclosure sales in 2010, compared to 1.76 million total loan modifications.

The Federal Reserve said this week that it ""does not expect"" to finalize three pending rule changes under TILA that would have mandated new consumer disclosure requirements for mortgage loans. The Fed began crafting the new regulations more than a year ago in response to claims that borrowers did not understand the terms of the loans they were signing. However, rulemaking authority for TILA and jurisdiction over consumer disclosures is scheduled to transfer to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within a few months.

According to Auction.com, a real estate marketing and disposition services site, 2010 was a record year. The site offered 35,350 foreclosed assets for $2.4 billion last year, numbers that lead the industry, the site's owner Real Estate Disposition Corp. (REDC) said in a statement. So far in 2011, Auction.com has auctioned 4,710 foreclosures for $258 million at 94 percent of reserve, according to the company.