News

Safeguard Properties recently teamed with default servicing veteran Brandon Kirkham to launch Texas-based Compliance Connections. The newly formed company provides technology-assisted solutions and fulfillment services in the areas of code violation and compliance. Kirkham will serve as president of the new company.

REO Maestro has changed its corporate brand to Realis Real Estate Software. REO Maestro will remain the product name of the company's flagship workflow management tool, which has been utilized by agents and brokers specializing in REO properties for the last decade. With rising demand from its customers, Realis is also expanding its product portfolio with the release of Prelude, a tool tailored specifically for short sales and scheduled for release in spring 2011.

Industry data released Thursday show that interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages moved up this week, while adjustable-rate mortgages dipped lower. Freddie Mac puts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at an average of 4.74 percent. The 15-year rate, on the other hand, headed down with adjustable rates. Analysts say the gap between fixed and adjustable rates has grown significantly in the last six months, making some of the hybrid adjustable rate products a compelling option for certain borrowers.

As of the end of December, 6.87 million mortgages in the United States were delinquent or in the process of foreclosure, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). The company's data show that while the nation's volume of non-current home loans remains elevated, it's been steadily declining for several months now. LPS reported that 6.92 million mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of November, and in October, it was just above 7 million.

Experian announced this week that it will incorporate positive rental data into the traditional credit file in an effort to help underbanked consumers build credit. According to the FDIC Web site, an estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked. Experian says having positive rental history reflected in their credit scores will help consumers who may have faced financial hardships such as foreclosure or bankruptcy rebuild their credit.

Michigan-based VanDyk Mortgage Corporation has selected the G/SERV platform from GCC Servicing Systems, a provider of mortgage servicing technology and solutions, to fulfill the mortgage banker's loan servicing needs. VanDyk, which has closed more than $5 billion in mortgage loans since 1987, selected GCC based on a referral from a fellow lender and the company's expertise with Fannie Mae loans. In 2010, that lender increased its servicing volume by 75 percent.

The unemployment rate, while still languishing at a discouraging 9.4 percent, has seen improvement in recent months that is encouraging for many sectors of the industry. The rating agency DBRS says layoffs and discharges in the private job sector have stayed down, helping to reduce early delinquencies in consumer and mortgage credit. This, coupled with government-sponsored programs aiming to help homeowners out of work, paints a tentatively positive picture for the recovery.

Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), a national nonprofit organization that connects community development lenders with the capital resources of Wall Street, has received a $500,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. The contribution will go toward expanding CRF's organizational capacity to service a higher volume of affordable housing loans associated with foreclosure remediation programs.

According to the Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data, the number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts jumped almost 32 percent in 2010 to 12,233, up from 9,269 in 2009. However, it did not surpass the record 12,430 foreclosures in 2008. The company says the one bright spot in the state's annual data is that fewer people entered the foreclosure process compared to a year earlier, despite a slumping economy and high unemployment.

Sales of previously owned homes surged 12.3 percent in December, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales have increased five of the last six months and have now hit a seven-month high, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million units. That's up from a rate of 4.70 million in November, but remains 2.9 percent below the 5.44 million pace in December 2009. Distressed homes accounted for 36 percent of December's sales.