News

Mariner Real Estate Management has announced the purchase of a portfolio of approximately 1,100 residential and commercial loans from 20 failed banks. The real estate investment and management firm conducted the $760 million transaction with the FDIC. Mariner paid about $52 million for a 40 percent managing member interest in the limited liability company created by the FDIC to hold all the loans and REO assets.

Rock-bottom interest rates and less-than-encouraging economic data have kept mortgage-backed securities (MBS) investors worried about what the government could do next to prop up the ailing housing market, with the latest concern stemming from a recent announcement by Freddie Mac, according to Barclays Capital. The GSE has issued a new servicing guide detailing an ""easy refinance"" option with loan-to-value ratios up to 95 percent and $2,000 cash back to the borrower. Barclays says the program ""is everything but new.""

The delinquency rate for real estate loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) accelerated in August after two successive months in which delinquency increases had moderated, according to Trepp LLC. Overall, the percentage of loans 30 or more days delinquent, in foreclosure, or REO, jumped 21 basis points last month, putting the overall delinquency rate at 8.92 percent. The analysts at Trepp say the August numbers ""may give ammunition to those who argue that the commercial real estate crisis is far from over.""

According to a report from the American Land Title Association (ALTA), title insurance premiums written during the second quarter of 2010 decreased 8.5 percent to an industry total of $2.3 billion. That's down from $2.5 billion in Q2 2009. The industry reported $4.4 billion in title insurance in the first half of 2010, a decline of 2.9 percent from the period a year prior. ALTA says the numbers reflect an on-going recession in the housing market with further downward pressure on home prices.

Ocwen Financial Services closed its purchase of HomEq Servicing last week. The $1.3 billion deal with HomEq parent Barclays Bank was initially announced in May. The transaction aligns two of the foremost names in the business of servicing distressed mortgages. As part of an organizational restructuring, Ocwen says it will close down two HomEq offices in California and North Carolina, and lay off more than 1,000 HomEq staff members.

That ominous shadow inventory of distressed homes that's been hanging over the industry was trimmed in July, according to Barclays Capital. It marked the fifth straight month the company has recorded a decline in the shadow supply. Barclays says it shrank 1.2 percent, to 3.92 million homes. At the same time, the firm's assessment of the nation's REO inventory ticked up 0.2 percent to 538,000 properties. The distressed share of home sales rose sharply in July, and Barclays says this will likely drive prices down 2 percent over the next three months.

The three versions of the homebuyer tax credit are expected to result in revenue losses to the federal government of about $22 billion, according to estimates just released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Looking at Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings through July 3, homebuyers so far have claimed $23.5 billion under the housing stimulus provisions, about a third of which was in the form of interest-free loans that will eventually have to be repaid. California ranks first among the states, with the most homebuyer tax credit dollars claimed.

A faction of House Democrats have called on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Fannie Mae's regulator to suspend the GSE's recently announced policy to sue homeowners who strategically default on their mortgage. The group of lawmakers, led by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, called the policy ""opaque, overbroad, and punitive."" They decried Fannie for using taxpayer dollars to penalize underwater homeowners, and maintained that the policy runs counter to the national need to stem a devastating tide of foreclosures.

After falling for five straight months, the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) delinquency rate held steady in July at 8.3 percent. At the beginning of 2010, the rate stood at 9.4 percent. HUD also issued guidelines for FHA's new insurance premium structure, which takes effect next month. The annual premium will increase from 0.55 percent to between 0.85 percent and 0.90 percent of the loan amount. At the same time, though, the upfront premium has been reduced by 100 basis points from the current 2.25 percent.

The Office of the Wayne County Treasurer in Michigan will conduct its first Internet auction of more than 13,000 tax foreclosed properties September 17-23. Bid4Assets.com will perform the online auction. The auctioned properties represent a 44 percent increase over the number of properties seized by the county in 2009, making it the largest auction ever for Wayne County.