News

Bolstered by low interest rates and the homebuyer tax credit, the Illinois housing market continued to stabilize in the first quarter of 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR). On a year-over-year basis, first quarter home sales were up in 54 of 99 Illinois counties. And 43 of 99 counties across the state posted median price increases from last year.

In a 56 to 43 vote, Democratic senators have defeated an amendment to the financial reform package that would have set a finite end date for taxpayers' support of the GSEs and laid out a 15-year plan for the companies' ultimate dissolution. Some critics have called the GSEs' bailout ""the biggest financial scandal in the United States."" But at the same time, many find it hard to deny that it's Fannie and Freddie's support that's keeping the wheels of the nation's battered housing market turning.

HOPE LoanPort announced Wednesday that Citi has committed to use its proprietary technology to assist troubled homeowners. HOPE LoanPort is a new web-based housing counselor tool developed by the HOPE NOW Alliance that streamlines the submission of completed loan modification applications.

Marking a 10 percent increase from April, 22 percent of listings on the market as of May 1, 2010 experienced at least one price reduction, San Francisco-based Trulia reported Wednesday. According to Trulia, the total dollar amount slashed from home prices was $25 billion, and the average discount for price-reduced homes continued to hold steady at 10 percent off the original listing price.

Global Financial Review, Inc. has been approved by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services as a third-party due diligence provider for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The company says its expertise in the review of non-performing mortgage loan pools contributed greatly to its continued success during this historic downturn of the residential mortgage market.

Treasury has issued a new servicer document outlining its payment relief program for homeowners who have lost their jobs. The program, initially announced by the administration in March, becomes effective July 1, 2010, and offers eligible unemployed borrowers a forbearance plan to temporarily reduce or suspend their mortgage payments for at least three months. Interestingly enough, the government program does not apply to government-backed loans, such as those guaranteed by the GSEs.

With delinquency rates at sky-high levels, servicers and counselors continue to be inundated with requests from homeowners for loan modifications. As a result of these high demands, industry leaders have realized that new tools are needed to collect complete information from homeowners more efficiently and to develop better communication between servicers and counseling professionals. Freddie Mac recently released a report highlighting two Web-based communication tools that are doing just that.

Underperforming properties in states with weak economies led to another increase in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) delinquencies in April. Both Fitch and Moody's put the CMBS delinquency rate above 7 percent, but interestingly enough, they have different takes on the pace of the increase. Fitch says April's climb represents a slowdown thanks to special servicers stepping up loan resolutions. Moody's says the April increase in the second biggest jump it has ever recorded.

Despite a plunge in purchase applications in the days following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, total mortgage application volume inched up 3.9 percent for the week ending May 7, 2009, due to a surge in refinance applications, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday. Accordindg to MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, the purchase index tumbled 9.5 percent from the week prior, but the refinance index soared 14.8 percent.

Stewart Lender Services (SLS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Stewart Title Company, announced Tuesday that during the past year it has processed more than 725,000 distressed mortgage loans and generated more than 1 million lines of outreach to delinquent borrowers. This, the company said, proves that SLS is a strong, stable, and large-scale provider of loss mitigation services for mortgage lenders and servicers.