News

The House Financial Services' housing subcommittee held a formal hearing this week on the administration's new initiatives to provide help to underwater and unemployed homeowners through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Most of the industry participants testifying on Capitol Hill applauded the Treasury's efforts to tackle these foreclosure triggers, but there are some who are questioning the logistics and the true effectiveness of the new program enhancements.

Effective April 19, 2010, Anthony Tony Renzi will assume the role of EVP of single family portfolio management at Freddie Mac, the McLean, Virginia-based company announced Thursday. In this newly-created position, Renzi will be responsible for managing and minimizing the losses on Freddie Mac's $1.8 trillion single-family guaranteed portfolio and will oversee Freddie Mac's loss mitigation activities.

HOPE LoanPort, the new Web-based housing counselor tool that streamlines the submission of completed loan modification applications, has inked commitments from Bayview Loan Servicing and Ocwen Loan Servicing.

ServiceLink, a provider of origination and default services and Fidelity National Financial's national lending platform, announced Thursday the opening of one new office in Rancho Cucamonga, California and the expansion of an existing operation in Buffalo, New York. Both are in support of the company's growing loss mitigation operations, ServiceLink explained.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, a real estate company headquartered in Pittsburgh, recently joined the Zillow Listings Feed Program. This partnership enables Howard Hanna to automatically feed all of its 21,000 for-sale listings to the Zillow Web site, which will improve the real estate search experience for Zillow users in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and New York.

Wells Fargo & Co. said it initiated or completed three modifications for every one foreclosure sale on owner-occupied properties from October 2009 through March 2010. As of March 31, the lender had 523,336 active trial and completed modifications through its own modification programs and the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

The U.S. economy is continuing to show signs of recovery, according to the Federal Reserve Beige Book published this week. Based on information collected across the country from businesses and contacts outside the Fed, residential real estate activity has begun to pick up speed, with sales increasing and prices holding steady. The snapshot of commercial real estate, on the other hand, was a bit more dismal, described by the central bank as ""weak"" throughout the nation.

In a glimmer of hope for the commercial real estate market, the office sector may be nearing stabilization, according to the First Quarter 2010 National Office Trends Report released Wednesday by Cassidy Turley, a St. Louis-based commercial real estate service provider.

The conclusion of the Federal Reserve's mortgage purchase program had many worried that mortgage rates would jump to sky-high levels. And the uninterrupted increase in rates during the weeks following the sunset of the program just added fuel to that fire. However, in a turn of events, mortgage rates retreated for the week ending April 15, 2010, Freddie Mac and Bankrate reported Thursday.

RealtyTrac reported Thursday that foreclosure filings were brought against nearly one million properties during the first three months of 2010. That's a seven percent increase from the previous quarter, and equates to one in every 138 homes in the United States. RealtyTrac noted, though, that bank repossessions were the highest the company has every documented - perhaps evidence that lenders are starting to make a dent in the backlog of distressed inventory that has built up over the last year.