News

Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) on Thursday, which showed interest rates on fixed-rate home loans and some adjustable-rate products eased this week. The GSE reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.

Maryland-based Aspen Grove’s Aspen iAgent technology has been approved as the default REO solution for Keller Williams Realty agents across the United States. Aspen iAgent allows real estate agents to manage REO properties, from assignment through closing, via a secure, Web-hosted application.

Lake Forest, California-based Retreat Capital Management, Inc., a third-party arbitration services company that specializes in bringing loans back to performing status and keeping borrowers in their homes, announced on Wednesday that it is collaborating with software provider Ellie Mae to provide lenders with loan modification services.

RealtyTrac released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for the first quarter of 2009 on Thursday, which showed that one in every 159 housing units in the nation received a foreclosure filing during the first three months of the year.

The Obama administration has released the names of the first six mortgage companies to officially ink their commitment to participate in the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HMP).

The Treasury Department released its February lending survey on Wednesday. The study covers the top 21 institutions who have received a government investment through the Capital Purchase Program (CAP).

The Virginia Legislature has passed House Bill 2150, which would allow lenders and servicers to register their foreclosed properties, for the purpose of property preservation tracking, with the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) instead of using individual municipal registration databases.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed lawsuits in Boone, Clark, Delaware, Grant, and Marion counties last week against five foreclosure consultant companies. The lawsuits filed cite violations of three state laws including the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, Credit Services Organizations Act, and the Mortgage Rescue Protection Fraud Act.

Foreclosure floodgates may soon give way as the nation’s leading mortgage lenders lift their recent foreclosure suspensions and move those borrowers that are ineligible for federal programs on through the property repossession process.

Melville, New York-based Lend America, a direct-to-consumer Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender, recently announced that it has raised its 2009 projection. Based on the company’s first quarter business, Lend America estimates that its servicing assets will surpass $1 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2009 and grow to over $2 billion by December 31, 2009, a 33 percent increase over the company’s previous forecast.