June 19, 2013
- Dykema, a leading national law firm, announced that Luke Sosnicki has joined its Los Angeles office as senior counsel.
- Double-digit price increases in some markets hard-hit by the housing crisis prompt the question, are we experiencing another housing bubble? While several factors are combining to push prices up right now, CoreLogic analysts say we are not headed into anther bubble. During the bubble leading to the recent housing crisis, real home prices increased 62 percent. When the bubble burst, prices fell 47 percent, according to CoreLogic.
- With a somewhat upbeat assessment of the economy, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said Wednesday it would continue its policy of near-zero interest rates and its $85-billion-per-month bond-buying program. In the statement issued at the conclusion of its two-day meeting, the committee said it "sees the downside risks to the outlook for the economy and the labor market as having diminished since the fall," a more optimistic assessment than May 1 when the Committee said it "continues to...
- After staging a turnaround last year, the housing market is continuing on the road to stabilization in 2013, RE/MAX said in its National Housing Report for May. Of the 52 metros surveyed last month, 45 reported higher sales than May 2012, with 30 posting double-digit gains. For all homes sold in May, the median price was $185,000, a 4.2 percent gain over April and a 10.8 percent increase over May 2012. Reduced inventory continues to be a concern, however, though recent monthly changes have been...
- St. Louis County in Minnesota shed the traditional method of paper-based recording to adopt e-recording through Simplifile.
- PennyMac Financial Servicers Inc. is implementing a web-based solution from Quandis Inc. to make the short sale process more efficient.
- After testing compliance among the five servicers part of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, monitor Joseph A. Smith concluded more works needs to be done since issues with the loan modification process, providing a single point of contact, and customer records still persist. Under the settlement, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial agreed to adopt some 300 servicing standards. To test compliance with the servicing standards, the monitor retained...
June 18, 2013
- Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) and reverse mortgages, tools to which many seniors turn to help manage expenses in their later years, can be challenging products to navigate, according to testimonies delivered during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday morning. While the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers changes to the HECM program, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing to determine the best path forward for the program.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to grow its staff in order to meet its strategic goals and stay in compliance with its mandate to protect consumers, according to a written testimony from Stephen Agostini, CFO at the bureau. Agostini, who gave testimony before the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday, stated that over the next two fiscal years, CFPB expects its staff to increase from 1,214 employees in the Fiscal Year 2013 to 1,545 employees in 2014.
- ServiceLink, an end-to-end origination, servicing and default solutions provider for mortgage lenders and servicers, introduced a program to monitor and manage data from the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS).
- Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding decreased for the first time in five quarters during the first quarter of this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The 0.2 percent decline, which translated to $4.9 billion, left the nation's total commercial and multifamily mortgage debt at $2.41 trillion at the end of the quarter.
- Ultra-low mortgage rates may be stimulating buyer demand, but the recent upward movement in rates is not enough to make housing unaffordable to median income earners, according to Freddie Mac's economic and housing outlook for June. In fact, Freddie Mac's analysis showed mortgage rates would have to climb to nearly 7 percent before a median-priced home is no longer affordable to median income earners in most parts of the country. In fact, Freddie Mac's analysis showed mortgage rates would have...
- From new regulations to increasing fines, financial institutions--both large and small--reported feeling more squeezed by compliance and risk management pressures since the start of the year, according to survey results from Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. In January, the Indicator began with a baseline score of 100 after the company surveyed 400 banks and credit unions. After surveying 430 similar institutions in April, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services reported a score of 136.
- One day after the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported the sharpest boost in builder confidence in seven years, the Census Bureau and HUD reported single-family starts were essentially flat in May, increasing just 0.3 percent. The Census/HUD report Tuesday showed total starts improved 6.8 percent in May, while total permits fell 3.1 percent.
June 17, 2013
- Firefly Legal, a nationwide civil process service company, announced Randy Mucha, the company's civil process supervisor, was named treasurer of the Illinois Association of Professional Process Servers (ILAPPS).
- The steady influx of out-of-state transplants, along with stronger than average employment growth, should keep the housing and apartment sectors in Texas strong, a report from the Dallas Federal Reserve concluded. Using data from the Census Bureau, the report authors D'Ann Petersen and Christina Daly pointed out that Texas is the No. 1 state for domestic in-migration. From July 2011 to July 2012, the Long Star state saw a net 140,888 new arrivals when excluding births or international migration.
- Gains in home prices and sales surged in May, while inventory increased for the second straight month, according to Redfin. In May, home prices surged 17.4 percent year-over-year, while prices in all 19 markets tracked showed yearly gains. At the same time, home sales climbed by 15.8 percent from April to May, reaching their highest level since January 2010. Although for-sale housing inventory decreased 21.9 percent year-over-year, Redfin reported inventory inched up by 4.3 percent from April...
- As the industry continues to adapt to new regulations and best practices, electronic recording--eRecording--is taking hold as a way to streamline the records process and free up resources at lending and servicing offices, according to Palm Harbor, Florida-based Nationwide Title Clearing, Inc. The volume of documents recorded electronically by NTC over the past year has grown from 10 percent to 45 percent. According to NTC, 840 jurisdictions have approved eRecording for mortgage documents thus...
- For homeowners facing a financial hardship, sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what options might be available. To help homeowners get a better idea of what is out there, Freddie Mac released the Mortgage Help Navigator, a new online tool that assists homeowners with finding out what relief options might be applicable for them in their specific situation.
- The risk of default for more recently originated mortgages is close to levels seen seen 10 years ago, according to the findings from the University Financial Associates (UFA) of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the second quarter of this year, the UFA Default Risk Index stood at 106, up from 97 in the previous quarter. Between 2006-2008, the index peaked well above 200. "These readings on the Index are the lowest in almost 10 years, but we may not be able to declare the mortgage crisis over yet," said...
- Builder confidence surged eight points in June to 52, its highest reading since March 2006, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported Monday. It was the first positive (above 50) reading for the association’s Housing Market Index (HMI) since April 2006. Two of the three components of the index--builder assessment of current sales and of sales six months in the future--were also positive. The current sales index rose eight points to 56, and the future sales index jumped nine...
June 14, 2013
- Wells Fargo's Home Rebate Card has allowed its mortgage customers to pay down a total of $50 million from their loan balances so far.
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced more than 2.7 million foreclosure review checks have been cashed or deposited as of June 13. The cashed checks are valued at $2.4 billion and are part of a foreclosure review settlement reached between federal regulators and 13 servicers.
- In a newly published paper posted on the New York Federal Reserve website, Robert Hockett, a Cornell University professor of financial and monetary law, proposes using government's eminent domain authority as a solution to underwater mortgage debt. In reviewing Hockett's suggestion, the Wall Street Journal concentrated not on the idea itself, but on the fact that Hockett "turns out to have been on the payroll of none other than Mortgage Resolution Partners." There may be a lot of good reasons...
- In May, the median price for a home in California rose year-over-year for the 15th straight month, climbing to highest level since April 2008, DataQuick reported. At $340,000, the median price was up 4.9 percent from April and up 25.9 percent from May 2012.