Amilda Dymi

Awareness to the negative equity problem faced by millions of borrowers and their lenders continues to concern market insiders as they strive to come up with solutions that can help ease the setback. It is the goal of the new Home Affordable Refinance Program and some insurers whose products offer some degree of protection as an added incentive to homeowners interested in refinancing or taking on a new mortgage.

Weak overall improvements in the delinquency and foreclosure rate during the third quarter point to weak near-future improvement expectations.

Despite the slow economic recovery and challenges that range from federal regulations to hiring and sustaining qualified staff, the glass is half full for up to 70% of the small business owners, including special servicers, real estate brokers and mortgage technology vendors surveyed by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.

TransUnion data show a trend of progressive, six-quarter improvement in the performance of borrowers 60 days or more past due reversed in the third quarter, increasing the national mortgage delinquency rate from 5.82% in the previous quarter to 5.88%.

TransUnion data show a trend of progressive, six-quarter improvement in the performance of borrowers 60 days or more past due reversed in the third quarter, increasing the national mortgage delinquency rate from 5.82% in the previous quarter to 5.88%.

Whether users call it a one-stop shop, bounded services or component servicing, vendors are racing to leverage easy-to-use technology that can be constantly updated with new tools capable to help manage the mortgage servicing process and enhance the resale value of distressed properties.

Foreclosure start rates on securitized, severely delinquent residential mortgage loans increased to over 10% a month and closer to historical averages, according to the latest RMBS Performance Metrics report from Fitch Ratings.

The Occupy Wall Street movement may still be amorphous, but it is making clear that awareness about lack of basic understanding of the financial markets and homeownership is proliferating education efforts most likely to prevail for years to come and regardless of the outcome of the movement it helped set off.

Statistics have long shown a personal financial crisis may lead to depression that breaks families apart. Add to that mortgage default, foreclosure and the so-called midlife crisis known to affect many people over 50 years old, and a new problem emerges. New data are linking mortgage default to “substantially increased risk” of depression among this particular group of homeowners.

Changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program fashioned as “penalties may work better than incentives” may soar current demand for third-party component servicing, which insiders say is shaping “the new tomorrow” of the mortgage servicing process.

A $70-million lawsuit against Bank of America and one of its executives in Florida illustrates how negligence and mortgage banking procedure oversight complaints can lead to a very costly chain of litigation action.

Annual sales of existing homes and condos in Florida increased 10% in September indicating an upswing trend that started to become apparent in January may continue.

After a long drought of mergers and acquisitions activity, the market for, among others, private-mortgage companies, is showing signs of life and recovery. If you own, operate or advise a middle-market company, $5 million to $500 million in revenue, what does this mean for you and your clients when thinking about shareholder liquidity or selling the business? And how can you improve the odds of getting a deal done?

Mortgage banks may soon focus more on a minority borrower group they may have overlooked. A recent study found Chinese-Americans hold almost no consumer debt outside of typical mortgage loans, indicating these borrowers are a mortgage lender/servicer’s dream customer.

A new collaboration between FICO and CoreLogic, two of the nation’s largest risk scoring data providers, plans to upgrade existing mortgage credit risk scoring models and consequently pave the way for broader access to multiscore rating benchmarks.

Putting together all the pieces of a total-360 mortgage data verification tool is like the race to the moon where everyone wants to win, including Equifax, says the firm’s senior vice president of mortgage services Michael Kuentz.

A seemingly optimistic survey showing 68% of all respondents, or seven out of 10 homeowners and six out of 10 renters, agree it is a good or very good time to buy a house does not mean much for the housing market recovery—at least for the present.

Following federal and state level debates over mortgage debt management solutions one municipality is looking at internal operations and data to identify ways to reduce debt.

Renting to mitigate foreclosure losses is emerging as a work-intensive, yet effective solution for owners of foreclosed homes when delivered by one-stop-shop third-party servicers who offer personalized workouts.

In only a few years mandatory homeownership counseling before being approved for a loan modification or mortgage has become the new norm in mortgage origination and servicing. Starting this fall New Yorkers can add housing repair skills counseling and hands-on training to the list of things they may want to learn before or after deciding to own a house.