Servicing

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.

When a potential homebuyer is looking for a house, many variables are taken into account, but generally “location, location, location” are the top three. This becomes an especially important consideration if the family involved has children who will be attending public school.

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

All of the 12 national banks under regulatory orders to correct their servicing and foreclosure procedures are making progress in that regard, according to an interim report released Tuesday by the Comptroller of the Currency.

Carrington Mortgage Services, Santa Ana, Calif., this week announced that it has hired Brad Nease as senior vice president in charge of capital markets.

Lennar Corp. is proposing to sell $300 million in debt, and possible uses of the proceeds include purchasing distressed portfolios of mortgage loans and foreclosed real estate.

For the second straight week, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has terminated more alleged fraudulent online mortgage modification scams that prey on vulnerable homeowners.

Technology vendor a la mode said its connection to the GSEs' new appraisal delivery portal has passed testing and is now operational, submitting appraisals to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal, or UCDP.

Bank of America Corp.'s board has been told the company could face a public enforcement action if banking regulators aren't satisfied with recent steps taken to strengthen the bank, according to a report by Dow Jones.

Nevada didn't explicitly forbid Bank of America Corp. from initiating new foreclosures within its borders last month. But it might as well have done so.