Servicing

The moribund mortgage insurance business of Old Republic International Corp., Chicago, lost $238 million on a pretax basis in the third quarter, driving the parent company to a $117 million net loss for the period.

Viewpoint Bank, Plano, Texas, ended the third quarter with $910 million of warehouse lending commitments on its books, a handsome 26% gain compared to the same period a year ago.

Rep. Scott Garrett unveiled a reform plan on Thursday designed to draw the private sector back to the secondary-mortgage market after troubled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are eventually terminated.

Bank of America is working "very hard" on a short sale-to-lease program for distressed borrowers who don't qualify for government-backed refinance programs.

The nation's second largest title insurer, First American Financial Corp., earned $21 million in the third quarter, a 36% decline compared to the same period a year ago as revenues fell 3% due to a decline in title premiums.

During the first nine months of the year Fannie Mae issued $16.7 billion of multifamily MBS, already surpassing its volume for all of last year.

The Federal Housing Administration endorsed $217.8 billion of 'forward' single-family loans in fiscal year 2011, down 27% from the previous year, according to new figures released by HUD.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is on a shopping spree, and it's not planning to stop anytime soon.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Thursday morning released new estimates on the ultimate cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cutting its worst case scenario projection to $311 billion from $363 billion.

The climb out of the real estate depression will be a long, slow one for all but one market sector: apartments, according to the annual Emerging Trends outlook report.