Servicing

The perception of a strengthening economy was the catalyst behind the increase in rates for the 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgage this week, according to the most recent Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Ally Financial Inc., which controls the nation's fifth largest mortgage banking firm, plans to go public this year and is interviewing investment bankers for its initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Despite declines in the hardest hit areas, according to the RealtyTrac 2010 Year-End Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, foreclosure activity increased from 2009. And the main culprit is continued high unemployment.

Flagstar Bancorp had a good fourth quarter, according to the analysts at FBR Capital Markets, “considering the drastic strategic actions the company had to take.”

Thrift industry veteran George Engelke announced that he will step down as CEO of Astoria Financial Corp., a top ranked residential and multifamily lender in the New York area, but will remain as chairman of the company. His departure date is July 1.

Mountain Real Estate Capital, based in Charlotte, N.C., acquired the TidalWalk seaside community on the southern coast of downtown Wilmington as REO from a consortium of lenders led by Southern Community Bank.

On behalf of the Wextrust Receivership, which was charged in September 2008 with fraud for operating a Ponzi-like scheme, Hilco Real Estate LLC and Badger Real Estate Advisors LLC sold their fifth property at the end of last year.

Field Asset Services, a property preservation firm based in Austin, Texas, revealed in an independent study that remodeled foreclosed properties spend less days on the market than homes which receive no rehabilitation.

Tight credit conditions, higher mortgage rates, and a big drop in refinancings will push residential originations below $1 trillion this year to levels not seen since 2000, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In the first full year of operation under New York Community Bank ownership, the former AmTrust residential mortgage banking platform produced $10.8 billion in loans in 2010, with $3.8 billion coming in the fourth quarter.