Servicing

It may not be clear when the private-label securitized market will come back, but the developments that will likely shape it are coming into focus: the government-sponsored enterprises and the pending qualified residential mortgage definition/risk retention regulation.

Fannie Mae held 86,155 foreclosed properties on its books at the end of September, while its sister company, Freddie Mac, held slightly less: 74,897.

LRES Corp. is using DepotPoint’s TrackPoint REO technology, a workflow and tracking system that manages the REO process by guiding its users through transactions with the fewest required tasks.

Over the past three years the sale of bulk servicing rights has been anemic, that is, unless Uncle Sam (namely the FDIC) has been the one doing the selling.

The crisis has turned field service providers—often called the servicers’ boots on the ground—into a primary liaison that is helping improve a crucial dialogue between the servicing industry, local code enforcement officials and foreclosure prevention entities nationwide.

New York Life Insurance Co., TIAA-CREF, the French bank Dexia and other institutional investors joined the list of bondholders seeking compensation from Bank of America Corp. over MBS losses they suffered from buying nonprime bonds from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Home prices fell another 1% in November and values are just 3.2 percentage points above their April 2009 low, a sign that a double dip recession is in store for the nation's housing stock, according to figures compiled by Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller.

The Treasury Department on Monday confirmed what most mortgage lobbyists have been anticipating for months — that the White House's long-awaited report on restructuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and the U.S. housing finance system in general) will be delayed until mid-February.

Investors, as well as issuers of mortgage-backed securities with government guarantees, should take a hit if the underlying loans go bad, according to former GSE regulator James Lockhart.

It’s said that Texas is weathering the recession better than most states. Though it does have a big state budget crisis like many other states do now, the state of its mortgage banking industry is better than most.