Servicing

Never have more partners than you can fit in an elevator. It’s a comment that seems like a joke but is deadly serious when you’re starting a business.Too many partners will create conflicts you don’t need. Even the most bonded of partnerships will fray under the pressure of competing interests. While it is important to have partners who each bring skills to the table, these choices must be made carefully and with an eye toward keeping the group a manageable size.

As the global economy continues to tighten, most businesses appreciate they won’t get different results by doing things the same way. But much of the science for growing in a recessionary market is counterintuitive, and managers whose hands were on the rudder in previous downturns are no longer in the workplace. Few of today’s executives therefore have ever faced this kind of storm in their career.It’s a situation primed for old mistakes to be made all over again.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it is awarding more than 500 housing counseling organizations with $73 million in grants for 2011, up 22% from this year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency finalized three rules on Wednesday, including one that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the size of their portfolios.

New home sales rose 5.5% in November after a 10% slide in October that took sales down to record lows for the building industry.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded $1.7 billion in Washington Mutual-issued securities backed by first-lien, alternative-A credit, payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages with negative amortization.

Refinancing activity pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's issuance of mortgage-backed securities in November to the highest levels since the summer of 2009, according to the monthly activity reports the GSEs released Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON — Residential foreclosures have been rising for the past six months and will continue to accelerate in 2011, according to analysts at CoreLogic.

Distressed sales contributed to a 9.2% month-to-month climb in California’s resales of detached single-family homes as the median price dropped below the $300,000 mark for the first time since February.

The government's Home Affordable Modification Program finally gained momentum in November with servicers completing 30,000 permanent loan restructurings, a 15% rise from October.