Servicing

HomePath, Fannie Mae’s real estate owned sales division, launched a new feature on its website to allow real estate agents to submit offers for properties listed for sale, receive confirmations and track the status of submitted offers, all over the Internet.

Moody's Investors Service Tuesday afternoon downgraded its ratings on 272 tranches of payment option ARM MBS issued by Countrywide Financial Corp. In total, $19.1 billion of securities are affected.

Virtual staff and online offices that build business connections through the cloud are a staple of the modern marketplace. The lure is in the real and imagined cost savings, which some management consultants say will be there only if things are done right.The urge to handle mortgage servicing capacity shortages is pushing many lenders and servicers to use or at least consider either third-party service providers or new locally based virtual staff.

A higher level of consistency in quarter-to-quarter and month-to-month improvements in the delinquency rate indicate that despite the crippling unemployment, ongoing volatility in housing prices and shadow inventory issues, the overall picture of the housing market in the short to midterm is getting clearer.Recent industry data reaffirm that while on its way, the long-expected move towards a housing recovery still hangs by a string.

The multitude of market data and outlooks is encouraging a few relatively optimistic outlooks into the future of the housing market.Chicago’s TransUnion presented a relatively optimistic forecast based on the economic assumption that both real estate values and the employment rate will “improve gradually.”

When Bank of America said it was exiting the wholesale channel in early October, all looked bleak for loan brokers, which depend on such firms. After all, if the nation's No. 3 ranked table funder is getting out, that's not a good sign, or so went the conventional thinking.

Mortgage bankers issued $35.5 billion of Ginnie Mae-backed MBS in October, a 5% jump from September. Single-family issuance totaled $34.2 billion with multifamily MBS accounting for $1.3 billion.

Residential servicers could reach more troubled borrowers and improve their loan modification efforts if they relied more heavily on housing counselors, according to NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit.

Greg Ousley wants to be a chaperone of sorts for the secondary mortgage market. The chief executive of Global Debt Registry says his company's system, which was designed to track ownership of delinquent credit card debts, can improve upon the widely used Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

The Oregon attorney general has filed a lawsuit accusing American Team Mortgage, Mission Viejo, for repeatedly violating the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act and Mortgage Rescue Fraud Protection Act.