Servicing

The search for ways to reinvent collateral risk management, avoid long property vacancies and preservation costs keeps leading the industry into the path of preventive strategies.

Home price improvements which first generated hope that the mortgage market had started to head out of the crisis are once again indicating a status quo or dubious overall recovery with few exceptions.

Pessimists may not prevail, yet fear of a double-dip recession persists among homeowners and industry insiders despite the economic benefits generated by government assistance programs.

Almost 14% of loan modifications completed in the first quarter of 2010 involved principal reductions of at least 10%, according to the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group.

Fannie Mae is opening an office in Chicago this week to provide hands-on assistance to borrowers who are at risk of losing their homes.

DRI Management Systems, a Newport, Calif.-based default management software provider, has launched a new web-based loan servicing application called Rincon.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is expected to take final bids on the $23 billion AmTrust servicing portfolio next week with a sale coming by the end of September, according to investment bankers familiar with the offering.

Sales of single-family existing homes plummeted 27% in July from the previous month as the expiration of homebuyer tax credit sucked all the oxygen out of the market. The sales reading was the worst in 15 years.

California's Realtors have called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign legislation that extends -- in a narrowed manner -- the state's protections against deficiency judgments to homeowners who have refinanced their properties.

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 may not live on as a day of infamy in U.S. History. But it is destined to do so in the annals of South Florida real estate. That's the day lenders passed the 100,000 foreclosure threshold in the tri-county region.