Servicing

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is charting the course for new regulation on qualified mortgages, the new QM rule. Their goal is to dissuade lenders from partaking of mortgage loan programs that involve undo risk taking by imposing more stringent underwriting principals to potential loan applicants, including requiring that borrowers show they have the ability to repay a loan.

What the heck ever happened to Uncle Sam’s subprime (real estate) lender, Springleaf Financial? Good question.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is calling for a merger of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s mortgage bonds both as a “first step” in transitioning into a single security.

The first bulk sale of 2,500 Fannie Mae REO properties will sell at a discount to single assets, but has the potential to drive prices up after the first $10 billion to $20 billion in foreclosed homes are sold to institutional investors and converted to rentals.

Demand, as a rule, leads to innovative business strategies. It is pressuring specialized vendors and other third-party servicers to strategize their business improvements so they can fill the gap created by the banks.

Insiders agree that certain types of solutions can serve as an antidote to the still pervasive mortgage loan repurchase challenge.

Mergers and partnerships are driving the special servicing market expansion as some servicers exit the market or sell their mortgage servicing rights and others get into the game through new alliances.

Nationstar, which recently sold stock to the public, is continuing negotiations to buy Residential Capital Corp./GMAC from Ally Financial through a prepackaged bankruptcy agreement.

Even though distressed sales and listings have been declining at a steady pace since late 2010, there is still a long road to recovery for the Florida housing market.

HARP 2.0 is hot – or so we keep hearing. Late last year the Treasury Department finally found the keys to the HARP kingdom: take the loan-to-value ratio girdle totally off the patient and see what happens.