Servicing

A joint venture program between Mountain Real Estate Capital and Harridge Development recently expanded with the acquisition of a bank-owned residential infill site in Los Angeles.

Only a single borrower is currently delinquent among the roughly 1,800 newly originated prime loans securitized in the handful of Sequoia/Redwood private-label residential mortgage-backed security deals seen since the start of 2010, according to a Fitch report Monday.

The Treasury Department is fighting back against critics of principal reduction who claim second lien holders will unfairly benefit from a reduction in the loan balances of underwater Fannie Mae/ Freddie Mac loans.

Residential servicers completed 20% fewer proprietary loan modifications in February than the month prior, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now servicing alliance.

Recent Federal Housing Finance Agency efforts to interest buyers in the foreclosure-to-rent market may be off to a good start with an unlikely type of investor even though it still is everyone's guess whether this management strategy will effectively ease off inventory pressures and speed up the recovery.

Fannie Mae purchased $62 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in February, its weakest monthly acquisition volume in four months.

One of the biggest challenges for lenders trying to unload distressed real estate is to do so without pushing prices even lower. Foreclosed homes already sell at steep discounts-sometimes trailing market values by as much as 30 percent.

If you're looking for the next megabank to exit the mortgage sector the most likely candidate would be Ally Financial, the government owned bank holding company that controls No. 5 ranked servicer GMAC Mortgage/Residential Capital Corp.

Private-label residential mortgage securitizations continue to be relatively scarce, but the market keeps coming up with creative ways to issue them from time-to-time that are worth noting as investors continue to hunger for yield.

A Fitch Ratings pre-sale report is out on the first commercial mortgage-backed security backed by non- and sub-performing assets to come to market in over a decade.