Servicing

The release of the last few details of the $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement this week revealed a deal that was, overall, not quite as bad for the banks/mega-servicers as many observers and analysts expected.

While home values continue to fall nationwide, rental rates are soaring in many Metropolitan Statistical Areas, according to Zillow’s latest real estate market report.

Prior to the crackup of the housing market, most warehouse providers were ready, willing and able to extend credit to nonbank lending customers based on the value of their retained servicing rights. But then came the crash.

A lawsuit filed by the county register of deeds in Guilford County, N.C. Tuesday claims mortgage documents in its records were 'robo-signed' in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and wants a court to appoint a "Special Master" to determine which documents are fraudulent and require servicers to refile documents.

As fraudsters reinvent themselves, insiders warn about recent increases in short-sale fraud and call for preventive monitoring.

Everyone knows that if you are looking to purchase a home, the time has never been better than right now. Tenacious builders that survived the housing market plunge are gearing up; they are building new homes and remodeling existing ones at a rate that we have not seen for many years.

Every housing market investor has a certain mindset that guides decisions as to where to put their money, why, and when. Optimally, this "investment mentality" is not concerned with consumption or waste, but rather is focused on how to minimize risk and multiply hard earned dollars.

Swamped by huge volumes of delinquent mortgages, servicing managers at Bank of America, and Wells Fargo & Co. placed heavy pressure on staff to speed up handling of documents used to process foreclosures without properly reviewing their work, according to HUD audits released Tuesday.

The Lawyers’ Committee and counsel Davis Polk & Wardwell filed a lawsuit this week in New York Supreme Court in Nassau County on behalf of 18 homeowners claiming that a network of for-profit loan modification companies are conducting a fraudulent scam.

Kenney Funding recently completed two transactions on a retail property in Oklahoma and a residential condominium in Illinois.