Servicing

House and Senate appropriators approved more funds for a foreclosure mitigation program and included another short-term extension of the National Flood Insurance Program in a spending bill expected to pass this week.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac late Tuesday afternoon released a somewhat detailed bulletin on the underwriting guidelines for refinancing underwater borrowers with GSE loans, segmenting what's allowable based on the LTV and if the product is being offered by the current servicer.

Despite the slow economic recovery and challenges that range from federal regulations to hiring and sustaining qualified staff, the glass is half full for up to 70% of the small business owners, including special servicers, real estate brokers and mortgage technology vendors surveyed by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.

Impac Mortgage Holdings earned $3.1 million in the third quarter thanks to gains from the sale of a title insurance affiliate and fees garnered from mortgage and real estate services, which offset legacy costs and charges.

Two Michigan registers of deeds have filed a class action lawsuit against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems for allegedly not paying proper county and state transfer taxes.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust recently entered into a master repurchase agreement with Bank of America that allows a subsidiary of the publicly traded REIT to sell -- and later repurchase -- new originations in an aggregate principal amount of up to $200 million.

Dear members of the United States House of Representatives,You are currently considering legislation that would raise the lending limits in designated "high cost areas" of the U.S. for loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA back to levels originally established on a temporary basis in 2008. For the reasons discussed below, I encourage you to go beyond this minimal restoration of higher lending limits, and temporarily raise the lending limits not just in "high cost areas," but nationwide.

Despite falling house prices and rising claims, the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance fund clung to a slim capital ratio of 0.24% on its book-of-business for the year ending Sept. 30, compared to 0.5% a year ago, according to independent actuarial reports released Tuesday morning.

TransUnion data show a trend of progressive, six-quarter improvement in the performance of borrowers 60 days or more past due reversed in the third quarter, increasing the national mortgage delinquency rate from 5.82% in the previous quarter to 5.88%.

The acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told a Senate panel this morning that the agency is moving ahead with "private" risk sharing opportunities between Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and firms outside of the government's control.