Servicing

Foreclosure starts reached 217,955 units in August, an 18% sequential jump, and the first time since March that the reading was north of 200,000, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now alliance.

Keystone Asset Management has recently completed an audit that assures the company is complying with regulations within the mortgage servicing industry.

Product and pricing engine NYLX is adding to its platform a Mortgage Harmony loan product that gives borrowers at certain times the option of lowering their rates to market level.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said there has been an 88% year-over-year increase in mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports filed in the second quarter.

Standard & Poor's, Moody's Corp. and Fitch Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that their ratings of nonprime MBS were faulty and caused five Ohio public employee pension funds to buy into these money-losing investments.

Applications for new mortgages jumped 9.3% for the week ending September 23, a sign that ultra low rates are finally spurring new business activity.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Tuesday afternoon released a 37-page "talking paper" on changing GSE servicing fees, while noting that GNMA compensation – for now – will not be part of the discussion.

All entities that engage in the business of servicing mortgage loans for any property located in New York are up for a new regulatory challenge.

Moody's Investors Services sees no broad-based recovery in commercial real estate markets over the next year due to weakness in demand and what it calls "diminished lending."

Outstanding residential mortgage debt in the U.S. will continue to fall over the next three quarters before stabilizing in mid-year 2012, according to a new forecast from Freddie Mac.