Servicing

For the fifth time since August 2010, Mountain Real Estate has acquired another bank-owned property in Southern California.As part of a joint venture with Harridge Development Group LLC, MREC purchased a property that is entitled for 67 residential units as well as an adjacent commercial parcel zoned for apartment use.

Fannie and Freddie could continue to operate even if the U.S. debt ceiling is not raised by Aug. 2. But raising the ceiling alone, without a budget deal, would leave them—and a mortgage market that relies on their guarantees—vulnerable.

Michelle Korsmo will become the new chief executive of the American Land Title Association, replacing Kurt Pfotenhauer, who is leaving at the end of the month to become executive vice president and vice chairman of First American Title Insurance Co.

Mortgage application volume declined for the fifth time in the last six weeks, this time by 5% for the week ended July 22, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The White House nominee to be new Comptroller of the Currency said federal banking agencies need to work toward reassuring the public that robo-signings have stopped and foreclosure problems are being corrected.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just opened for business. One year ago, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which created the CFPB.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially opened its doors last week, lenders and servicers began bracing themselves for the increasingly tougher challenge of keeping a fair balance between their customer and investor accountabilities.

The debt-limit crisis debate and the seemingly irresolvable political party differences about how many trillions of dollars are needed to resolve the country’s economic problems—along with President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner’s pleads for support on national television—concern mortgage professionals in a specific way.

Piggyback loans – seconds that were part of '80-10-10' loan structures – were 21% more likely to default than a loan with mortgage insurance, according to a new study from Promontory Financial Group.

Concerns raised by the debt ceiling debate present minimal potential short-term risks for REITs that invest in agency MBS, and the sector should be viable under all “reasonable” scenarios, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.