Servicing

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will re-foreclose on all its REO properties in Michigan where the original foreclosure was conducted in the name of MERS using the state’s nonjudicial process.

In the “pre-crash” days of the mortgage industry two facts were unmovable: that the average nationwide home price would never fall and that servicing rights would never decline.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors is selling a $481 million Fannie Mae bulk residential servicing portfolio that has just five months of seasoning and no delinquencies or foreclosures.

A securities regulator late this week fined two Wall Street firms with each then settling the matter which involved separate allegations that the companies misrepresented and improperly supervised certain subprime RMBS delinquency figures.

Fannie Mae issued $34.5 billion of mortgage-backed securities in April, a 36% plunge from the prior month, according to figures released by the GSE Friday morning. In April its MBS issuance rose 4.2%.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $20 million and Morgan Stanley $2.35 million for improperly foreclosing on members of the military — some of whom were on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan — under a settlement with the Justice Department.

Thrift institutions originated $26.5 billion of single-family loans in the first quarter, down 37% from the prior period, according to figures compiled by the Office of Thrift Supervision.

A significant sector of the housing market is still being driven by sales of bank-owned homes and those in some stage of foreclosure, according to a new report from Realtytrac Inc.

The attorneys general of California and Illinois issued subpoenas to two mortgage servicing vendors seeking information about their role in alleged mishandling of foreclosure and other mortgage documents.

Lenders and servicers can expect to lose $375 million in 2011 due to "suspicious" short sales where the buyers resell the properties within six months at a sizable profit, according to a new report by CoreLogic.