Servicing

Economists at Moody's Analytics expect a pickup in home sales and construction in 2011, but admit they are "nervous" about their price forecast because of the high level of seriously delinquent loans, distressed sales, and strategic defaults.

Old Republic International Corp., Chicago, had net losses of $13 million for the fourth quarter, including a $110 million pretax operating loss for its mortgage insurance business. However, these are still an improvement over a $37 million corporate net loss and a $126 million pretax operating loss for the same period in 2009.

Lenders seized roughly 7,900 homes backed by delinquent mortgages in Orange County, Calif., in 2010, the third highest number of lost homes on record, according to figures compiled by DataQuick.

Mortgage servicers have refused to complete foreclosures on thousands of vacant homes in Chicago because they do not want to pay the cost of maintaining the homes, according to a report this month from the Woodstock Institute, a local nonprofit.

It appears that Wilbur Ross hit a home run on his first day out. The WL Ross & Co.-affiliated BankUnited Inc. raised $783 million in its initial public offering, more than 18% more than what it initially expected.

Freddie Mac purchased $49.7 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in December, its best purchase month of the year and a sign that loan production remained strong in the fourth quarter.

The perception of a strengthening economy was the catalyst behind the increase in rates for the 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgage this week, according to the most recent Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Ally Financial Inc., which controls the nation's fifth largest mortgage banking firm, plans to go public this year and is interviewing investment bankers for its initial public offering, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Despite declines in the hardest hit areas, according to the RealtyTrac 2010 Year-End Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report, foreclosure activity increased from 2009. And the main culprit is continued high unemployment.

Flagstar Bancorp had a good fourth quarter, according to the analysts at FBR Capital Markets, “considering the drastic strategic actions the company had to take.”