Servicing

Thrift industry veteran George Engelke announced that he will step down as CEO of Astoria Financial Corp., a top ranked residential and multifamily lender in the New York area, but will remain as chairman of the company. His departure date is July 1.

Mountain Real Estate Capital, based in Charlotte, N.C., acquired the TidalWalk seaside community on the southern coast of downtown Wilmington as REO from a consortium of lenders led by Southern Community Bank.

On behalf of the Wextrust Receivership, which was charged in September 2008 with fraud for operating a Ponzi-like scheme, Hilco Real Estate LLC and Badger Real Estate Advisors LLC sold their fifth property at the end of last year.

Field Asset Services, a property preservation firm based in Austin, Texas, revealed in an independent study that remodeled foreclosed properties spend less days on the market than homes which receive no rehabilitation.

Tight credit conditions, higher mortgage rates, and a big drop in refinancings will push residential originations below $1 trillion this year to levels not seen since 2000, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In the first full year of operation under New York Community Bank ownership, the former AmTrust residential mortgage banking platform produced $10.8 billion in loans in 2010, with $3.8 billion coming in the fourth quarter.

PHH Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., expects to more than double its fourth quarter profit to $181 million, thanks in part, to a huge upward adjustment concerning the value of its residential mortgage servicing rights.

The sector of real estate investment trusts that specialize in the secondary mortgage market will post returns on equity averaging in the mid-teens for the fourth quarter, a Credit Suisse analyst predicted in research released this week.

Flagstar Bancorp Inc., Troy, Mich., lost $192 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with a loss of $23 million in the third quarter of that year and a loss of $72 million for the fourth quarter of 2009.

U.S. Treasury equity in the public-private investment program that was designed to support market functioning and facilitate price discovery in legacy mortgage-backed securities markets has produced a 27% gain since its inception, according to the Treasury’s fourth quarter 2010 update.