Servicing

New home sales rose 5.5% in November after a 10% slide in October that took sales down to record lows for the building industry.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded $1.7 billion in Washington Mutual-issued securities backed by first-lien, alternative-A credit, payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages with negative amortization.

Refinancing activity pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's issuance of mortgage-backed securities in November to the highest levels since the summer of 2009, according to the monthly activity reports the GSEs released Thursday morning.

WASHINGTON — Residential foreclosures have been rising for the past six months and will continue to accelerate in 2011, according to analysts at CoreLogic.

Distressed sales contributed to a 9.2% month-to-month climb in California’s resales of detached single-family homes as the median price dropped below the $300,000 mark for the first time since February.

The government's Home Affordable Modification Program finally gained momentum in November with servicers completing 30,000 permanent loan restructurings, a 15% rise from October.

Sales of existing single-family homes jumped 6.7% in November after falling 2% in October, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Mortgage bankers originated $26.4 billion of Federal Housing Administration-backed loans in November, an 8.2% jump from the prior month, but delinquencies jumped as well.

Mortgage application volume decreased by 18.6% over last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, as refinance activity fell by 24% to its lowest level since the end of April, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

FCI Lender Services, Anaheim Hills, Calif., the largest servicer of "private money" loans, said it is adding a new private money lender to its servicing base about every two days or so.