Servicing

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa, is closing its wholesale lending operations center in Concord, Calif., saying it can get better efficiencies of scale by shifting the work to another wholesale loan processing center located in Irvine, Calif.

Legal actions tied to mortgage lending jumped by more than 40% in the third quarter based on the Mortgage Litigation Index report published this week.

Rising mortgage rates are starting to take their toll on new residential loan applications, according to figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

CoreLogic reports that “the good news” about a third consecutive quarter decline in negative equity for residential properties is not so good after all. It warns that since these gains “primarily” due to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties, and not increases in home values, are not significant enough to positively impact the still-weak economy.

Mortgage positions were upset Tuesday as long-term rates acceleratedtheir climb in the wake of an agreement on an ambitious government stimulus plan -- a rate move that some said could have been worse if the Federal Reserve hadn't indicated it would continue its quantitative easing.

Apparently most Americans would not get out of their comfort zone even if that would help them secure, or make more affordable, the so-called American dream of homeownership.So much so that according to a new survey released by LendingTree of Charlotte, N.C., while 96% of American consumers routinely compare prices when shopping—for anything and everything available for sale—almost 40% of them obtain just one home loan quote.

Real estate owned property preservation firm Mortgage Contracting Services launched a new version of its website, adding dedicated resource pages to the various REO industry players it works for and with.

A new report from Credit Suisse says that a "private-only" solution to the mortgage market will be "extremely challenging" and could remove up to $4 trillion in capital because risk adverse investors would flee if no government backstop is provided to MBS.

Local governments across Florida are losing revenue because banks are getting the homestead-exemption tax breaks intended for the homeowners whose properties the lenders have repossessed, according to a report in the in The Sun Sentinel.

Hudson Realty Capital LLC, in partnership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has closed on the purchase of a pool of distressed Southeastern commercial real estate loans with an unpaid principal balance valued at more than $102 million.