Servicing

Investors are starting to receive additional details on what loan types — including information on 'HECM Savers' and FHA modified loans — that issuers are placing in Ginnie Mae guaranteed MBS.

Some of the Federal Housing Administration's largest servicers lacked the technology and staff to expedite the processing of loan modifications, and were unprepared to deal with the escalating backlog of requests, according to FHA commissioner David Stevens.

Foreclosure starts jumped by 20% in the third quarter, representing 1.34% of all outstanding mortgages in the U.S., which means an estimated 830,000 consumers could lose their homes over the next several months.

All four federal bank regulatory agencies are conducting targeted exams of foreclosure practices and policies involving on-site examinations and the sampling of loan files at depositories that control a large portion of the nation's $9.9 trillion in housing receivables.

Federal banking regulators are examining two nonbank service providers at the epicenter of the foreclosure-documentation mess – Lender Processing Services Inc. and Merscorp Inc.’s Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

Hudson & Marshall will auction 400 REO properties during a three-day event in Atlanta this week.

The nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers are currently in a battle for their lives. They are engaged in implementing new loan quality initiatives to stave off investor buyback requests, forensic reviews of past deals for risk assessment and trying to meet the government's demands for aid to troubled borrowers. Little time is left for seeking out new loan origination volume, and yet there is still business out there.

The Federal Housing Administration acquired 98,349 REO properties and sold 87,709 during its fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, according to a report on the FHA mortgage insurance program released this week.

An 18 basis point rise in rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages resulted in a decline in mortgage application volume of 14.4% last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The data was not adjusted for Veterans Day.

Home prices fell 1.1% in September after falling 1.2% in August, according to the just released CoreLogic house price index.