Servicing

Essent Guaranty, which wrote its first mortgage insurance policy in the second quarter, said it has lined up $100 million of fresh capital, bringing its total equity commitments to $600 million.

The Federal Housing Administration is giving states, cities and nonprofit housing groups participating in HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program first crack at bidding on its newly foreclosed properties before they are placed on the market.

Lenders took back an average of 4,000 properties per month during the first half of 2010 in the tri-county South Florida market, a pace that, if it continues, could see nearly 50,000 properties repossessed by year's end, according to a new report from consulting firm CondoVentures.

U.S. home prices rose 0.9% in May after a 1.3% monthly increase in April, according to the CoreLogic housing price index.

A group of investors is suing Fortuno, Inc., a Lodi, Calif.-based buyer of foreclosed homes and its outside marketing executives, alleging they illegally "enticed" the group to invest in the purchase and re-sale of REOs in Ohio and Michigan with the promise of high returns upon flipping the properties.

Credit unions must be definitive when making loan modifications or debt restructuring and have clear evidence to back up their decisions, according to state regulators.

The good and the bad often come in the same package, or so they say. And it may be true for licensed credit counselors who because of the crisis fit right into everyone's agenda and urgency to prevent foreclosures and curtail loan losses.

Arizona, Florida, California, and Nevada are on the front line of foreclosures, yet a recent newspaper article heralded Las Vegas' new construction boom. In fact, new construction has doubled in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson, with Florida and inland California not far behind.

Integrated Asset Services LLC, a default management and residential collateral valuations company, released a new report on the state of the mortgage servicing industry. The report focused heavily on technology advances.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it has issued 64 subpoenas to "various entities" as part of an inquiry into private-label securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an eye toward the government recouping losses on nonprime assets.