Servicing

Home prices could decline on a nationwide basis this year, with a "prolonged" recovery starting next year although some locales could see a quick revival, according to the chief economist of Fiserv. "Nationally, Fiserv Case-Shiller data points to a further 7% decline in home prices through the end of this year, with a prolonged recovery beginning early in 2011. In many markets, the emphasis is on the word 'prolonged,'" said chief economist David Stiff. Some markets, such as Pittsburgh, Columbia, S.C., and certain metropolitan areas in Texas, Washington state and upstate New York are poised for a relatively fast recovery. But in areas such as California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, it may take 15 or more years for home prices to climb back to their peak as several powerful forces in the market will severely hinder housing recoveries, Mr. Stiff said.

Federal Reserve officials are worried that serious delinquency and foreclosure rates are moving higher and house prices are still under downward pressure. "We have yet to see evidence of a sustained recovery for the housing market. Mortgage delinquencies for both subprime and prime loans continue to rise as do foreclosures," Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told the Dallas Regional Chamber on Thursday. The minutes of the March 16 Federal Open Market Committee reveal that Fed officials are not impressed by the improvement in home sales in the second half of last year. It may largely reflect "transitory effects from the first-time homebuyer tax credit rather than a fundamental strengthening of housing activity," the minutes say.

Distressed home sales, classified as short sales and real estate-owned sales, accounted for 29% of all sales in the U.S. in January, the highest level since April 2009, a report from First American CoreLogic found. The REO share of sales increased to 22% in January, up from 19% in December but down from a year ago when it was 27%. Short sales accounted for 8% of all sales in January, up from 7% in December and 5% a year ago. During the last 12 months, there were 974,000 distressed sales: 740,000 were REO sales and 234,000 were short sales. By markets, Riverside, Calif., had 62% of its home sales in January come from the distressed category, followed by Las Vegas at 59% and Sacramento at 58%. Sales of REO made up 48% of the home sales in Detroit, while the leader in share of sales in the short sales category is San Diego at 19%. First American CoreLogic also noted that the average nondistressed market sale price in January was $247,700 but the distressed average price was $161,600. The average REO price was $141,900, compared to $215,300 for short sales. The discount between market sales and distressed sales is currently about one-third and has been running at the low-to-mid 30s during the last 12 months.

The latest monthly data from Fitch on U.S. jumbo, prime-credit residential mortgage-backed securities show serious delinquencies continue to rise while the much higher subprime credit delinquency rate has dropped slightly. In March, late payments of 60-plus days on prime jumbo RMBS rose for 34 consecutive months and passed the 10% mark while subprime delinquencies of this type have dropped slightly month-to-month to 46.3% from 46.9% but remained far above the 39.8% rate seen a year ago. "The improvement in subprime delinquencies may be nothing more than a seasonal anomaly of tax refunds being utilized to help borrowers catch up on mortgage payments," said Fitch managing director Vincent Barberio in the rating agency's Performance Metrics report. In the jumbo sector, California continues to have the highest volume of prime loans outstanding and its 60-plus-day delinquencies during the month were 11.8%, up from 11.6% the previous month. This represents about 44% of the outstanding jumbo market, according to Fitch.

Flagstar Bank, Troy, Mich., is offering a program to those borrowers who will have their mortgages insured with Genworth that will cover their mortgage payments if they lose their job involuntarily. It is available at no charge on new loans and will cover the borrower's principal and interest, as well as tax and insurance, payments for up to $2,000 a month for up to six months during the benefit period, with a maximum of three monthly payments per job loss occurrence. The benefits are paid directly to Flagstar. The borrower's vesting period is 60 days after the loan closes and payments begin 30 days from the date of unemployment. The coverage is in place for up to three years after the loan closes, as long as MI coverage remains in place. Not covered under the program are seasonal, temporary or voluntary jobs, nor are those who are self-employed. A spokeswoman for Flagstar said Genworth is the only MI company the lender has this program, called Job Loss Protection, with.

The number of foreclosure filings in tri-county South Florida declined for the third consecutive month in March, according to the latest figures from CondoVultures, a Bal Harbour-based consulting firm. Although government programs have something to do with the fall off in filings in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the trend has more to do with the fact that lenders are coming to grips with the reality of the marketplace, said Peter Zalewski, a CondoVultures principal. "Lenders now know that a foreclosure action will take 18 months and at least $100,000 to complete in South Florida, which is three times longer and twice as expensive as back in 2007 when the crisis first began," Zalewski said. The consultant pointed out that once the bank takes back ownership, a troubled property usually sells for about the same amount as a comparable short sale, which can be completed in a fraction of the time. "Bankers are smart people so it is no surprise to see a change in strategy and the drop in foreclosure filings given the pure economics of the situation," he said. Foreclosure filings in March were off 20% from the month before. In February, they were down 19% from January, and in January down 7% from December, according to the firm.

Two banks have activated assistance plans for customers in parts of southern New England that were impacted by flooding as a result of heavy rains at the beginning of April. Bank of America has set in motion its disaster relief program for customers in Rhode Island and seven Massachusetts counties. Among the parts of the program that helps homeowners specifically is giving them the ability to access a new home equity loan or line increase through B of A's special loan program. They will pay no fees and receive preferential pricing, below the current interest rate. The bank will also modify or extend payments on loans or lines of credit. Waterbury, Conn.-based Webster Bank will provide unsecured home improvement loans to customers in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts at a rate 2.5 percentage points below the standard rate. Priority processing will get the check to the borrower within one week of application. It is also offering "payment alternatives," including deferments for existing mortgage and home equity loan customers whose home has suffered flood damage or where the borrower's employment has been disrupted as a result of the flooding.

Lender Processing Services says it has corrected the way it processes assignments of mortgages in foreclosure cases, which has drawn the attention of class action attorneys and a U.S. Attorney in Florida. The Jacksonville, Fla., company said an internal review of its Docx LLC subsidiary "identified a business process that caused an error in notarization of certain documents, some of which were used in foreclosure proceedings in various jurisdictions around the country." The U.S. attorney's office for the middle district of Florida is conducting an inquiry of the matter. LPS is "fully cooperating" with the U.S. Attorney, a spokeswoman said. In February, a class action lawsuit filed against Deutsche Bank (National Trust Bank) and U.S. Bank N.A., LPS and Docx alleged that the practice of creating assignments months and years after the actual date of the transfer from one owner to another is unlawful. The plaintiff's attorneys have dropped the lawsuit. However, the lawsuit pointed out that LPS and Docx assists Deutsche Bank (National Trust Bank) and U.S. Bank N.A., in filing foreclosure actions. LPS also has responded to an inquiry by the Clerk of the Court of Fulton County, Georgia. "LPS has since completed its remedial efforts with respect to all of the affected documents and believes the Clerk of Court has completed its review and closed the matter," LPS said.

The Treasury Department could move faster in modifying second liens, a mortgage securities analyst says, by requiring servicers to conduct their own internal matching of first and second liens. Using their internal systems, Home Affordable Modification Program servicers could "capture approximately half of the second liens backing modified first liens," according to an Amherst Securities Group report. However, Treasury has contracted with Lender Processing Services to build and maintain a database of second liens that may be eligible for the HAMP second lien modification program (2MP). Servicers are required to use LPS to identify eligible matches. The LPS matching project is "far more cumbersome than it needs to be," said ASG senior managing director Laurie Goodman. "This unnecessarily delays the implementation of the 2MP program to the benefit of the second lien investors which are the largest banks," Goodman said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has changed the definitions of the terms "foreclosed" and "abandoned" to increase the reach of its Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which helps local communities acquire, reclaim and re-sell distressed properties more quickly and prevent further decline in neighborhoods decimated by such properties. HUD now defines foreclosed to include properties in which their owners are in default on their mortgages and 90 days or more delinquent on their property taxes, and abandoned to include properties that are uninhabitable with lingering building code violations which their owners have failed to correct. The expanded definitions, which became effective as of April 2, will increase the reach of NSP by allowing more properties to qualify and remove existing barriers caused by market conditions, HUD said. The changes also will help state and local grantees meet a Congressional requirement that they obligate all of their NSP1 funding by September. "The rules needed to be more flexible so our local partners can put taxpayer dollars to work quickly to stabilize neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure," said HUD Sec. Shaun Donovan. HUD had previously defined foreclosed to apply only to those properties that have been through the foreclosure process and abandoned as those homes which have been foreclosed on and been vacant for at least 90 days.