Servicing

A report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reviewing mortgage banking results for 4Q12 notes that while things were generally positive, concerns about the sustainability of the current environment have increased.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. is in settlement talks with an investor group that sued the mortgage servicer over auctions of home loans backing securities.

As the debate over the future of the Federal Housing Administration heats up in Congress, more common ground solutions are emerging.

The downgrades indicate that the bonds have incurred a principal write-down or are interest-only classes that have a notional balance off of a class that incurred a principal write-down, according to the company.

Veros believes the five markets which will see the most improvement are: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.; and Midland, Texas.

House prices rose 0.3% in January from the prior month, according to Lender Processing Services.

The Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations 2013 was held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City March 11 through 14. There were some 1,625 attendees total for both the commercial and residential portions of the show.

As the housing market improves, small and mid-sized builders are finding it harder to acquire and develop lots while their larger brethren are buying up land that they don’t intend to use for two or three years.

MGIC Investment Corp. remains the Mortgage Industry Equity Composite stock with the most shares changing hands.

Florida’s housing market, often described as the nation’s real estate microcosms, is posting improvements in home values, inventory and sales that indicate the recovery is taking hold.