Servicing

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and three other residential servicers agreed to pay $25 million to New York State to resolve certain monetary claims over the use of the MERS database after reaching a $25 billion national settlement on robo-signing charges.

Remember the good old days when mortgage bankers were considered the "good guys," the ones who put people in houses? And remember when it appeared that plenty of outside capital was itching to get into this industry?

The Obama administration's latest "housing scorecard" suggests there is some progress when it comes to servicers' ability to fulfill the aims of regulatory programs that encourage mortgage rehabilitation, according to one expert.

The size of the residential loan market over the short-term will be determined by the definition of 'qualified mortgage,' which is more important to the industry than the definition of 'qualified residential mortgage,' declared a top lending executive for BB&T speaking at the Regional Conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Atlantic City.

The release of the last few details of the $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement this week revealed a deal that was, overall, not quite as bad for the banks/mega-servicers as many observers and analysts expected.

While home values continue to fall nationwide, rental rates are soaring in many Metropolitan Statistical Areas, according to Zillow’s latest real estate market report.

Prior to the crackup of the housing market, most warehouse providers were ready, willing and able to extend credit to nonbank lending customers based on the value of their retained servicing rights. But then came the crash.

A lawsuit filed by the county register of deeds in Guilford County, N.C. Tuesday claims mortgage documents in its records were 'robo-signed' in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and wants a court to appoint a "Special Master" to determine which documents are fraudulent and require servicers to refile documents.

As fraudsters reinvent themselves, insiders warn about recent increases in short-sale fraud and call for preventive monitoring.

Everyone knows that if you are looking to purchase a home, the time has never been better than right now. Tenacious builders that survived the housing market plunge are gearing up; they are building new homes and remodeling existing ones at a rate that we have not seen for many years.