Servicing

A Maryland real estate investment trust plans to raise up to $1.8 billion in a secondary stock offering, using the proceeds to buy agency MBS.

Posters at our discussion board at www.mortgagegrapevine.com aren't shy about expressing their opinions. Here's what they think about the FHA's premium hike.

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.

Members of the industry gathered at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Mortgage Servicing Conference in Orlando, Fla., expressed concern about the uncertain future of the mortgage industry during a roundtable discussion with Mortgage Servicing News editors.

The departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, along with 49 state attorneys general, filed their joint $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers in court Monday.

Fannie Mae is making progress on cleaning up its massive alt-A portfolio, but the $182 billion of guarantees had an average LTV ratio of 101% at yearend, according to supplemental documents the GSE filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A fourth quarter decline in applications among the nation's top lenders will result in weaker first quarter origination volume. But there has been a pick-up in application volume in the current quarter, which will result in more interest rate locks for the period, a report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods notes.

While Fitch's February CMBS delinquency data showed relative stability overall compared to the previous month and a year ago, there were some variations in sub-markets such as a high level of 60-day late payments in Atlanta office loans.

The struggling housing market needs to look to every possible financing source. So, how are housing bonds doing? According to our sister publication, The Bond Buyer, housing bonds were off last year. But in a small victory, they were not off as much as the entire market.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.