Servicing

Outstanding residential debt serviced by mortgage banking firms fell to $9.1 trillion at yearend, the lowest reading since the third quarter of 2007, according to new figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

American Indian housing assistance is perennially underfunded, a trend continued in the Administration's fiscal 2013 budget request. $1 billion would be a good starting point, instead of the current $650 million.

President Barack Obama said 2 to 3 million existing FHA borrowers will be able to refinance at a lower interest rate under a new Federal Housing Administration streamline program that cuts mortgage insurance premiums in half.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will issue mortgage servicing rules this year that would impose new limits on force-placed insurance products and require additional disclosures for adjustable-rate mortgages, Director Richard Cordray said Tuesday.

Despite real estate-owned saturation rates rising, national home prices through February reached the lowest levels of decline in over 10 months, according to the real estate asset valuation provider Clear Capital.

The government's Home Affordable Refinancing Program has a major flaw, according to one industry veteran -- it doesn't give borrowers a financial incentive to stay in the home.

As if appraisal management companies, readily available automated valuation models and broker priced opinion options were not enough challenges to the real estate appraisal profession, well-intended federal and state regulations are generating new controversy.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. had nearly 2,000 more loans cure in February compared with the number of new default notices received during the month.

Idiosyncrasies in regional markets appear to be among the reasons securitized multifamily overall has rebounded so quickly in terms of occupancy and rental increases but is one of the worst performing property types in terms of delinquencies, according to Fitch.

Before Barack Obama was elected president residential mortgage debt in the U.S. was actually larger than outstanding Treasury debt. At yearend 2009 home mortgage debt peaked at $10.1 trillion. Today that number is a $1 trillion lower - according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.