Mortgages

The Census Bureau reported that 1.6 homes vacant homes were listed for sale as of June 30, down 3% from the first quarter and 18.6% from a year ago.

Franklin American Mortgage Co. told its loan brokers that beginning Aug. 1 the firm will only compensate them using the “lender paid” model.

Banks frequently respond to questions from loan officers complaining that a local competitor has a more "aggressive" compensation plan.

As originally designed, the Fed’s compensation rule tried to ensure that loan officers didn’t have any monetary incentives to steer borrowers into high-cost loans.

Freddie Mac purchased $44.1 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in June, the GSE’s best acquisition month of the year and a sign that loan production is strong.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a fast-growing buyer of mortgages from correspondents—including jumbos—recently inked a deal to receive a $100 million repo line from Barclays Bank PLC.

The minimum bid for the Bourbon Street property is $105 million and the asset will be sold to the highest bidder.

With the addition of four new towers announced this week—two in South Beach and two others in downtown Miami—more than 8,600 condo residences have now been proposed for the tri-county South Florida region.

Home sales may be flagging a bit, but prices are rising and have been each and every month since January.

The $8.8 million Class M of series 2002-CIBC5 was downgraded primarily because the New York-based ratings agency believes a former A&P grocery-anchored retail center will continue to see negative results in the future.

On July 17, an indictment was issued in New Jersey charging 11 individuals from five states a for their alleged roles in a $15 million mortgage fraud scam that used phony documents and straw buyers to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos, including a defendant who attempted to murder a witness to the scheme.

To be successful in the mortgage business, you need to remain healthy.

Lender Processing Services found that overall 7.14% of mortgages were in arrears as of June and estimates that its figures encompass 70% of the overall market.

Mortgage rates fell to yet another all-time low this week, 3.49% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

A new Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization workgroup intends to create a universal loan document identification protocol that would be based on loan-specific data and enable any entity across the lending process to use a common formula to create or recreate the unique identifier.

Stewart Information Services Corp. saw its net earnings increase 319% from 2Q11, while First American Financial Corp. had its best title margins since 2005 as it earned $73 million, more than double the $32 million in 2Q11 profits.

You might say the megabanks – for now – are sitting in the catbird seat. They have more loan applications than they know what to do with – and they have no desire whatsoever to add more staff to handle the volume, because, well, that’s what happens when you have a cartel.

EverBank Financial originated $2.7 billion of loans and leases in the second quarter, up 19% from the first quarter and 89% from the year ago.

What's a mortgage loan originator to do when he discovers that one of the trade lines in an applicant's credit report actually belongs to a relative with a very similar name?

In metropolitan cities that have at least 200,000 people, foreclosure activity increased in 125 out of 212 markets in the first half of this year compared to the prior six months.