Mortgages

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not to pursue any deficiency judgments against members of the military if they are forced to short sale their home and if the mortgagor is required to move as part of their duty.

Federal banking regulators have proposed new capital risk weightings for residential mortgages that give an advantage to government-guaranteed loans but impose higher capital requirements on conventional loans.

Mortgage cases are shifting to become more fact-intensive, rather than legal-intensive, meaning investors’ attorneys need witnesses to explain the circumstances in a case.

A 2006 commercial mortgage-backed security deal collateralized by two very different properties in Hawaii and New York, respectively, has ended up affected by stressors that have increased its Fitch loss expectations and caused the rating agency to downgrade one investment grade class.

Sales of single-family homes, condominiums and cooperatives fell to a 4.55 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in May from a 4.62 million rate in April.

Worsening economic indicators in the past week have driven the average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage back downward to a new low of 3.66%.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily mortgage originations and mortgage debt outstanding will continue to show strong growth over the next 18 to 24 months.

To correspondent mortgage sellers and loan brokers, the ‘coincidental’ move by certain megabanks to only refinance FHA Streamlines that they are already servicing is a way to lock them out of the business.

Fitch Ratings has raised its ratings outlook for First American Financial and its subsidiaries to “positive” from “stable” because of the nation’s second largest title insurer’s capitalization, profitability and moderate financial leverage.

The weak economy throughout the state of Florida is affecting the bond financing of multifamily projects.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is forging ahead with its plan to release a single mortgage disclosure form by July 21, despite industry calls to slow down the process.

George L. Engelke Jr. has resigned as chairman of Astoria Financial, ending his long tenure with the Lake Success, N.Y., company that included a 22-year run as its chief executive officer.

The public relations department of JPMorgan Chase has finally made up its mind: the megabank will only engage in FHA Streamline refinancings on loans that it presently services.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is coming under industry pressure to delay finalizing a merger of the RESPA/TILA mortgage disclosure forms until the qualified mortgage and qualified residential mortgage rules are finalized.

Taylor Capital Group is expanding its mortgage unit by hiring more than 60 retail mortgage professionals from Amera Mortgage.

Suzanne Hutchinson will retire at the end of the year from her post as executive vice president of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.

Freddie Mac raised its estimate for 2012 originations to $1.45 trillion in its latest economic and housing market outlook, citing lower expected 30-year rates. Freddie previously had forecast that 2012 would end with a total of just $1.3 trillion in originations.

Research shows why bank-owned property inventories continue to grow costing lenders a greater amount of money to preserve these assets over time: overvaluing properties during the appraisal process.

When I suggested yesterday that mortgage lenders might contemplate an origination ‘strike’ as a bargaining tool to kill overly zealous regulations the idea was to have banks and nonbanks alike participate in such an action of civil disobedience.

Technology vendor Mortgage Cadence expects to expand the reach of its origination software in the credit union sector with its pending acquisition of Prime Alliance Solutions.