Mortgages

Fannie Mae selected its general counsel, Timothy Mayopoulos, to be the GSE’s new president and chief executive, effective June 18.

Monetary policymakers should recognize that the housing bust will have a lasting effect on the U.S. economy and should adjust their expectations to relatively slow GDP growth.

Multiplying federal and state regulation that has triggered the issuance of new rules and requirements further down the chain at the local level is mounting pressure on mortgage banks in search of new ways to conduct mortgage loan reviews and ensure they stay in compliance.

On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed a bill that literally overhauled every corner of the financial industry—Dodd-Frank became an immediate game changer. Among other it contains an obscure provision that may fail to catch people's attention.

Property valuation compliance requirements are challenging lenders and servicers as much as home price fluctuations.

Regulatory pressures have given the mortgage industry headaches along with a renewed motivation to create more efficient solutions.

As Fannie Mae's July 1 deadline approaches, lenders and servicers must meet the GSE's requirement to satisfy homeowners association claims in order to preserve their first lien position.

An effort is gaining momentum to require banks to lend more in low-income neighborhoods in order to gain municipal business.

Loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities had an 8.85% delinquency rate at the end of March, compared to 8.56% at yearend.

Applications for FHA-insured mortgages dropped by nearly 25% in April as the Federal Housing Administration implemented a premium hike announced in early March.

Stonegate Mortgage, which currently controls $2 billion of mortgage servicing rights, hopes to almost double that amount by yearend.

Some mortgage bankers are hoping for a Romney White House with the first order of business being the death of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Of course, even if Romney wins that doesn’t mean he will be able to jam a bill to kill the agency quickly through the House and Senate.

Bank of America over the past two weeks has unloaded roughly $12.4 billion of legacy mortgage servicing rights, selling most of it to Nationstar Mortgage.

As a general rule of thumb, a short sale brings in 10% less than a regular sale, but an REO sale brings in one-third less.

Green Tree Servicing, a unit of Walter Investment Management Corp., will begin servicing about 4,000 Bank of America mortgages this month as part of the bank's mandate to hire delinquent-loan specialists under a widely watched investor settlement.

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Home prices—including distressed sales—increased in April for the second consecutive month (by 2.2%), the first time this has happened in almost two years.

The Government National Mortgage Association approved 35 issuer licenses last year and hopes to approve about the same this year.

Regulators issued guidance Monday on how they plan to coordinate supervision of banks and credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets.

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