Mortgages

Equifax is expanding the availability of technology it’s developed to aid mortgage investors analyzing whole loan portfolios before and after they’re purchased.

The buy side and the sell side at the Securities Industry and Financial Market Association are in agreement and sticking to their guns on some issues that could shape how shelf eligibility for securitizations will take shape, including the issuer's certification, the role of a credit risk manager in transactions and arbitration.

After three straight quarters in which foreclosure activity throughout the country was down due to the robo-signing scandal, a new trend began in the third quarter that analysts predict may last for an extended period of time.

Distressed homeowners in Connecticut who are facing foreclosure now have another option to speak with a Bank of America representative to avoid losing their property.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start transitioning to a new system where mortgage servicers pick the foreclosure attorneys they work with -- not the GSEs.

The risk management company RiskSpan and the law firm Lyons McCloskey have formed a strategic alliance to deliver innovative solutions to the default servicing industry.

Refinance activity in the Central Florida region remains relatively low compared to the rest of the country but experienced a notable pickup in September, according to an Orlando mortgage lender's report for the month.

The international real estate operating company Kennedy Wilson recently opened up a townhome community that it acquired from Bank of America.

New York Community Bancorp Inc., Westbury, N.Y., reported its mortgage banking income doubled between the second and third quarters, driven by the drop in interest rates and an increase in refinance applications.

Multifamily starts spiked 50% in September to the highest level in three years while single-family starts edged up 1.7%, according to new government figures released Wednesday morning.

The residential mortgage banking segment at PNC Financial Services Group, Pittsburgh, earned $22 million in the third quarter, less than half of the $55 million it made in the second quarter and one-fourth of the $97 million profit of the third quarter 2010.

An executive with Reverse Mortgage Solutions said he believes mortgage brokers will be the big winner from the exit of Bank of America and Wells Fargo from the reverse mortgage field.

TD Bank is hiring 87 new mortgage operations staffers, with 50 to be located at its Lexington, S.C., loan center. The rest of the new personnel will be placed in locations across the bank's retail branch footprint on the East Coast from Maine to Florida.

For a while it looked as though MetLife wanted to be a top player in mortgage banking. But not anymore. Late last week, the insurance conglomerate said it would explore a sale of MetLife Home Loans, Irving, Texas, stressing that it might only sell its “forward” business.

The number of California homeowners brought into the default foreclosure process surged in the third quarter, according to the real estate information provider DataQuick.

Despite rock bottom interest rates, mortgage applications fell 15% for the week ending October 14 with purchase money loans hitting their lowest level in 15 years, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

U.S. Bancorp, a top ranked player in residential mortgages, reported $17.2 billion of originations in the third quarter, more than double its home funding production in the prior period.

Residential home prices may get a boost from an unlikely source: a pickup in short sales, which occur after default, but before a foreclosure auction.

Morgan Stanley & Co. last week took a final round of bids on its residential servicing division, Saxon Mortgage, Ft. Worth, Texas, which holds $28 billion of contracts on its books, according to investment banking officials familiar with the situation.

After a long drought of mergers and acquisitions activity, the market for, among others, private-mortgage companies, is showing signs of life and recovery. If you own, operate or advise a middle-market company, $5 million to $500 million in revenue, what does this mean for you and your clients when thinking about shareholder liquidity or selling the business? And how can you improve the odds of getting a deal done?