Mortgages

Ever have that prospect who doesn't follow through with what they promised to do by the next call?

Although Bank of America – for now – is committed to staying in warehouse finance, it may exit that business as well.

Missing for nearly three years and thought to be possibly extinct in South Florida, the official bird of the housing boom – the construction crane – has been spotted again in downtown Miami.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is on the verge of filing a barrage of civil claims against investment banking firms that packaged nonprime loans into mortgage-backed securities while misrepresenting the quality of the underlying collateral, according to a new published report.

Four million more borrowers with high LTV loans could be refinanced if certain impediments to the Home Affordable Refinance Program are corrected, according to Federal Reserve Board governor Elizabeth Duke.

The Federal Reserve Thursday afternoon slapped Goldman Sachs with an enforcement action, saying its Litton Loan Servicing division engaged in a "pattern of misconduct" tied to robo-signings.

Home sales are still lackluster, but FirstBank in Lakewood, Colo., is ramping up its mortgage lending as if immune to the weak demand.

The Federal Reserve might start purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities again if the Obama administration can cobble together an effective program to refinance Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed loans, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

There is more than enough capacity in the system for the remaining private mortgage insurers to handle the current volume of low-downpayment loans originated as PMI and Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. stop writing new business, industry executives feel.

Nonprime lender/servicer Springleaf Financial late Wednesday priced a $242 million nonprime residential MBS, at a yield of 4%, according to market reports.

With the 2010 revisions to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act requiring lenders to provide mortgage and closing services information to consumers in an accurate and timely manner, ClosingCorp of La Jolla, Calif., has created a new pricing tool for title companies and settlement service providers to put on their own websites.

Mortgage rates in Freddie Mac's weekly survey have come in at or near record lows again this week.

Starting today, your appraisals are going to look a bit different. Basically, the agencies have been warning us for the last year or so that they were creating a uniform set of "codes" that will be used by all appraisers nationwide.

Goldman Sachs & Co. can complete the sale of its mortgage servicing subsidiary to Ocwen Financial Corp. now that the parties have agreed to a settlement with the New York superintendent of banks over alleged abusive services practices, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is auctioning off a $485 million portfolio of mortgage servicing rights backed by Fannie Mae loans.

Appraisers will be following new procedures for gathering and reporting property data starting Thursday, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac move forward with the appraisal requirements of their Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

Icon Residential, Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and a related division.

Some of the largest mortgage servicers are still fabricating documents that should have been signed years ago and submitting them as evidence to foreclose on homeowners.

Fannie Mae bought $39.4 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in July, a 5% decline from the previous month. But compared to the same month a year ago the GSE's acquisitions fell 26%.

Radian Guaranty executive Camillo Melchiorre will leave his post as senior vice president of loss management to serve as president and CEO of mortgage technology nonprofit Hope LoanPort, effective Sept. 1.