Securitization

Credit unions favor housing finance reforms that would keep the government-sponsored enterprises or something similar in place, but add an explicit government guarantee to their mortgage-backed securities, according to a recent survey.

Financial services groups are calling for more funding for the Internal Revenue Service that could fix flaws in the agency's system for verifying the income of mortgage applicants.

Lender and servicers are increasingly using nontraditional methods such as "hybrid" appraisals and broker price opinions in an attempt to cut costs, but some are more reliable than others.

As inflation fears put upward pressure on 10-year Treasury bonds and mortgage rates nationally, borrowers could start to take more notice of what lenders are charging them locally.

Almost two years after settling mortgage securitization allegations with the Department of Justice and a group of states, Goldman Sachs has fulfilled more than half of its consumer relief commitment.

With few foreclosed homes left to pick up on the cheap, the biggest landlords are buying, or building, new single-family homes to pad their portfolios; mortgages on these properties could show up as collateral in rental bonds.

A new due diligence firm created by a trio of former Clayton Holdings executives wants to shake up a static business model.

Most of the collateral was acquired over the past year; that’s in contrast with the sponsor’s previous two transactions, in which a portion of the collateral was seasoned and refinanced from earlier transactions.

The deal is backed by an unusually concentrated portfolio of just 19 loans on properties being rehabbed or converted to a new use; by property type, the biggest exposure is to hospitality, at 19.7%.

Mortgage servicers should approach efforts to overhaul their compensated structure with caution, as changes to the status quo "could have ripple effects across the entire real estate finance industry," warned Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman David Motley.

Recent stock market volatility may further constrain jumbo lending, while inflation concerns have lenders paying close attention to rising mortgage rates.

Moody's considers the $932.4 million TPG Real Estate Finance Trust 2018-1 to be highly leveraged, though not as highly leveraged as Blackstone's inaugural transaction.

A group led by the National Fair Housing Alliance is suing Deutsche Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, alleging real estate owned properties in minority communities do not receive the same level of upkeep and maintenance as REO houses in white neighborhoods.

The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 4.83%, a decrease of six basis points from the December level.

Varde VMC Lender, a Minneapolis firm specializing in distressed commercial real estate, has branched out to financing offices and apartment buildings being upgraded or repurposed.

The Blackstone affiliate is cashing out over $200 million of home price appreciation in the process, resulting in a loan-to-value ratio that is unchanged from the original Colony American Homes transactions.

The Taxs Cuts and Jobs Act preserves most of existing benefits for owners, operators, and investors, and provides a few new perks as well; there are some trade-offs to be made, however.

A group of big financial institutions wants to use the blockchain to make it easier and less costly to track home mortgages packaged into securities.

The weighted average FICO credit scores of securitized reperforming loans are deteriorating a little, according to a DBRS study of the bonds.

The $401.2 million COLT 2018-1 is the eighth overall securitization of non-qualified jumbo mortgages issued by the Lone Star Funds affiliate.