The National Association of
Women REO Brokerages
Industry News - Today's HeadlinesOcwen Financial Services closed its purchase of HomEq Servicing last week. The impending deal with HomEq parent Barclays Bank: www.barclays.co.uk was initially announced in May. The transaction aligns two of the foremost names in the business of servicing distressed mortgages. That ominous shadow inventory of distressed homes that's been hanging over the industry was trimmed in July, according to Barclays Capital. It marked the fifth straight month the company has recorded a decline in the shadow supply. Barclays says it shrank 1.2 percent, to 3.92 million homes. At the same time, the firm's assessment of the nation's REO inventory ticked up 0.2 percent to 538,000 properties. The distressed share of home sales rose sharply in July, and Barclays says this will likely drive prices down 2 percent over the next three months. The three versions of the homebuyer tax credit are expected to result in revenue losses to the federal government of about $22 billion, according to estimates just released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Looking at Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings through July 3, homebuyers so far have claimed $23.5 billion under the housing stimulus provisions, about a third of which was in the form of interest-free loans that will eventually have to be repaid. California ranks first among the states, with the most homebuyer tax credit dollars claimed. A faction of House Democrats have called on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Fannie Mae's regulator to suspend the GSE's recently announced policy to sue homeowners who strategically default on their mortgage. The group of lawmakers, led by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, called the policy "opaque, overbroad, and punitive." They decried Fannie for using taxpayer dollars to penalize underwater homeowners, and maintained that the policy runs counter to the national need to stem a devastating tide of foreclosures. After falling for five straight months, the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) delinquency rate held steady in July at 8.3 percent. At the beginning of 2010, the rate stood at 9.4 percent. HUD also issued guidelines for FHA's new insurance premium structure, which takes effect next month. The annual premium will increase from 0.55 percent to between 0.85 percent and 0.90 percent of the loan amount. At the same time, though, the upfront premium has been reduced by 100 basis points from the current 2.25 percent. The Office of the Wayne County Treasurer in Michigan will conduct its first Internet auction of more than 13,000 tax foreclosed properties September 17-23. Bid4Assets.com will perform the online auction. The auctioned properties represent a 44 percent increase over the number of properties seized by the county in 2009, making it the largest auction ever for Wayne County. The uptick in bank failures is further deteriorating the nation's liquidity crisis, according to Andy Bogdanoff, chairman of Remington Capital, an international commercial real estate investment banking company. This surge in bank closings may ignite more bankruptcies for commercial real estate owners in need of financing, he warns, particularly since some $1.2 trillion in commercial mortgage debt is scheduled to mature over the next few years and most U.S. banks are unable or unwilling to extend new credit. Just ahead of the Labor Day holiday, the federal government reported a slight, but notable improvement in the labor market. New numbers released Friday show that the economy added 67,000 jobs in the private sector during the month of August. Despite growth by private employers, the national unemployment rate edged up from 9.5 percent in July to 9.6 percent in August, as the government cut 114,000 Census jobs and some 550,000 Americans who had given up on finding work decided there were jobs to be had and returned to the hunt. PHH Mortgage Corporation has named William J. Steinmetz SVP, fulfillment operations. Steinmetz will manage all aspects of loan processing, underwriting operations, and loan closing activities. Prior to joining PHH, Steinmetz held a number of senior-level positions, including managing all retail loan operations as an SVP at Aurora Bank and a 20-year career with JP Morgan Chase. The nation's largest mortgage company is about to start cracking down on servicers for letting delinquent loans languish too long without action. Fannie Mae has issued a notice alerting servicers that it is monitoring all delinquent loans to ensure foreclosures are handled within an acceptable time frame, and may assess penalties for poor servicer performance. By the tone of Fannie's announcement, the GSE wants these nonperformers off its books as quickly as possible. Delinquency rates were mixed in the second quarter for commercial and multifamily mortgage investor groups, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The delinquency rate for loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) is the highest it's been since MBA began tracking the sector in 1997. Delinquency rates for other groups, on the other hand - such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - remain below levels seen in the early 1990s, some by large margins. Following a sharp drop in the months immediately after the homebuyer tax credit expired, the National Association of Realtors' gauge for future sales of previously owned homes has risen. NAR reported Thursday that its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July, increased 5.2 percent from last month's reading. The month-to-month jump was an unexpected development, and some analysts say it may be a sign that the post-tax credit lull in home sales will soon come to an end. MountainView Capital Holdings recently announced that it has acquired the fixed income broker-dealer arm of the bankrupt commercial real estate lender Capmark Financial Group. Capmark sold off its North American loan origination and servicing businesses to Berkadia Commercial Mortgage at the end of last year, and its real estate equity advisory subsidiary, Capmark Investments, to Trecap Partners in March 2010. Massachusetts foreclosure deeds increased nearly 80 percent in July from the same month in 2009, according to a new study by the Boston-based research firm the Warren Group. However, foreclosure petitions, the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts, decreased more than 20 percent. The Bay State is on track to outpace foreclosure activity from the past two years. Already completed foreclosures year-to-date are 60 percent above the tally during the same period of 2009. There seems to be no bottom in sight for mortgage rates. Already at their lowest level in a half-century, they dropped to new record lows again this week. Analysts say we have the weak economy to thank, but that same trigger is also thwarting what would be the ideal upshot - enticing would-be buyers to put a dent in the ballooned housing supply. Freddie Mac reports 30-year mortgages are now averaging 4.32 percent; 15-year rates have dropped to 3.83 percent. Bankrate says the larger jumbo 30-year fixed rate fell to a new low of 5.17 percent. The Fisher Law Group, PLLC and M. Richards Epps, PC have created a partnership whereby Epps, who is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, will serve as of counsel to the Fisher firm, which is headquartered in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Epps will locally manage Virginia court appearances for all court and litigated matters regarding Fisher's Virginia foreclosure and bankruptcy cases. Mortgage Builder, a provider of loan origination software technology, recently announced the creation of its new client-focused position of VP, client development. The company designed the position for Kelli Himebaugh, Mortgage Builder's sales manager for the western United States. In her new position, Himebaugh will work with new clients from product demonstration through training and implementation phases of the sales cycle. In the first quarter of 2010, state housing finance agencies' (HFAs) delinquencies declined for the first time since overall performance of loans began to deteriorate in the second quarter of 2008, according to Standard & Poor's. But the agency's analysts say the slowdown could be only temporary. S&P's study shows delinquency rates for HFA loans remain high relative to a year ago. However, the percentage of HFA loans at least 60 days past due or in foreclosure decreased to 6.05 percent in Q1, down from 6.57 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. Neighborhoods across the country are riddled with empty bank-owned homes and unoccupied foreclosures that erode neighboring property values and open the door for blight and criminal activity. The nation's glut of vacant REOs took center stage in Washington Wednesday. HUD announced a new nationwide REO "First Look" program, in partnership with the nation's largest mortgage lenders, and it was the first of a two-day Federal Reserve summit to examine the community impacts of foreclosed and vacant properties. The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) stipulates that residential loan officers at banks, credit unions, and other federally regulated financial institutions must register their names and fingerprints with a national database. Financial institutions must establish procedures for compliance by October 1, 2010, but the deadline by which employees must be registered is unknown, "because the necessary modifications to the registry have not been completed," according to federal officials. The industry has completed 1.13 million permanent loan modifications for at-risk homeowners so far in 2010, according to data released Wednesday by HOPE NOW. The organization also reports that since January of this year, mortgage delinquencies of 60 days or more past due have dropped 20 percent, but the data supports the assumption that the decline is simply the byproduct of an increase in foreclosures. July's foreclosure starts outpaced loan mods during the month by nearly 90 percent. As an alternative to its registry of foreclosed properties and property preservation contacts for vacant properties, the city of Los Angeles is adopting the MERS System, an electronic loan registry that acts as a nominee in county land records on behalf of lenders and servicers. MERS members can use the system to track both residential and commercial properties. Users tout the benefits of the technology as saving code enforcement officials and municipalities both time and money to ensure vacant properties are maintained. Mortgage interest rates have dropped to their lowest level in decades, and even with tight credit conditions, more borrowers are beginning to take advantage. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that its index measuring mortgage loan application volume increased 2.7 percent for the week ending August 27, 2010, after interest rates dropped yet again. Refinance activity was up 2.8 percent, while home purchase applications rose 1.8 percent. RiskSpan, Inc., a provider of integrated risk and valuation solutions, announced Wednesday that Allen H. Jones is the company's new managing director of its Washington, D.C., federal services consulting practice. Jones has more than 25 years in mortgage lending and housing finance. Previously, he was Bank of America's government lending executive, managing the transition and integration of Countrywide under the BofA umbrella, before becoming the bank's executive for default management public policy and national outreach. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says American Home Mortgage Servicing is using illegal debt collection practices and misleading struggling homeowners, resulting in foreclosure for some borrowers. Abbott brought formal charges against the company on Monday. State investigators allege that the mortgage servicer's agents used aggressive and unlawful tactics to collect payments and then in some cases, intentionally failed to properly credit homeowners. Here are a few highlights of what speakers had to say from the Federal Reserve’s REO summit this week as they sought to get a handle on solving our housing crisis. The summit focused on community strategies to cope with mounting foreclosures and the negative impact they have on neighborhoods. Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody’s: “There [...] Polk County, located in Central Florida with its largest city being Lakeland, will put its courthouse foreclosure auctions online beginning Sept. 21. It?s the latest county to do so in a state experiencing a backlog of foreclosure proceedings. In December 2009, Miami-Dade began putting its county foreclosure auctions online. Before the software was put in, according [...] An unfinished high-rise condominium project in downtown Tempe may have a new lease on life. The property, whose owner and lender both went bankrupt, was sold this week to a Cleveland developer who plans to finish it by next summer. The sale is still subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. Zaremba Group of Cleveland bought the [...] The total bill for the homebuyer tax credit so far, as reported by the Internal Revenue Service, stands at $23.5 billion. About $16.2 billion of that is for the $8,000 (Recovery Act) and $6,500 (Assistance Act) grants shelled out to first and second-time homebuyers, respectively. The other $7.3 billion is for interest-free loans through the Housing [...] Mariner Real Estate Management (MREM), a real estate investment and management firm based in Kansas, closed a deal to acquire a $760 million portfolio of residential and commercial loans and REO properties from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). MREM is part of Mariner Holdings, a $7 billion wealth and asset management company. The portfolio includes [...] The city of Phoenix launched a pilot program to step up code enforcement inspections of properties in danger of foreclosure or already repossessed as REO. According to a story in The Arizona Republic, inspectors will be looking for common signs of neglect, ranging from unkempt yards and debris to property damage. The city plans to work [...] Vacant properties in Cleveland have remained unoccupied for an average of 954 days, more than eight times the average in 2006. Sandra Pianalto, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland revealed the data at the Neighborhood Stabilization summit in Washington, D.C. It’s an example of how “weak” the market continues to be, Pianalto [...] The nation has spent too little time on community problems that have arisen from the country’s housing crisis, the CEO of the Boston Federal Reserve said at a national summit about REO and vacant property issues. “Rather than treating the symptom ? the high REO problem ? we need to better understand how to resolve the more [...] The latest edition of REO Insider is out, with our cover story on the Freddie Mac HomeSteps REO sales program. The feature is a Q&A with supplier services manager Sharon Bartlett, who heads the team responsible for hiring, training and monitoring performance of the HomeSteps REO listing brokers. Bartlett, along with her boss, HomeSteps director of operations [...] Skip Schenker has added Rona Graf, an interior designer with Grace Blu Design as a co-host on his latest “Hot Dog of the Week” video series about REO properties listed for sale on the market. Only this one isn’t really that much of a dog. It’s in a great neighborhood in Costa Mesa, Calif., with great [...] Roughly 70% of the 123,000 Fannie Mae REO sales in 2009 went to owner-occupants, a group of buyers key to a housing recovery, according to Jay Ryan, Jr., Fannie Mae’s vice president for REO alternative disposition. The government-sponsored enterprise’s (GSEs) First Look program, which gives owner-occupants and Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) grantees a 15-day head start [...] Fannie Mae will now review the compensatory fees due to servicers in cases where the government sponsored entity feel servicers are unnecessarily delaying foreclosure. In a letter sent to servicers, Fannie Mae said it plans to review compensation when it deems it applicable, stating that loans “must not be put on hold on a blanket basis.” Fannie [...] The “boomburbs” of California, Arizona and Nevada are among the hardest hit areas in the foreclosure crisis, but their newer housing stock is helping to keep long-term vacancy levels in check, according to a new report. “Driving along California?s Interstate 580, the freeway that connects San Francisco to Stockton, the landscape of newly built subdivisions is [...] T.L. “Thom” Holmes and I have been talking a lot over the past few weeks. I sat down with him at the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) 63rd annual convention in Fort Worth, Texas. The history of this organization of black real estate agents is pretty fascinating. Check out this video made back [...] Embracing initiatives to promote renting as an alternative to homeownership would provide an alternative to selling REO properties in markets already flooded with inventory, according to the research director at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. There are a number of policies that could be implemented to promote renting of vacant or foreclosed properties to keep distressed [...] AREA Property Partners has assumed ownership of Maui’s Makena Beach and Golf Resort, which went into foreclosure last year. New York City-based AREA, formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors, was one of the mortgage holders of the property when it went into foreclosure. The resort went into foreclosure in September 2009 and its lender group, a CMBS [...] Saxon Mortgage Services will begin offering REO properties to National Stabilization Program (NSP) grantees before a more broader marketing of the properties, which includes listing them on the local multiple listing service (MLS). Through three rounds of NSP funding, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has granted more than $6 billion to owner-occupants and [...] Short sale discounts from traditional retail home sales prices are varying widely from market to market in the U.S., according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace. A June report from RealtyTrac said foreclosure sales accounted for 31 percent of all home sales in the U.S. through the first quarter of 2010. According to the report, there [...] There were 120,351 permanent mortgage modifications done through proprietary programs in July, more than triple the 36,695 completed through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in the same month. Servicers completed 1.13 million modifications through both private programs and HAMP so far in 2010, according to Hope Now, a private sector alliance of those servicers, investors, [...] The loss of equity due to nearby foreclosures represents a very real concern for homeowners, Federal Reserve Gov. Elizabeth Duke said Wednesday, as she kicked off a two-day summit about the effects of REO and vacant properties on the country’s cities and town. “I have visited the southeast side of Cleveland and have seen first-hand the [...] LikeWear offers mom bloggers a way to tap into the multi-billion dollar licensed clothing market while also potentially providing others with their own entrepreneurial opportunity . |