Short sales have become one of the most widely used lender strategies to reduce losses from distressed residential properties. Ironically, they also have triggered a wave of fraudulent activity. DataQuick, a provider of property information, products and solutions to the mortgage industry, says there are automated strategies and solutions lenders, servicers and investors can use to thwart short-sale fraud. However, one needs to know where to start. Just how bad is short-sale fraud? According to the ...
Mortgage performance has been boosted in recent years by home price appreciation, even with a move toward less borrower-friendly loan modifications. Industry analysts expect that mortgage performance will continue to improve and loan modification activity will decline significantly. National average home prices in the first quarter of 2013 were up by 6.7 percent compared with the first quarter of 2012, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index. During that time ...
Things are looking up in the private mortgage insurance business as the market becomes more stable and the industry could turn a profit in the near future, according to a new analysis by Standard & Poor’s. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.’s and Radian Guaranty Inc.’s debt and equity increases in the first quarter, as well as the restructuring implemented by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., have raised analysts’ hope and mitigated concerns about capital and the potential for any ...
The Supreme Court of the United States announced this week that it will hear a legal dispute that would determine whether the Fair Housing Act – and perhaps, by extension, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act – permit claims under the “disparate impact” theory of discrimination. “The threshold issue on appeal is whether plaintiffs may use disparate impact to allege a violation under the Fair Housing Act rather than proving liability by demonstrating an actual intent to discriminate,” explained attorneys with the Dykema Gossett law firm. In Township of Mount Holly, New Jersey v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, the plaintiff citizen group is challenging...
The amount of home mortgage debt outstanding continued its post-crisis downward spiral in the early months of 2013, although the agency servicing market grew slightly, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The Federal Reserve reported total home mortgage debt outstanding of $9.868 trillion as of the end of March, down 0.6 percent from the previous quarter. Under pressure from falling house prices and the collapse of the non-agency market, the supply of MDO has been in steady decline since peaking at its all-time high of $11.195 trillion at the end of 2007. Single-family servicing associated...[Includes two data charts]
There is still no official word on when the Senate Banking Committee will take up the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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