The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may be making substantial progress on its integrated consumer mortgage disclosure form, but the land title sector is concerned the prototype products generated to date are inadequate when it comes to the disclosure of specific settlement costs. The American Land Title Association told the bureau that the CFPB’s Know Before You Owe project has successfully identified ways to improve the disclosure of loan costs by making them more transparent. However, suggestions for how to disclose some settlement costs, in particular title insurance and attorney fees, have not reached a desired level of transparency and lack the necessary flexibility to avoid consumer confusion.

New Jersey. In northern New Jersey, 8 percent of mortgages are in foreclosure – twice the share for the United States as a whole, according to a new regional mortgage brief prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. An additional 4 percent of northern New Jersey mortgages are at least 90 days delinquent, the point at which a foreclosure filing can be initiated. “Combined, 12 percent – or about one in eight mortgages – are seriously delinquent,” the Fed said. “By comparison, the pre-crisis share of mortgages seriously delinquent in this region was less than 2 percent.” But flows of mortgages into foreclosure and delinquency are down from their peak levels, although still considerably up from pre-crisis levels. However, the pool of mortgages already in foreclosure continues to grow because there are more loans entering the foreclosure process than there are loans completing the process each month. Foreclosures are lengthy, often taking many months or even years.

More Needed to Reduce REO Inventory. The National Association of Realtors has called upon HUD, the FHFA and Treasury to create an advisory board to help them explore possible options for unloading real estate owned (REO) properties held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA. “We believe the government has an opportunity to minimize the impact of distressed properties on local markets by expanding financing opportunities, bolstering loan modifications and short sales efforts, and enhancing the efficient disposition of REO properties,” said NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, RI. “This will help stabilize home prices and neighborhoods and help support the broader economic recovery.” The Realtors also recommended the agencies be more aggressive in having loans modified and, when a family is absolutely unable keep their home, to quickly approve reasonable short sale offers that allow families to avoid foreclosure.

Bank of America, in an effort to cut its losses from its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., is looking to unload its correspondent mortgage business, and is said to be in talks with Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc., a unit of private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group. BofA has taken a deep look at its operations in the context of today's marketplace and decided to make some major strategic adjustments, including dumping the correspondent business…

While it will be nice if it materializes, MBS market watchers are taking a wait-and-see posture to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s professed intention to explore new and alternative methods of sharing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s credit risk with the private sector. In a speech early this week, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco outlined efforts his agency is taking to ramp up private market discipline while reducing Fannie’s and Freddie’s risk to taxpayers. “The FHFA will be considering a number of alternatives, such as expanded use of mortgage insurance and securities structures that allow for...

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week approved a proposed conflict-of-interest rule that attempts to walk a tightrope between preventing abusive securitization practices and not interfering with legitimate competitive activity in the market. The agency got a lot of feedback on how to implement the Dodd-Frank Act conflict-of-interest provisions, including from the chief sponsors of the provisions in Congress. Senate Democrats Jeffrey Merkley (OR) and Carl Levin (MI) were largely inspired by dealings in which Goldman Sachs allegedly allowed a hedge fund to choose assets for a collateralized debt obligation and then...

Recent proposals by the Securities and Exchange Commission could eliminate or impose more regulatory burden on mortgage real estate investment trusts and complicate securitizations, experts warned. The SEC earlier this month launched a preliminary effort to reconsider the exemption that REITs currently have from the Investment Company Act. Although the agency did not propose any specific changes, the REIT industry and its supporters see the initiative as a potential game-changer for how they do business. The SEC concept release, at first blush, appears to “signal impending regulatory burdens for mortgage REITs and to...

Now may be a good time for ABS investors to broaden their horizons and look into exotic asset classes, such as solar panel financing. “Over the past few decades, most of the sheer volume of securitizations has come from the cash flows of consumer asset receivables, such as mortgages, credit cards and auto loans,” said Chris DiAngelo, a partner with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in New York City, who moderated an industry discussion on nontraditional securitizations sponsored by the American Securitization Forum this week. “Although the auto market has returned to relatively normal issuance volumes, mortgage and...

The supply of MBS in the market edged slightly higher in the second quarter of 2011, appearing to stem a nearly two-year decline in the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A total of $6.58 trillion of MBS were outstanding at the end of June, up 0.3 percent from the first quarter. The MBS market was still down 1.7 percent from a year ago. All of the growth came from Ginnie Mae and Fannie Mae. The supply of Ginnie single-family MBS rose 4.0 percent in the first quarter, hitting a record $1.12 trillion and extending a vigorous growth trend since the housing market began to unravel in 2007. Ginnie MBS accounted for...(Includes one data chart)

Although the outlines of an expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program are far from clear, MBS analysts say the most likely changes designed to help more borrowers take advantage of record low mortgage rates will not have a disastrous impact on the MBS market. Observers note that there are two ways to expand the potential HARP population: remove the existing chronological restriction (loans made prior to June 2009) or lift the current loan-to-value restriction of 125 percent. The chronological restriction is relevant because a lot of borrowers who have used HARP already could benefit from refinancing again because...