A bill filed in the Senate two weeks ago would require mortgage servicers to respond to a short-sale offer within 30 days and make a final decision on acceptance within 60 days of receiving a purchase offer. The Stopping Ongoing Lender Delays (SOLD) Act, S. 3177, sponsored by Sen. Dean Heller, R-NV, would amend the Truth in Lending Act to require servicers to provide prompt responses to homeowners seeking to refinance or “for other purposes” including short sales. “By placing a shot clock on these decisions, it will reduce the amount of time it takes to sell a property, improve the likelihood that the transaction will close, and reduce the number of foreclosures in Nevada and across the country,” Heller said in a Senate floor speech on May 15. “Stability in the housing market is critical for long-term growth.”

Home Loan Servicing Solutions, recently launched as an independent acquirer of high quality mortgage servicing assets from Ocwen Financial Corp., is off to a good start as analysts gave it a thumbs up after a promising first-quarter debut. Analysts with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods gave the new company an Outperform rating and projected upward-trending dividend yields of 8.2 percent in 2012 and 9.9 percent in 2013-14. On May 8, the company declared a 10-cent monthly dividend, and the 30-cent quarterly dividend is slightly below KBW’s estimate of quarterly earnings-per-share of 32 cents...

Kroll Factual Data, based in Loveland, CO, announced it has upgraded its verification solution to meet what it says is the growing risk of fraudsters attempting to con mortgage lenders, resulting in an additional cost of doing business. Kroll, which provides customized mortgage credit reports, mortgage-related services and technology solutions for originators and investors, cited an uptick in potentially fraudulent activity flagged by its system during the past year. More than 14 percent of the loan files Kroll processed in 2011 and during the first quarter of 2012 contained certain applicant...

Special servicer Homeward Residential is stepping up in the market with diversified product offerings supported by a new brand and identity, and upgraded servicer ratings. Formerly American Home Mortgage Servicing, Homeward Residential is now a full-service mortgage banking operation with a full suite of services, including correspondent and warehouse lending, residential loan servicing (including subservicing and special servicing), and loan settlement services. The company ranked as the 15th largest wholesale lender in the first quarter of 2012 after just venturing into mortgage...

Nearly one-third of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages, Zillow reported last week, a significantly higher number than other analysts have estimated. Zillow, a real estate information company, said nearly 16 million homeowners, or 31.4 percent, owe more than their house is worth. The company partnered with credit agency TransUnion to take into account second mortgages to calculate total loan-to-value ratios. In its most recent report, CoreLogic said 11.1 million homeowners were in a negative equity situation in March. CoreLogic relies on public data and bases its estimates on the...

Bucking an overall slowdown in new mortgage originations during the first quarter of 2012, government-insured lending surged to its highest level since the end of 2010, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $83.0 billion of loans insured by the FHA, Veterans Administration and Rural Housing Service were originated during the first three months of the year, up 15.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. That was in marked contrast to the 8.2 percent drop in conventional conforming originations and an overall 3.8 percent decline in total mortgage production during...

The mortgage lending industry won a comprehensive and authoritative victory and a great deal of legal certainty from the Supreme Court on the issues of fee-splitting and markups under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Last week, in Freeman et al. v. Quicken Loans Inc., the nation’s highest court unanimously sided with the lender and ruled that a plaintiff has to show that a fee charged for a real estate settlement service was shared between two or more persons to prove a violation of Section 8(b) of RESPA has occurred. In this case, the plaintiffs were three couples, the Freemans, Bennetts...

First-time homebuyers, looking to capitalize on low housing prices and even lower mortgage rates, have revved up their home shopping in recent months, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. And this is welcome news for a mortgage industry looking to jumpstart home purchase mortgage lending. But first-time homebuyers also face a number of speed bumps – if not roadblocks – in the current housing market. These range from tough mortgage underwriting requirements to increased competition from investors looking to snap up housing bargains – challenges that...

Although at least one Senate Republican shows interest in a plan to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the outlook for Congressional action remains doubtful and House Democrats are pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to make further HARP changes administratively. During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week on legislation to expand HARP, Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, said he was open to the proposal. “I hope that we’ll have a real mark-up on this bill,” he said. Senate Democrats Robert Menendez (NJ) and Barbara Boxer (CA) have introduced legislation...

Nonbank venture capital funds that see opportunity in the expected pullback of banks from the $10 trillion mortgage servicing rights sector likely will not dodge the growing regulatory compliance burden that has become one motivation for banks to pull out of the business. Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, a unit of Fortress Investment Group that was taken public in March, is on pace to become the largest nonbank servicer in the industry if it succeeds in buying the mortgage servicing portfolio of GMAC Mortgage and Residential Capital. Nationstar CEO Jay Bray recently went on record saying he expects...