As IMFnews went to press, Stonegate Mortgage was suffering the most among real estate finance-related stocks, down 7.16 percent on the day.

Nationstar Mortgage is laying the ground work for a huge debt sale. But what will it use the money for?

If Kurland sells all of the shares he registered, it will leave him with 424,025, making him (still) the largest individual shareholder in the publicly traded REIT.

The biggest mortgage story of 2015? How about origination volumes being a lot better than anyone dreamed of?

Servicers and borrowers with subprime adjustable-rate mortgages would benefit from a new type of loan modification, according to research recently published by the Federal Reserve’s division of research and statistics and division of monetary affairs. The researchers suggested that mods triggered when housing price declines exceed a certain percentage may reduce delinquency and foreclosure rates along with reducing servicers’ costs. The results were detailed in a paper titled ...

Investors should see a higher share of VA collateral in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pools due to increasing VA loan originations, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. Given their rising share of VA collateral, new Ginnie pools are likely to have worse convexity than most of those originated in 2015, analysts said. “VA loans tend to prepay faster than FHA loans when in the money as VA loans have larger loan sizes, higher FICO scores and a more efficient streamline refi program that requires a minimum three months seasoning,” they observed. In addition, analysts expect the population of younger veterans to surge approximately 36 percent over the next five years. “[As such], there will be a healthy supply of new VA originations eligible for pooling,” they said. As a result, the share of FHA relative to VA collateral in new Ginnie II pools will likely decrease, they said. Such a trend has manifested itself slowly as ...

A total of $13.6 billion of rural home loans backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were securitized during the first nine months of 2015, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data.An estimated $5.1 billion of USDA home loans were delivered into Ginnie Mae pools in the third quarter, up 22.8 percent from the prior quarter. In contrast, the nine-month securitization volume fell 4.4 percent from the same period of the prior year. Nine of the top 10 USDA loan securitizers reported quarter-over-quarter increases. Top-ranked Chase Home Finance maintained its lead over other USDA loan securitizers with $4.2 billion in loans securitized during the nine-month period, down 4.8 percent from the previous year and up 32.8 percent on a quarterly basis. Chase’s nine-month USDA volume translated into a 31.0 percent market share. Second-place Wells Fargo funneled $1.7 billion in USDA loans into ... [ chart ]

Joint civil fraud initiatives have resulted in $558.5 million in recoveries and receivables to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in FY 2015, according to the HUD inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress. The amount includes civil settlements of $212.5 million from First Tennessee Bank, $29.6 million from Reverse Mortgage Solutions, and $1.8 million from three other settlements. The settlements resolved enforcement actions brought by the Department of Justice on behalf of HUD in pursuit of civil remedies under a variety of statutes, including the False Claims Act, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Recoveries and receivables for other entities during the reporting period – April 1 to Sept. 30, 2015 – totaled $86.9 million and $268.2 million for the entire fiscal year. Some of the payments were made to the ...

State housing agencies have expressed support for a proposed rule change by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service that would expedite claim submission, but sought clarification on certain provisions. The proposed rule would amend the USDA’s current rules on liquidation-value appraisals under the agency’s Section 502 Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. Currently, if a real estate-owned property remains unsold by the lender at the end of a prescribed marketing period, the RHS will order a liquidation value appraisal to estimate the cost of holding and disposing of the REO. However, several housing finance agencies have complained about the RHS’ lengthy claims process, which forces them and other lenders to keep unpaid claims on their books longer than necessary. “Such lengthy waiting periods can be particularly costly to HFAs and other ...

VA Servicer Reminders. The new maximum allowable foreclosure timeframes published in the Federal Register on Dec. 4, 2015, will be effective for all loan terminations completed on or after Jan. 3, 2016. In addition, the new Net Value percentage (15.95 percent) took effect on Dec. 23, 2015. All Notices of Value issued on or after Dec. 23, must be calculated using the new percentage. Meanwhile, pre-approval requests to deviate from a regulation must be submitted through VALERI (VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface), the agency’s loan administration system. VA does not grant pre-approval on claim expenses or for additional time to foreclose. These items must be appealed ...