Reports of short sales being the new “order of the day” for servicers appear to be overblown. The proclamations were prompted by a report last week from Fitch Ratings. Banks have indeed increased their use of short sales in lieu of loan modifications when completing loss mitigation on non-agency mortgages. Meanwhile, special servicers largely avoid short sales and short sales on agency mortgages are declining. Short sales performed by the bank servicers on mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed ...

Mortgage industry participants are largely opposed to changes to accounting for credit losses proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in December. FASB proposed replacing the current impairment model, which reflects incurred credit events, with a model that recognizes expected credit risks and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. FASB also aims to reduce complexity by replacing the numerous existing ...

Residential lenders tend to like the mortgage market in the state of New York because home values there have been steadily improving for years, especially in Manhattan and surrounding areas within a decent commuting distance to the city. But for nonbanks seeking licensing approvals for their loan officers, they would like nothing more than to tell state regulators to take a hike. According to interviews with mortgage executives and some of their attorneys, the Empire State is the pits when it comes to ...

With a turning point in mortgage interest rates and refinance activity in view in the first quarter of this year, banks and thrifts began to mark up the valuations they put on mortgage servicing rights. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank call report data shows that the industry serviced some $5.181 trillion of home mortgages for other investors as of the end of the first quarter of 2013. That was down 3.1 percent from the end of last year. As a group, the industry estimated a ... [Includes one data chart]

Signs of healing and recovery in the nation’s housing and mortgage markets continue to proliferate. Among the most recent evidence of this is that the nation’s foreclosure inventory fell substantially in April from a year ago, according to a new report from CoreLogic. As of the end of April 2013, approximately 1.1 million homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, compared to 1.5 million the year before, a year-over-year decrease of 24 percent. The foreclosure inventory was down 2 percent from ...

A new financing program for home energy retrofits that leverages home equity is gaining popularity among California homeowners despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to discourage lenders from offering such products. Called the HERO program, the initiative was developed jointly by West Riverside Council of Governments and Renovate America, a San Diego-based company that works with local governments in designing low-cost financing programs for home and business owners that want to ...

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in government conservatorships in September 2008, roughly 600 banks and thrifts saw $8 billion of their preferred stock investments in the two GSEs evaporate. With both firms now wildly profitable, there is increasing hope and speculation that buyers of the “junior” preferred stock are in for an eventual payday. No one is more optimistic about that happening than the Independent Community Bankers of America. For the ICBA, the question boils down to how much on the dollar its members will receive for the shares they still own. It’s also a complicated question. When Fannie and Freddie hit the skids at the nadir of the housing bust, many banks and thrifts sold their preferred shares at market rates, that is, at something close to zero. In other words, they no longer have the stock certificates and any ownership rights. Speculators and bottom feeders do.

Organizers behind a recently filed White House petition are calling for the government to “restore fairness” to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common shareholders. Created on June 1, the petition posted on the White House website calls for Congress, the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to enact a method “to provide fairness and protection” to common shareholders of the two GSEs “and enable shareholders to have participation in the recovery of the value of their stock.” GSE common shareholders became entangled in a financial limbo of sorts when Fannie and Freddie were placed into government conservatorship under the FHFA in September 2008.

An increase of 10 basis points in the guaranty fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises would make pricing for agency execution comparable to pricing for non-agency mortgage-backed security issuance, according to industry analysts. Agency g-fees averaged about 50 bps at the end of 2012, with plans for further increases this year. “The economics of non-agency securitization are much closer to GSE securitizations today than they were two years ago,” according to analysts at Barclays Capital ...

FirstREX is offering a slight wrinkle on “80-10-10” loan structures by taking an equity stake in the home, recording a second lien, while foregoing monthly payments from the borrower. It remains to be seen whether its “HomeBuyer” product will catch fire nationally. The privately held firm is helping consumers buy a home by providing up to half the downpayment. In marketing materials, the company is careful to point out that it isn’t a lender and that its program shouldn’t be construed as being part of a ...