The ongoing decline in interest rates is wreaking havoc on the sale of “bulk” mortgage servicing portfolios, causing investors to pull back on pricing, and sending some bidders to the exits, at least for a little while. Servicing advisors who play in the space confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance that pricing isn’t what it used to be, and is off peaks seen a year ago when bids – in retrospect – were too aggressive and later resulted in write-downs. Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, admitted...
Steady growth over the course of 2015 may have taken the long-suffering mortgage servicing market close to the $10 trillion mark at the end of the year, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The top 50 companies at 2015 serviced a combined $7.326 trillion in home mortgages, a slight 0.3 percent increase from the end of the third quarter. If the rest of the industry followed their lead, the supply of servicing outstanding rose to $9.982 trillion by the end of December. Based on trends during the first nine months of 2015, as reported by the Federal Reserve, the supply of home loan debt outstanding may have trickled...[Includes one data table]
Different factions of the mortgage industry are strongly urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to place its yearend “clarifying letter” on TRID errors into the Federal Register, believing that it would provide stronger legal protection. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, TRID errors – even minor ones – continue to be a chief reason why certain secondary market investors are rejecting mortgages, in particular non-agency product. The fear for these investors is assignee liability, that they could be sued for TRID errors even though they had nothing to do with the loan’s origination. One paragraph in the Dec. 29 letter from the CFPB to the Mortgage Bankers Association begins...
If lenders used the seemingly sensible underwriting standards that were in place in 2001, some 1.2 million more mortgages would have been originated in 2014, according to estimates by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. Laurie Goodman, director of the HFPC, said lenders have “plenty of room to safely ease credit.” An underwriting index from the HFPC suggests that originators are accepting little risk in terms of borrower or loan characteristics, hindering a recovery in the mortgage market and the broader economy. Lenders note...
Wells Fargo has agreed in principle to a $1.2 billion settlement to resolve FHA-related civil claims brought by the federal government while First Tennessee Bank has agreed to subsidize interest-rate reductions on home mortgages as part of a $1.9 million settlement agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Wells Fargo settlement was disclosed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If finalized, the settlement would be the largest for FHA. So far, the FHA has collected...
Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee this week pushed through their version of fiscal year 2017 budget views and estimates (BVE), taking aim at government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as FHA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The minority Democrats tried to amend the broader GOP package 10 times, but each amendment went down to defeat on a party-line basis. There were no Republican amendments offered. On the issue of Fannie, Freddie and housing finance reform, Republicans on the committee said...
A recent ruling by the Rhode Island Supreme Court has increased concerns that state courts will allow liens for homeowner associations and related entities to supersede first-lien mortgages. In late December, the R.I. Supreme Court ruled that a condo foreclosure sale conducted pursuant to the R.I. Condominium Act can extinguish a prior-recorded first mortgage if the lender fails to redeem the mortgage within 30 days of the foreclosure. The decision reversed a ruling by a lower court, which found that the borrower’s mortgage survived the condo association’s lien foreclosure sale. The Mortgage Bankers Association said...
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