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After reports that the largest mortgage servicers, some attorneys general, and even some government agencies are not comfortable with the terms in the servicer proposal, there has been renewed effort to try to come to a solution that works for [...]

Word on the street is that Goldman Sachs is looking to sell off its mortgage servicing arm, Texas-headquartered Litton Loan Servicing.

The New York Times says Litton never proved to be the distressed mortgage cash-cow that Goldman had hoped, while the Wall Street Journal reports that the servicing unit is indeed unprofitable at the moment. Industry [...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both issued notices to servicers that they must work closely with state housing finance agencies to provide mortgage assistance to homeowners who’ve lost their jobs.
The Treasury Department has awarded $7.6 billion for housing agencies in certain states to develop programs that provide temporary relief to unemployed homeowners.
Effective immediately, GSE [...]

By: Carrie Bay
New data released this week shows that the nation’s largest banks are holding monstrous volumes of soured home loans. Not only has the housing crisis left major lenders knee-deep in an ocean of non-performers, but added exposure to early delinquencies means they could sink even deeper.
According to an analysis by Weiss Ratings, an [...]

By: Carrie Bay
ForeclosureRadar has released its September market report, and the company’s data shows that both foreclosure sales and inventories of bank-owned properties are on the rise throughout the West Coast states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Five major mortgage servicers have announced that are suspending certain foreclosure activities in various states. These companies [...]

By: Carrie Bay
The highest counsels from all 50 states have teamed up to launch a coordinated investigation of the mortgage servicing industry.
Attorneys general from every state, as well as banking and mortgage regulators in more than three dozen states, have formed what they’re calling the Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group.
Led by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, [...]

By: Carrie Bay

Three major mortgage lenders have halted foreclosures in states where the process is handled through the court system after suspicions surfaced that employees did notfollow legal procedures in preparing the required documentation. GMAC Mortgage was the first to do so, followed by JPMorgan Chase and then Bank of America.
Analysts warn that the practice [...]

By: Carrie Bay
It’s no secret that the volume of distressed residential properties is weighing heavy on U.S. housing markets and is prolonging any meaningful recovery. Of even greater concern is the industry’s growing backlog of homes thatneed to be liquidated and resold but have yet to make their way to the market – that menacing [...]

By: Carrie Bay
The August Mortgage Monitor report released Friday by Lender Processing Services, Inc. shows that foreclosure starts are continuing to accelerate, with the GSEs displaying more aggressive timelines on early stage delinquencies.
Last month, the Florida-based company tracked 282,528 newly initiated foreclosures. That’s 1 percent above the number of new foreclosure cases the previous month, [...]

By: Carrie Bay
With housing woes capturing front-page headlines in the United States, the odds of distraught homeowners becoming even more frustrated and opting to abandon their mortgage obligations has become a growing concern within the industry.
Still-falling property values are pushing more homeowners underwater, and the social stigma attached to foreclosure is steadily eroding as delinquencies [...]

By: Carrie Bay
The nation’s largest mortgage company is about to start cracking down on servicers for letting delinquent loans languish too long without action.
Fannie Mae issued a notice this week alerting servicers that it is monitoring all delinquent loans in its portfolio and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) pools to ensure foreclosures are handled within an acceptable [...]

3BR/2BA Single Family House
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offered at $549,226

This is the deal of the year. This property is one of the nicest colonials you will ever see on the market. It is in the nicest part of long island Massapequa woods section. The house has HUGE bedrooms, Walk in closets, Amazing Crown and Chair Molding, Hi Hats, Granite [...]

By: Heather Hill Cernoch
The Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act includes new appraisal management rules as well as stricter laws and firmer penalties for lenders. The bill’s appraiser
independence standards will give lenders new options on managing appraisers, and lenders are scrambling to evaluate options to decide what will benefit their businesses.
“With an October deadline looming for the [...]

By: Carrie Bay

Moody’s Investors Service says it expects home price appreciation to be “soft” for the next couple of years. The company says there were 1.8 million more vacant homes sitting on the market than what is considered the norm
at the end of the second quarter. According to Moody’s, this imbalance of supply-and-demand, particularly in [...]

By: Carrie Bay
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) offered the industry a ray of hope when it reported Thursday that foreclosure starts were down nearly 10 percent in the second quarter, but the brightness quickly faded when Lender Processing Services (LPS) released its own dataset.
MBA’s numbers were based on data through the end of June. LPS [...]