Category: Top National News

Mortgages are shaping up as one of the potential bright spots for lenders (and the economy) this year. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data due in the next few weeks is expected to show the turnaround actually began last year.

The New York investment firm agreed to provide PMI with a loan for working capital needs, in connection with the purchase of a significant equity stake. Blackstone now has the rights to participate in future equity offerings and will nominate a director to the board.

A U.S. appeals court revived three lawsuits filed by the City of Miami against Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup, alleging predatory mortgage lending practices against minority borrowers.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make multiple improvements to its consumer complaint database so that the information presented to the public is more accurate.

While Fannie Mae’s Book of Business dropped slightly at a compound annualized rate of 1.3 percent in July, the GSE’s gross mortgage portfolio declined at a rate of 16 percent, marking the fourth month in a row ninth time in 12 months the portfolio declined at a double-digit annualized rate, according to Fannie Mae’s July 2015 Monthly Volume Summary released Monday.

New York Times, Aug. 28, 2015–Prevost, Lisa
Home buyers who can’t put at least 20 percent down usually have to carry private mortgage insurance, often an expensive proposition. One good thing about mortgage insurance, though, is that it doesn’t last forever.

Wall Street Journal, Aug. 28, 2015–Fitzgerald, Patrick
A federal judge has awarded the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Thornburg Mortgage Inc. $45 million in his crisis-era lawsuit against RBC Capital Markets LLC, finding the bank shortchanged the mortgage lender when it seized and subsequently sold some of its assets.

Mortgage Servicing News, Aug. 28, 2015–Collomer, Nora
Residential mortgage servicers are once again tapping the securitization market to fund advances to bondholders for the first time since April 2014.

Charlotte Observer, Aug. 30, 2015–Roberts, Deon
Nine years after the start of the U.S. housing crisis, complaints about mortgage companies top the list of grievances North Carolina consumers are filing with a federal regulator.

National Mortgage Professional, Aug. 27, 2015–Hall, Phil
Latest housing data finds a continued pattern of very mixed messages, with pending sales flattening out and rates dropping while sales of properties in-foreclosure declined to record lows.