Category: News and Trends

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said U.S. homeowners with mortgages saw their equity increase by 4.8% year over year, representing a gain of nearly $428 billion from a year ago.

Ellie Mae, Pleasanton, Calif., said drops in 30-year interest rates for the eighth consecutive month drove up the percentage of refinances in August.

ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., said home flipping in the second quarter increased by 12.4 percent from the first quarter but fell by 5.2 percent from a year ago.

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., said its First Look Mortgage Monitor for Augus found foreclosure starts hit an 18-year low, while borrowers took advantage of lower mortgage rates to increase their level of prepayments.

ACES Risk Management, Pompano Beach, Fla., released its quarterly Mortgage QC Trends Report, showing critical defect rates fell by 6% in the first quarter from the previous quarter.

Trepp, New York, reported the volume of commercial mortgage-backed securities loans and assets in special servicing declined again in August, falling three basis points to 3.22 percent.

CHICAGO–Representatives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac here at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Risk Management, QA and Fraud Prevention Forum said quality of loans submitted to them show better quality control processes and fewer defects, but cautioned that the defects the do appear show a greater degree of sophistication.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it will continue publication of consumer complaints, data fields and narrative descriptions through the Bureau’s Consumer Complaint Database while making several enhancements to the information available to users of the database.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday announced the end of the Mortgage Servicing Rights financing pilot program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

CHICAGO–Kyle Armstrong, Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said mortgage fraud is hitting every part of the U.S. in every one of the Bureau’s 56 field offices.