Category: News and Trends

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday issued a statement signaling its intent to align its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act policies with the recently passed Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act.

Fitch Ratings, New York, said some new U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities deals are coming to market of late with rep and warranty frameworks that are showing signs of slippage at a time when they should be taking on greater importance.

Conventional wisdom suggests the commercial real estate marketplace operates in 10-year cycles–of which 2018 is Year 10. But new reports on commercial mortgage-backed securities performance indicate a market more in mid-cycle form.

First American Financial Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., said frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in information submitted in mortgage loan applications decreased by 2.4 percent in May from a month ago and by 3.6 percent from a year ago.

A spike in new private-label residential mortgage-backed securities issuance has surfaced of late along with some credit risk trends that are worth watching in the coming months, said Fitch Ratings, New York.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 68,378 foreclosure prevention actions in the first quarter, bringing the total number of foreclosure prevention actions to 4.1 million.

Commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased by $44.3 billion in the first quarter as all four major investor groups increased their holdings, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning.

U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities loan loss severities dropped last year despite a backlog of maturing loans from the 2007 vintage, reported Fitch Ratings, New York.

The Mortgage Bankers Association threw its support behind legislation that would clarify how FHA-insured loans are treated under the False Claims Act.

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., reported 44,900 foreclosure starts in May, the second-lowest such measure in more than 17 years.