Category: News and Trends

The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a Mar. 31 letter to The Appraisal Foundation, offered recommendations for attracting new appraisers to the real estate finance business and eliminating barriers to their entry.

By looking to the issues of the past, facing the issues of the present and accurately assessing the emerging trends, servicers can learn how to work with their providers to effectively scale up, and back down, as needed without disrupting their businesses.

HOPE NOW yesterday reported loan modifications continued to wind down from housing crisis peaks, noting that foreclosures and foreclosure starts increased.

Black Knight Financial Services, Jacksonville, Fla., said mortgage delinquencies fell 13 percent month-over-month in February, reversing January’s spike, bringing the national delinquency rate to its lowest point since April 2007. …

Since late 2014, we’ve seen a stronger relationship between the average loan amount on refinance applications and the refinance index, MBA’s gauge of refinance application activity.

STRATMOR Group, Greenwood City, Colo., said a survey of lenders found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, while significantly boosting borrower satisfaction, comes with a price. Literally.

Falling oil prices represent a moderate credit negative for commercial mortgage-backed securities collateral and will cause performance to deteriorate in some metros, said Moody’s Investors Service, New York.

Consumer credit default rates held steady in February, reported Experian, New York.

The Federal Housing Administration last week announced long-anticipated changes to its loan-level certification form.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a letter yesterday to FHA, expressed concerns about a $500 fee cap for processing assumptions for low-rate FHA mortgages and asked that the cap be adjusted to reflect actual costs lenders incur when processing an assumption.