Category — Industry Buzz
Appraisal Management Company Launches Revolutionary New Appraisal Management Technology
Coester Appraisal Management Company Launches Revolutionary New Appraisal Management Technology
Cloud-based system is the only appraisal technology built on the award-winning Salesforce.com platform
March 19, 2012—Rockville, MD—Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide provider of appraisal management technology and services, has launched Cloud Control, its revolutionary new appraisal management technology. Cloud Control is the only appraisal management software built on...
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March 25, 2012 No Comments
GSA Opts for Web Based Mortgage Mediation Technology
The federal government is putting in place mortgage technology allowing for its workers to track distressed loans via the internet.
The eMason Clarifire application will become available through the General Services Administration for use by federal agencies in an effort to increase transparency in the mortgage mediation space.
The GSA is an arm of the federal government that helps manage the functioning of federal agencies. Among other duties, it supplies products and communications for U...
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December 20, 2011 No Comments
Time needed to Sell All Md.’s Foreclosures: 21 Years
At the rate homes are going on the foreclosure block in Maryland these days, it would take 21 years -- yes, years -- before the current "pipeline" of homes in danger of foreclosure are all sold. That's according to industry consultant LPS Applied Analytics, which shows a dramatic drop in the number of Maryland foreclosure sales (repossessions or other involuntary transfers) after the robo-signing revelations last fall. That's pushed the state's time-to-sell figure skyward to the fourt...
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November 22, 2011 No Comments
FDIC Expects Fewer Bank Losses than Originally Estimated
Appraiser News Online The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation lowered its projections on estimated bank-failure losses in the coming years, the FDIC announced Oct. 11. Bank failures are now estimated to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $19 billion through 2015 compared to the estimated $23 billion in losses in 2010 alone. Acting FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg said the fund is on track to recover and will meet the goals established by Congress, including a requirement that the fund reserve ...
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October 20, 2011 No Comments
Lawsuit Claims Banks Bilked Veterans During Refinancing Transactions
Evan Nemeroff, National Mortgage News A whistleblower lawsuit filed by two mortgage brokers has been unsealed in Federal District Court in Atlanta claiming that 13 banks and mortgage companies have cheated veterans out of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the lawsuit, lenders allegedly hid illegal fees in veterans' home mortgage refinancing transactions related to the Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loans program. This program was created to allow veterans to take advantage of ...
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October 18, 2011 No Comments
Protesters Descend on MBA
Jon Prior, Housing Wire Roughly 150 protesters gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago Monday afternoon, protesting the Mortgage Bankers Association as some of the the trade group's members looked on and snapped photos. Thousands more from various groups organized around the city, including Daley Plaza and Federal Plaza. A pastor from a nearby suburb who identified himself as Russell, arrived at the Hyatt and picked up a sign from the Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation. It was a c...
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October 18, 2011 No Comments
Coester Leads AMC Sphere
Coester Leads AMC Consolidation Charge with New Acquisition by JACOB GAFFNEY, Housing Wire Coester Appraisal Group is beginning its move to acquire smaller appraisal management companies with the acquisition of Appraisal Scope, a small boutique firm with about 15 employees. CEO Brian Coester didn't release many details on the deal, but said it is not a lump sum cash transaction. Instead, Rockville, Md.-based Coester will retain all employees at Washington, D.C.-based Appraisal Scope and slowl...
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October 6, 2011 4 Comments
FHFA warns Basel III may increase mortgage rates
-Housingwire Basel III will increase capital requirements for big banks, resulting in higher mortgage rates, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said. The FHFA made that assertion in a paper released this week on proposed mortgage servicing compensation rules. Basel III capital requirements were designed with the intent of ensuring systemically significant banks possess enough capital to cover future risks. Because capital requirements are going higher, FHFA says "some of the largest ...
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October 3, 2011 No Comments
Wall Street’s New Watcher
-The Wall Street Journal Two weeks after moving into a skyscraper near Wall Street to start assembling a muscular new agency overseeing banks and insurers in New York, Benjamin M. Lawsky got a surprise during an introductory meeting with a midlevel manager: His power was even broader than he thought. The 41-year-old former federal prosecutor, who spent the last four years as Andrew Cuomo's confidant and adviser in the New York attorney general's office, learned that he had greater latitude to...
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October 3, 2011 No Comments
Freddie Mac Loan Deal Defective, Report Says
-The New York Times Freddie Mac used a flawed analysis when it accepted $1.35 billion from Bank of America to settle claims that the bank misled it about loans purchased during the mortgage boom, according to an oversight report scheduled for release on Tuesday. The faulty methodology significantly increased the probable losses in Freddie Mac’s portfolio of loans, according to the report, prepared by the inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the company. Fre...
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September 27, 2011 No Comments
What New Jumbo Mortgage Rules Mean for Expensive Zip Codes
-Yahoo! Finance On Oct. 1, the size of mortgages eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will shrink. That isn't necessarily a big deal in most parts of the country; the new lower limit of $625,500 — down from today's $729,750 — still is big enough to cover most homes in almost all markets in the United States. Furthermore, mortgage bankers are stepping up with new money to cover those bigger loans, reports Mortgage Daily. "Programs here and there are popping up," say...
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September 26, 2011 No Comments
G.O.P. Urges No Further Fed Stimulus
-The New York Times Even though the financial markets have been counting on the Federal Reserve to take action, Republican Congressional leadership sent a letter to the Federal Reserve chairman on Tuesday evening urging it not to engage in further stimulus. The letter was sent in the midst of a two-day meeting in which Fed officials are widely expected to undertake policies to lower long-term interest rates. That move would be intended to loosen up credit in hopes of promoting growth. The meet...
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September 26, 2011 No Comments
Fed Runs Risk of Doing Less Than Investors Expect
-The New York Times Investors have concluded that the Federal Reserve will announce new measures to promote economic growth after a meeting of its policy-making committee ends Wednesday. Long-term interest rates have moved as if the Fed had already spoken. The central bank is often described as facing the choice of whether to do more to improve the economy. But the anticipatory behavior of investors means the Fed really faces a slightly different choice, one it has confronted often in recent y...
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September 26, 2011 No Comments
Fannie and Freddie Could Raise Fees in 2012
-Realty Biz News Analysts believe that the government may need to charge higher fees to lenders and increase mortgage insurance from borrowers in order to guarantee loans when they go ahead and overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – a move that could lead to increased borrowing costs. The government is trying to boost competitiveness within mortgage markets, and at the same time reduce their expenses over the next ten years by $28 billion. Currently, government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) ...
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September 26, 2011 1 Comment
Bank regulators to unveil "living will" plan
-Reuters U.S. regulators are set to vote next week on a final rule governing the plans large banks must draft on how they can be liquidated if they are heading toward failure. The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law requires these "living wills," which are part of the government's new power to seize and break up large, failing firms. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp announced plans on Thursday for its board to vote on the final rule on Tuesday. It is drafting the rule with t...
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September 13, 2011 No Comments
20 Ways to Add Curb Appeal
-Better Homes and Gardens If your home's curb appeal makes a great first impression, everyone -- including potential homebuyers -- will want to see what's inside. Check out these simple, low-cost improvements that you can do in a day, a week, or a month. In a Day Create perfect symmetry Symmetry is not only pleasing to the eye, it's also the simplest to arrange. Symmetrical compositions of light fixtures and front-door accents create welcoming entryways. This door is flanked by two side...
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September 12, 2011 No Comments
Another Fannie servicing portfolio up for sale
-Housingwire MountainView Servicing Group will help sell a $485 million servicing portfolio of Fannie Mae mortgages. Nearly all of the loans in the portfolio are fixed rate and primarily located in Illinois. The average delinquency rate on the portfolio is 2.21%. Interest rates average 4.67%, and the average FICO score is 761. The portfolio also carries an average 30-basis-point servicing fee. A spokesman for MountainView said the portfolio is being sold by a private mortgage bank but did n...
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September 7, 2011 No Comments
Big banks could tighten lending following FHFA lawsuit: FBR Capital
-Housingwire The decision of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to sue major banks under representation and warranties clauses prompted Paul Miller with FBR Capital Markets to criticize the plan, saying it will likely further drain capital from the banking system. Miller's criticism is pointed mostly to the unintended negative impact the lawsuit may have on the average American. As banks tighten purse strings further, for whatever reason, future qualified borrowers continue to stay on the sid...
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September 7, 2011 No Comments
US Economy Is Basically ‘Still In Recession’: Fed’s Evans
-CNBC The U.S. economic outlook has "clearly" deteriorated this year, and the continued softness of economic indicators shows that the headwinds facing the country are even stronger than thought, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Wednesday. "Conditions still aren't much different from an economy still in recession ," Evans, speaking at a seminar in London said. He said the Fed faced significant challenges in overcoming the obstacles left ...
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September 7, 2011 No Comments
UAD Update
-National Association of Appraisers Below is a complete copy of an email from Bob Murphy at Fannie Mae. It is provided as an urgent matter. The mistake probably was based on the FHA announcement. Fannie/Freddie have recently updated their UAD instructions, primarily to add in most sections that the appraiser may/should add comments/clarifications when necessary. The report doesn't change except for the standardization. The UAD does not substitute for text comments in either the comments ...
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August 29, 2011 No Comments
Appraisal Overhaul Pushed Back to Jan 1
-Reverse Mortgage Daily The deadline for implementing new Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) requirements has been pushed back to January 1, according to Mortgagee Letter 2011-30, released on Monday. As specified in the mortgagee letter, the new UAD requirements will go into effect for all case numbers assigned on or after January 1, 2012 and for all appraisals performed on HUD real estate owned (REO) and Pre-Foreclosure Sale (PFS) properties with an effective date on or after January 1, 2012. T...
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August 24, 2011 1 Comment
Bernanke’s big Jackson Hole speech could rattle the markets
-MSNBC Whether the Federal Reserve likes it or not, its unprecedented monetary polices over the last few years have conditioned the financial markets to expect a helping hand when the going gets tough. That's why all eyes will be on Ben Bernanke, the central bank's chairman, when he speaks Friday at the Fed's annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. With the stock market mired in a month-long slump and both the U.S. and euro zone economies in danger of sliding into recession, investors ar...
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August 24, 2011 No Comments
Former Ginnie Mae execs submit GSE reform plans
-Housingwire Former Ginnie Mae presidents Robert Couch and Joseph Murin said the future structure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be based on the agency they used to lead, according to a letter they sent to Republican lawmakers last week. In the letter sent to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), the former Ginnie chiefs expressed concern over the health of the secondary mortgage market and its weight on the economic recovery. &quo...
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August 24, 2011 No Comments
Fed’s Low-Rate Pledge Is ‘Inappropriate’: Plosser
-CNBC The Federal Reserve's recent promise to keep rates low for another two years was "inappropriate policy at an inappropriate time," while its statement on the economy was excessively negative, a top Fed policymaker said Wednesday. Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser said he dissented from the Fed's statement because policy should be determined by what the economy is doing rather than by a fixed timeline. "It was inappropriate policy at an inappropri...
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August 17, 2011 No Comments
With Bank Failures Mounting, Some Complain of Harsh Exams
-New York Times Financial regulators have taken a public thrashing for going easy on banks before the financial crisis hit, allowing institutions big and small to dole out dubious loans. Now, according to some community bankers, regulators have abandoned their light touch for a heavy hand at a time when the industry is struggling to recover. The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have dispatched on-site examiners to sco...
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August 17, 2011 1 Comment
On mortgage rates, Obama wants proposal for how government can keep big role
-Washington Post President Obama has directed a small team of advisers to develop a proposal that would keep the government playing a major role in the nation’s mortgage market, extending a federal loan subsidy for most home buyers, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision follows the advice of his senior economic and housing advisers, who favor maintaining the government’s role as an insurer of mortgages for most borrowers. The approach could even preserve Fannie Mae an...
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August 17, 2011 No Comments
Sample URAR With Populated UAD Fields – Courtesy T.J. McCarthy
-Appraisal Scoop Good Morning Appraisers, Here is a little something T.J. McCarthy put together to help his appraisal pals better adjust to the upcoming UAD format change that is about to hit the residential industry. "This is a sample URAR with all the UAD fields populated. You will see many blank fields in this sample because not all fields are UAD specific. I have inserted instructions to further explain the rational behind some of the UAD required fields. The instructions have all ...
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August 16, 2011 No Comments
S&P lowers ratings on Fannie, Freddie
-Housingwire Standard & Poor's lowered the ratings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Monday after downgrading the U.S. government's sovereign debt rating to double-A-plus late last week. Analysts also lowered the ratings on 10 of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks and on senior debt held by FHLB banks as well. All went from triple-A to double-A-plus. The outlook on all affected institutions is negative. "The downgrades of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reflect their direct reliance on the U.S....
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August 12, 2011 No Comments
Rise in REO value cuts Freddie Mac holding expenses by 90%
-Housingwire Freddie Mac reported $27 million in expenses for maintaining and reselling houses repossessed through foreclosure in the second quarter, a mere fraction of the $257 million the previous period. REO expenses include maintaining a foreclosed property as it sits vacant and adjustments in the valuation of the property. Freddie was able to make a 90% reduction from the first quarter, because the actual value of the properties increased. In comparison, the peak REO expenses for Freddie...
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August 12, 2011 No Comments
What is Fed weighing as it mulls more easing?
-CNBC The Federal Reserve is considering renewed efforts to boost growth should the weak U.S. economic recovery and high unemployment take a turn for the worse. Even though employers added a surprisingly hefty 117,000 jobs in July and the jobless rate slipped a tenth of a percentage point, no one argues the job market is robust. Officials will remain vigilant for signs subpar growth is entrenched or is at risk of petering out altogether. The possibility that financial market strains from th...
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August 10, 2011 No Comments
If Fed Is Out of Bullets, Are Tax Cuts Only Option?
-CNBC The U.S. Federal Reserve managed to spark a stock rally on Tuesday, but some economists are now left wondering if it will take tax cuts to inject real life into the broader US economy. The Fed told investors it will keep rates at zero until 2013, and said it would consider further moves to boost growth. Following the news, stocks on Wall Street surged higher and ended the session up more than 4 percent, helping to erase some of the losses made over the last 7 days. Despite the ra...
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August 10, 2011 No Comments
Fed’s Elusive Prescriptions for an Erratic Ailment
-The New York Times The Federal Reserve is back in the spotlight, with investors anxiously wondering if the central bank will end a two-month hiatus and announce new measures to support the economy on Tuesday. Under its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed has pushed the boundaries of its authority and defied opposition during its unprecedented four-year-old campaign to rescue the financial system and revive the economy. As the Fed’s policy-making board convenes Tuesday, with the gains of th...
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August 9, 2011 No Comments
GSEs suspend Republic Mortgage Insurance
-Housingwire Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will no longer purchase for securitization most mortgages insured by Republic Mortgage Insurance and its affiliate RMIC of North Carolina. RMIC, a subsidiary of Old Republic International (ORI: 9.95 -2.26%), a Chicago-based insurance underwriting company with a market capitalization of $2.6 billion, had been showing signs of financial stress since at least last fall. The company breached its regulatory risk-to-capital limits as of Sept. 30, 2010, said...
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August 4, 2011 No Comments
Mortgage groups talk up risk retention as comment period ends
-Housingwire Mortgage industry trade groups sent a flurry of letters to federal regulators this week in efforts to alter the upcoming risk-retention rule before the extended comment period expired Aug. 1. The rule, proposed in April under the Dodd-Frank Act, would require lenders to maintain 5% of the risk on all loans pooled into securities. The most heated debate revolves around the rule's exception: the qualified residential mortgage. Among requirements such as a strict debt-to-income limi...
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August 3, 2011 No Comments
Fannie Mae unwind slows down
-Housingwire Mortgage securitization business at Fannie Mae got a little smaller in June, according to the monthly survey from the government-sponsored enterprise, but the rate at which Fannie Mae business contracts is slowing down. Fannie Mae’s gross mortgage portfolio declined at a compound annualized rate of 9.4% in June. Under Dodd-Frank financial reform, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to unwind operations, though the speed at which this happens is a variable. For exa...
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August 2, 2011 No Comments
Senate steps toward new mortgage servicing standard
-Housingwire The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday to develop a new national mortgage servicing standard. In January, federal regulators announced a new initiative to develop a set of servicing standards following weaknesses in the process that arose last year. The industry immediately began pushing for a unified approach, and regulators are at work with the 50 state AGs to align new requirements, especially for servicing nonperforming loans. Already, Congress is hearin...
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August 2, 2011 1 Comment
Freddie Mac ready to launch Servicing Success Program
-Housingwire Freddie Mac posted details about its new Servicing Success Program Monday as the government-sponsored enterprise prepares for the Aug. 1 launch of the initiative. Through the program, Freddie hopes to offer servicers a more "robust and balanced approach" to setting standards for what the GSE expects from its servicing clients in the field. The program will not only set performance bars, but will provide a stream of feedback on servicer strengths and weaknesses. It als...
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July 26, 2011 No Comments
Coester Appraisal Group (AMC) Announces UCDP Compliance
Uniform Collateral Data Portal and Uniform Appraisal Dataset July 11, 2011—Rockville, MD—Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide appraisal management company, has announced full compliance with the Uniform Collateral Data Portal as well as the Uniform Appraisal Dataset for mortgage lenders. The UCDP is a portal which mortgage lenders will be required to use to deliver appraisal files to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Coester is in full compliance with the new protocols and will ensure all curre...
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July 11, 2011 No Comments
Rep. Capito: I Give Dodd-Frank a ‘D-’
-CNBC Dodd-Frank, love it or hate it, will be one of they key stories this week as some significant deadlines come up this weekend. But while "D-F", as I like to call it, is indeed a newsworthy item, there are several key positions that are vacant. As of July 8th, the positions of the FDIC Chair, Comptroller of the Currency and the CFPB are all vacant. That's right—vacant. Kind of ironic would you say that while Uncle Sam is facing a fiscal crisis, these positions are open. After...
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July 11, 2011 No Comments
FHA gives jobless homeowners one-year break
-MSNBC The Obama administration is making it easier for out-of-work homeowners to stay in their homes, as it tries to revamp its troubled foreclosure-prevention program. Starting Aug. 1, the Federal Housing Administration will extend the period for unemployed homeowners to miss mortgage payments to a full year from three or four months. That will allow qualified homeowners to go without making a monthly payment for 12 months before the foreclosure process begins. The extended grace period on...
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July 8, 2011 1 Comment
Loan Limit: Will It or Won’t It Hurt Housing?
-CNBC News A few weeks ago the National Association of Home Builders put out a report asserting that new lower loan limits going into effect in October at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) "will reduce housing demand and place downward pressure on home prices in major housing markets." On the blog that day, I wrote that the games were only beginning. Now another report, this time from researchers at George Washington University, is suggesting jus...
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July 6, 2011 No Comments
Some Real Estate Agents Are In Cahoots With Fraudsters
-Huffington Post "Profiteers are able to identify vulnerable homeowners by paying real estate agents for referrals," Coop wrote in Secondary Marketing Executive Magazine. Then the profiteer "works to persuade the homeowner that a short sale is the best solution." Coop is president of Interthinx, a company that offers fraud detection solutions for lenders and investors. His comments about short-sale swindlers are particularly timely because Bank of America and Wells Fargo a...
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July 5, 2011 No Comments
An Anomaly Within the Housing Numbers: Washington D.C.
An Anomaly Within the Housing Numbers: Washington D.C.
By: Carrie Bay 06/13/2011
The nation’s Capitol stands out as the “shining star” in nearly every market report that crosses the wire.
Washington, D.C. has consistently defied the recent declines in home prices. The latest S&P Case-Shiller index upheld D.C. as the only city where home prices are increasing on both a monthly and annual basis. That coincided with an official “double dip” in home prices at the national le...
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June 29, 2011 No Comments
Freddie Mac settles with TBW to clean up mortgage mess
-Housingwire Freddie Mac settled with bankrupt mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker but will see only a fraction of what it sought, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week. TBW, once the 12th largest mortgage lender in the U.S., originated, serviced and sold pools of mortgages to Freddie Mac. It relied on financing vehicles from Colonial Bank and Ocala Funding. But in 2002, then TBW Chairman Lee Farkas organized a scheme to defraud investors, regulators and...
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June 27, 2011 No Comments
State Watch: Regulating AMC’s
Editor’s Note: Regulation of AMCs by the states is mandated by Dodd-Frank, covering (or not covering depending on the state) such important issues as timely payment, third party liability agreements, disclosure of appraiser fees in appraisal reports and AMC staff requirements. This story is taken from the new Working RE print edition, currently in the mail to 80,000 appraisers. State Watch: Regulating AMCs By Mike Antoniak When the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) became law May 1, ...
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June 22, 2011 3 Comments
Mortgage Buyback Requests Kick into High Gear
Bank of America said it will “ vigorously defend" itself against mounting pressure from federal regulators and investors to buy...
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June 20, 2011 No Comments
