Headlines

Appraisal management company Accurate Group announced the launch of a new interior property inspection tool—iValueNet. The Cleveland, Ohio-based company said that iValueNet is part of their ValueNet suite of appraisal tools that can be utilized by banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders as a cost effective-alternative to other interior appraisal options on the market.

After experiencing a $191 million loss from continuing operations for the 2014 year, PHH Corporation was able to make a complete turnaround for the first quarter. The company managed to wrap up Q1, ending March 31, 2015, with a net income of $21 million.

In an effort to prepare for August 1 TRID changes, Pavaso recently introduced a new program designed to help companies easily transition to digital closings called “Fast Track.” The program is intended to help lenders and title companies provide a better consumer experience for the upcoming law changes. Pavaso reports that the Digital Close solution takes only two weeks to complete.

ReverseVision announced the creation of an operations team, as well as the hiring of a new VP of sales and marketing to their company roster. The operations team will be dedicated to product operations, system monitoring, capacity planning, backup, recovery, hosting management, and product release. Wendy Peel, the company’s new VP of sales and marketing, will manage the brand, work with product development on system enhancements, and increase ReverseVision brand awareness for forward lenders and financial planners.

Lower-priced homes stood a better chance at survival during the 2006-2009 housing crisis, according to an Urban Wire blog post by the Urban Institute and authors Jun Zhu and Bing Bai. Not only did cheaper homes recover more quickly from the bust, according to national averages and location data found by the Urban Institute, cheaper homes became more expensive during the boom as well.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) took steps toward reducing the regulatory burden placed on community national banks and federal savings associations (FSAs) by participating in an outreach meeting as part of the Economic Growth and Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) on Monday.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings reported a net loss of $48 million, or $0.53 per share, for the first quarter of 2015 compared with a net income of $19 million ($0.21 per share) for the previous quarter, according to an announcement from the Lewisville, Texas-based residential mortgage servicer on Tuesday morning.

Interthinx released its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, revealing that the National Mortgage Fraud Risk Index is 101 for Q4 2014, a 3 percent increase from the last quarter and the exact same as last year. Trends at the state, MSA, and ZIP-code levels reveal fraud triggers, according to Interthinx.

According to the March 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), home prices, including distressed sales, have increased by 5.9 percent in March 2015 in comparison with March 2014. Short sales and REO transactions are both included in distressed sales.

Since 2012, all GSE profits have been swept into Treasury. The GSEs each have a capital buffer of $1.8 billion, but it is required to be reduced by $600 million per year until it reaches zero by 2018. The Enterprises would require another draw on Treasury should their losses exceed their capital buffer.