News

In the past, the industry had the luxury of making mistakes right and financial institutions could operate in the sure knowledge that if a problem presented itself, the solution would not unduly hinder the operation of the enterprise. That’s no longer true today.

With the deadline for the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules going into effect on August 1, many lenders are increasingly concerned about possible penalties should they not be fully compliant by this date. To address these anxieties, Congressmen Steve Pearce (R-New Mexico) and Brad Sherman (D-California), joined forces to introduce a bill (H.R. 2213) that would provide temporary leniency from lawsuits and law enforcement. If passed, it would remain in effect until January 1, 2016.

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.

Freddie Mac's net income for the first quarter of 2015 totaled $524 million, nearly double the total of a profitable but somewhat slow fourth quarter, according to Freddie Mac's Q1 2015 Financial Report released Tuesday morning. It marked the 14th consecutive quarter of profitability for Freddie Mac.

According to a study released by Zillow, low income and rising home values have made homeownership unaffordable and unattainable for the country’s lowest paid workers. Over the past two years, one-third of Americans have not been able to afford homes due to low wages. As the housing market recovered, incomes did not.

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.

Arch Mortgage Insurance (Arch MI), a provider of private mortgage insurance and a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch Capital Group Ltd, will host a complimentary webinar discussing the recent release of their Spring 2015 Edition of its Housing and Mortgage Market Review. The webinar will discuss the latest findings of the report, including the latest trends that influence the housing market today and a discussion of how states in the oil market could be affected by the recent drop in oil prices. Arch MI aims to help industry professionals understand what is happening in the nation’s housing market and why with their exclusive Housing Update Webinar.

Lenders' share of mortgage purchase volume increased for the first time in 2015, jumping 5 percent according to the latest Origination Insight Report released by Ellie Mae, a leading provider of on-demand software solutions and services for the residential mortgage industry. The report found that purchases represented 46 percent of lenders’ overall volume in March, compared to 53 percent in mortgage refinancing volume.