News

As scrutiny continues to grow in the servicing arena, the watchdog for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) says it has concerns about non-bank servicers working with GSE loans. Out of the 30 largest servicers, FHFA OIG says that non-banks held a 17 percent share of mortgage market as of the end of 2013, representing nearly $1.7 trillion. As a result, the report says these non-bank companies may have taken on more volume than they can handle.

Construction spending edged up 0.1 percent from April to May, though private homebuilding outlays came down slightly. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction spending during May was at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $956.1 billion, just up from April's revised estimate of $955.1 billion and 6.6 percent higher than the May 2013 estimate of $896.6 billion.

Move, Inc., a provider of residential listings for consumers, named housing trends expert Jonathan P. Smoke as the first-ever chief economist for Realtor.com, the official site of the National Association of Realtors.

Property analytics firm CoreLogic reported an 8.8 percent year-over-year increase in its May Home Price Index (HPI), marking 27 straight months of annual improvement. Taking out distressed sales, the HPI was up 8.1 percent year-on-year. May's figure represents another slowdown in the annual rate of home price gains, which are now down almost 3 percentage points compared to only a few months ago.

The Justice Department announced that U.S. Bank has agreed to a $200 million settlement on claims it underwrote FHA-insured loans that did not meet eligibility requirements. U.S. Bank also admitted that its quality control program fell short of FHA requirements. Consequently, the bank failed to identify shortcomings in many of the loans it had certified for FHA insurance.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced an extension of the MHA program for at least one year and a new effort to help jump-start the private-label securities (PLS) market. To determine what can be done to encourage new PLS investment, the Treasury Department will be hosting a series of meetings with investors and is publishing a request for comment in the Federal Register.

FormFree Holdings Corporation, a company offering verification technology for the mortgage industry, named John Sheppard as president and COO, according to an announcement.

FDIC announced Friday the closure of yet another insured bank, bringing the count up to 12 in the year's first half. The Oklahoma State Banking Department shut down Freedom State Bank over the weekend, closing the book on an institution described by FDIC in early May as "critically undercapitalized."

AEI's National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), released monthly through the institute's International Center on Housing Risk, registered 11.87 percent for May, down from April's revised reading. The institute considers any index value below 6 percent as "indicative of conditions conducive to a stable market." The index acts as a stress test, measuring the percentage of loans at risk of default in the event of another economic crisis.

Pending home sales surged in May, spurred by lower interest rates and increased inventory, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. The group's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), which measures contract signings as an indicator of future sales figures, jumped 6.1 percent month-over-month to 103.9. It was the largest one-month increase since April 2010.