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May 26, 2006

Sales of Existing Homes and Condos

Posted by S. Germain at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

First American to Host 'The Changing Face of Homeownership: A Real Estate Multicultural Marketing Conference'

First American Title Insurance Company today announced that it will host The Changing Face of Homeownership: A Real Estate Multicultural Marketing Conference, an event intended to help educate real estate industry professionals on how to better serve the growing homeownership needs of San Francisco Bay Area African American, Asian American and Latino communities. Among the distinguished speakers for the one-day event are Leon Panetta, founder of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy and a former White House chief of staff during the Clinton administration; and California Real Estate Commissioner Jeffrey M. Davi. As keynote speaker, Panetta will discuss "Cultural Diversity and the American Dream."

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)

Fidelity National Buys Tree Farm

Fidelity National Financial bought about 70% controlling interest in Cascade Timberlands.

The primary assets of Cascade Timberlands are about 293,000 acres of productive timberlands located on the eastern side of the Cascade mountain range extending from Bend, Oree., south on State Highway 20 toward the California border.

"We intend to review all twenty-six properties in the Oregon tree farm and determine the optimal use for each property on its own and in relation to the other properties," the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company said. "This may entail utilizing the timber assets themselves, conservation and preservation of the land or the exploration of other alternative development uses for the timberland.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)

New York AG Spitzer settles title insurer suits

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Tuesday announced settlements with title insurance companies Fidelity National Title Group Inc. and First American Corp. resolving a two-year probe into illegal payments to agents and favored customers.

Fidelity and First American, under the agreements, will ask New York regulators for title-insurance rate reductions of 15 percent for all New York properties up to $1 million.

The two companies paid fines of $2 million each and agreed to end the illegal practice of paying secret rebates to favored customers, such as big real estate developers and national chain stores, Spitzer's office said.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)

SunTrust Bank First To Offer Clients Free Equifax Credit Watch(TM) With Selected Checking Accounts

SunTrust Banks Inc. today launched a free identity theft protection and credit-monitoring program from Equifax Inc. , a global leader in the consumer credit information industry. With today's announcement, SunTrust becomes the first major bank in the nation to provide Equifax Credit Watch(TM) Silver protection for free to select personal checking clients. Equifax Credit Watch(TM) Silver typically costs $49.95 a year.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:11 AM | Comments (0)

easyLENDER LOS Users Can Increase Loan Production with GuideTrac

Fiserv Lending Solutions announced that the GuideTrac(TM) software solution is now being offered as part of its easyLENDER® loan origination system (LOS) solution set. Developed by Del Mar Database, a Fiserv Lending Solutions business unit, GuideTrac helps lenders manage investor product and underwriting guidelines and deliver information to originators and staff.

GuideTrac enables mortgage lenders to easily and confidently manage investor product guidelines and push that information to originators and staff, allowing everyone involved with a loan to have access to the same guidelines. GuideTrac's Program Finder helps originators to quickly and easily match a borrower's needs to a lender's products via the Internet.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

TransUnion Real Estate Services Launches Consumer Finance Division

TransUnion announced the launch of its newly formed Consumer Finance division. The dedicated group of sales, customer service and operations professionals in this new division will deliver flexible solutions to address the unique needs of non-prime lenders.

TransUnion Real Estate Service's Consumer Finance division offers the following services to non-prime lenders:

Customized Lead Generation
Pre-Qualification Reporting
Professional Appraisals
Valuation Quality Review
Fraud and Identity Management

Posted by S. Germain at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

VirPack Announces Seamless Electronic Loan Delivery to GMAC Residential Funding

VirPack, a leading provider of electronic delivery, document management and imaging solutions for the mortgage industry, announces the enhancement of its seamless electronic image loan delivery solution, VirPack Direct, to support delivery to GMAC Residential Funding, Minneapolis, Minn.

VirPack Direct conforms to GMAC Residential Funding's electronic image- loan delivery specification and supports delivery for correspondent lending partners. Correspondents can electronically deliver fully indexed loan files to GMAC Residential Funding for purchase review.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

TransUnion Launches Turnkey Triggers

TransUnion today unveiled TransUnion Turnkey Triggers, a new service that assists marketers in reaching prospective customers within hours of learning about changes to their credit profile that may predict newfound responsiveness to a targeted firm offer. This integrated solution enhances TransUnion's comprehensive Marketing Solutions offering and takes advantage of the company's robust analytic and decisioning capabilities.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

Reliant Home Warranty Corporation (SMART) Sub-Prime Auto Adjudication Mortgage Systems Are Launched

Boyd Soussana, President of Reliant Home Warranty Corp. announced the launch of specially developed sub-prime mortgage broker origination, risk management, underwriting, auto adjudication and servicing pool management software utilizing the Special Mortgage Application Reliable Technology (SMART).

This complete web based mortgage software system is robust and scalable, which will enable Reliant to provide an on-line, mortgage broker easy-to-use auto adjudication origination coupled with a full in house servicing, risk management and underwriting application software platform at Reliant. This new wave of enabling client side technologies mean lightweight, available anywhere, flexible interfaces that are rich in functionality, easy and powerful to use. Coupled with industry standard database platforms with new XML enabling interfaces, Microsoft's .Net technology is poised to grab much of the market share in future web applications.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

Regions, AmSouth to Merge

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala., the parent company of Regions Mortgage, and AmSouth Bancorporation, Birmingham, have announced a merger agreement that they said will create one of the top 10 bank holding companies in the United States. The Regions name will be retained for the combined entity. The agreement provides for a stock-for-stock merger in which 0.7974 shares of Regions will be exchanged for each share of AmSouth common stock. Based on closing stock prices of both companies on May 24, the pro forma combined market capitalization of the new entity would be approximately $26 billion, the companies said. Jackson W. Moore, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Regions, will be chairman of the combined company.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)

Accredited to Acquire Aames

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., a San Diego-based originator of nonprime residential mortgage loans, and Aames Investment Corp., a Los Angeles-based nonprime lender, have announced an agreement whereby Accredited will acquire Aames in a transaction valued at approximately $340 million. The companies said the merger is expected to result in the sixth-largest retail originator of nonprime mortgages, the 12th-largest mortgage originator overall, the ninth-largest nonprime mortgage portfolio, and the 19th-largest mortgage portfolio. "Aames' nationwide franchise will almost triple Accredited's retail branches, creating one of the nation's largest independent retail originators," said James A. Konrath, chairman and chief executive officer of Accredited. The stock-and-cash transaction values Aames at approximately $5.35 per share at its closing price on May 24. The companies said approximately $109 million of the $340 million purchase price will be paid in cash to Aames stockholders, and the remainder will be paid in Accredited common stock at an exchange ratio of 0.0700 shares of Accredited stock for each share of Aames common stock.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)

Resales Rebound Ends

Existing-home sales slipped 2% in April after a two-month rebound as annual price appreciation on single-family homes fell below 5%, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR reported that sales of single-family homes, condominiums, and cooperatives fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.90 million in March to 6.76 million in April. "Higher interest rates are slowing home sales, but we see this as another sign of a soft landing for the housing market, which remains at historically high levels," NAR chief economist David Lereah said. Meanwhile, median price increases of single-family homes are dropping fast. Single-family house price appreciation fell to 4.7% in April, compared with the median price in April 2005. In February, median house prices were still rising at a double-digit rate of 11.6%.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)

Record New-Home Supply

The Commerce Department's April new-home sales report shows that the supply of newly built dwellings has reached an unprecedented level. As a result, Wells Fargo & Co. senior economist Scott Anderson predicts a slowdown in residential construction during the coming months. Real estate analyst Tracy Cross of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Tracy Cross & Associates notes that builders continued to offer such incentives as lower interest rates and upgrades during February, March and April--traditionally the busiest months of the spring home buying season. According to Quicken Loans chief economist Bob Walters, an expanding supply of new homes and ongoing price gains will result in weaker sales in Miami and other overheated markets.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

WaMu Slashing 850 Local Jobs

In an effort to slash costs, Washington Mutual has announced massive layoffs in its call centers. The company is eliminating 850 jobs in Bothell, Wash., and 550 in Jacksonville, Fla., relocating its call centers to cheaper areas like Milwaukee, upstate New York and the Philippines. Some 1,000 call-center workers in Chatsworth, Calif., lost their jobs earlier this year. The upcoming closure of mortgage-support offices in California, Oregon, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania and South Carolina will put another 2,500 people out of work.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:53 AM | Comments (0)

'05 Home Loan Delinquency Rise a Riddle

The usual explanations for a rise in home loan delinquencies do not seem to apply to an increase in the number of past-due mortgages originated in 2005. Bear Stearns Co.'s Bruce Kramer says nonagency mortgage-backed securities of all collateral types have reported weaker performance, meaning that an increase in subprime loans is not the cause. Though many of the mortgages written last year were hybrid adjustable-rate, interest-only or negative-amortization loans, Kramer points out that they have not yet reached the end of their low initial payment periods, generally one to 10 years. Kramer says 85 percent of delinquencies can be attributed to the fact that they were originated in 2005, suggesting that "there is something in the 2005 vintage that cannot be explained directly in the changes of collateral attributes;" while 10 percent are tied to lower home-price appreciation, 8.6 percent to a jump in combined loan-to-value ratios, 4.1 percent to a shift in loan purpose, 3 percent to multiple risk factors and 2 percent to minimal documentation.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:51 AM | Comments (0)

Fannie to Settle Charges, Pay Fine

Fannie Mae has agreed to pay an estimated $400 million in penalties as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Additionally, the government-sponsored enterprise will face new restrictions from OFHEO. The watchdog's report on Fannie Mae's $10.8 billion accounting violations will provide more details than previous reports about the involvement of ousted chairman and CEO Franklin Raines and ousted CFO J. Timothy Howard. Fannie Mae continues to be investigated by the Justice Department, and the SEC still could take action against some of the GSE's executives.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

First American and Lucero Research Corp. Announce Strategic Alliance

First American Residential Group, a member of The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) family of companies, today announced a new alliance with Lucero Research Corporation, a leading provider of real estate office management software systems. This marketing agreement between two best-in-class service providers establishes First American as the first national software partner to integrate with Lucero’s Summit software. The integration will support the seamless exchange of transaction data between Summit and First American’s Transaction Manager, enhancing the value proposition of both technologies. The companies will begin the integration during the second quarter of 2006.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)

First American Real Estate Solutions Study Offers Insight Into Real Estate Market Cycles

First American Real Estate Solutions® (RES®); the nation's largest provider of advanced property and ownership information, analytics and services; today released a new study entitled "The Real Estate Cycle in 2006: Evaluating Market Position, Identifying Turning Points and Constructing Scenarios," which investigates where the residential real estate market stands today and where it is likely heading based on historical economic information.

The study by Christopher Cagan, Ph.D. and director of research and analytics at First American RES, examines more than 100 metropolitan areas between 1988 through 2005 by analyzing the median sales-price index for existing single-family homes as published by the National Association of Realtors®. Cagan applied proprietary mathematical techniques in classifying those markets and investigating their present status and likely future behavior. He suggests that markets where prices have not risen rapidly may be the best part of the country in which to purchase or invest during 2006.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

Byte Software and ComplianceEase® Announce Strategic Partnership

Byte Software, a leading provider of loan origination software (LOS) and ComplianceEase®, an industry-leading provider of automated compliance and risk management solutions, announced a strategic alliance. This partnership will enable Byte Software customers to determine if their loans comply with federal, state and municipal level regulations, including anti-predatory/high-cost lending statutes and consumer lending regulation based on state lending licenses. The partnership will also give Byte Software customers peace of mind about their loans before they are closed.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

The First American Corporation Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend

The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF - News), America's largest provider of business information, today announced that its board of directors has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 18 cents per common share.

The cash dividend is payable on July 14, 2006, to shareholders of record as of June 30, 2006. First American has paid a cash dividend for each of the last 97 years.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Activity by Type

Posted by S. Germain at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

Fidelity National Information Services Enhances Its HORIZON™ Banking Solution With SecureZIP from PKWARE

Fidelity National Information Services today announced that the HORIZON Banking System has been enhanced with PKWARE's SecureZIP data security solution.

Built on the widely adopted and completely interoperable ZIP standard, SecureZIP provides state-of-the-art encryption and digital signature capabilities. The solution helps organizations mitigate risk by ensuring that customer account information and other valuable data is protected from theft, loss or misuse.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

Sedgwick CMS and FNF Announce the Acquisition of VPA, Inc.

Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. and Fidelity National Financial, Inc. along with their partners Thomas H. Lee Partners and Evercore Capital Partners, today announced that Sedgwick CMS has acquired VPA, Inc. (VPA), a privately-held Calabasas, California-based claims services organization specializing in absence and disability benefit management programs for large employers. VPA has annual revenue of approximately $20 million.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

Stewart Financials

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

Stewart Title of Colorado Acquires Longmont Title Holdings

Stewart Title of Colorado has acquired Longmont Title Holdings. President and co-owner Debbie Fitzgerald, will remain with the office, becoming president of the Longmont division of Stewart Title of Colorado. Co-owner Jon Davis, Christine Evig and Diana Simmons also will remain with the office.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)

Ellie Mae Selects HouseValues for Leads and Marketing Services

HouseValues Inc., an online real estate and mortgage industry marketing services company, has announced that it has partnered with Ellie Mae to provide comprehensive online lead generation and lead management services to Ellie Mae's network of 130,000 mortgage broker customers.

Ellie Mae will offer HouseValues' mortgage products to its national mortgage broker network, with consumer leads from HouseValues available directly through its Encompass Mortgage Automation System. The seamless integration of HouseValues' consumer leads into Encompass comes in response to strong broker demand for higher quality leads than are typically available in the marketplace.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

QuestSoft Aligns with Avista Solutions

QuestSoft, a provider of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance solutions and geocoding services for lenders, announced an alliance with Avista Solutions, a provider of end-to-end mortgage lending software.

The alliance integrates QuestSoft's HMDA RELIEF and Instant Geocoder with Avista's loan origination software (LOS) system, which enables users to create loan applications online or import them from other, external LOS systems as well as order services such as credit, automated underwriting and closing documents. Online pricing, lock and loan eligibility are also available.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

TransUnion Pleased with VantageScore℠ Reception and Marketplace Traction

With the introduction of VantageScore℠ being only two months old, TransUnion is already seeing significant traction in the marketplace among its customers. Engagement of TransUnion resources and testing of VantageScore against customer portfolios is already underway by many of TransUnion's national customers as well as mid-size financial institutions, credit unions, the automotive industry, mortgage lenders and others.

To assist its customers with testing, analysis and adoption, TransUnion established a dedicated VantageScore team. Using VantageScore in combination with a customer's own portfolio and historical data from TransUnion's proprietary database, TransUnion's implementation team can "re-score" a customer's entire portfolio and then track the results up to the current reporting period. Those results can then be compared against the results obtained from the incumbent model.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

GMAC Bank Adopts eMortgage Technology From Encomia to Create a Secure Electronic Mortgage Vault

GMAC Bank has adopted Encomia's Vault module, an information technology system that is designed to store secure electronic mortgages on behalf of GMAC Bank.

According to Barbara Krawczun, Vice President of GMAC Bank, Trust Operations, the company's Document Custody Division plans to implement the Vault module, an electronic storage system by Houston-based Encomia as part of its overall mortgage note custodial services. The Vault module provides secure documentation authentication through smart cards and digital certificates. The solution complies with critical encryption standards.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)

Morgan Stanley CEO says seeks mortgage acquisitions

Morgan Stanley (MS) is searching aggressively for mortgage origination and mortgage servicing acquisitions, but will remain disciplined in its purchases, Chairman and Chief Executive John Mack said Monday.
Mack, who took over the firm at the end of June 2005, said the investment-banking giant has made "significant progress on executing" its plan to close the profitability gap with competitors, but offered a caveat.
"We are looking at a whole range of 'bolt-on' acquisitions and add-ons" of teams, he said, but he emphasized that they likely will be "small" deals.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)

Republic Bank & Trust Company Leverages Fiserv easyLENDER® Consumer/Commercial iDM LOS to Grow Lending Business

To more efficiently provide consumer, home equity and commercial loan products that meet its customers' needs, Republic Bank & Trust Co. of Louisville, Ky., is using the flexible document generation capabilities of the easyLENDER® Consumer/Commercial iDM loan origination software (LOS) solution from Fiserv Lending Solutions, a business unit of financial software provider Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV - News). The bank is also experiencing success using the Fiserv easyLENDER Mortgage software solution to grow its mortgage business.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:55 AM | Comments (0)

SharperLending Partners with CreditXpert Inc. to Offer Credit Report Scanning Service

SharperLending, LLC has partnered with CreditXpert Inc. to offer its users Credit Assure(TM), a loan closing software tool that automatically pre-scans credit files and identifies opportunities to raise credit scores based on credit data accuracy and credit management. SharperLending is the first bundled services platform that allows lenders to access Credit Assure to quickly and efficiently perform due diligence on all credit reports.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

a la mode Launches Broker XSites, Industry's First Cost-Effective Web Site Technology for Real Estate Brokers

a la mode today launched Broker XSites, a web site solution designed specifically for real estate brokers. Broker XSites are a cost-effective solution for real estate brokerages of any size, but specifically target the needs of small-to-mid-size brokers.

For just $2,999 per year, small-to-medium-sized firms can affordably have the same technology that has primarily only been available to much larger firms.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)

New MBA Study Shows $345 Billion in Commercial/Multifamily Originations During 2005

Today, at the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA's) Commercial Asset Administration and Technology Conference, MBA released a ground breaking report detailing $345 billion in commercial/multifamily closed loans during 2005. This report, the 2005 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance: Annual Origination Volume Summation , surveyed 125 top commercial/multifamily finance firms and compiled origination volumes across different roles, investor types, property types, and finance structures. The $345 billion in closed loans represents a 49.9 percent increase over 2004.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)

New Fraud Risk Mitigation Tool Launched

Digital Risk, a risk mitigation company providing tools designed to limit financial services firms’ exposure to fraud, has introduced "Risk IQ," a verification product that provides a "360-degree" risk assessment of mortgage transactions. The vendor, which introduced the product at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Fraud Issues Conference in Chicago, said it is forging new ground in cost per transaction savings with the product. "This newer technology means better due diligence and a more cost-effective means for achieving it," said Jeffrey Taylor, CEO, Digital Risk. Risk IQ uses data sourcing and reporting operations capable of decreasing operational time by an average of 20% and is highly customizable, according to Mr. Taylor.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

Aztec Foreclosure Joins LOGS Network

LOGS Network, Northbrook, Ill., has extended full membership to Aztec Foreclosure Corporation, Phoenix, a trustee doing business in California and Nevada. Aztec has also entered into a practice management agreement under which the company will receive services such as human resources support, data and security support, risk management and marketing services from LOGS. LOGS President and Chief Operating Officer Gerald Alt said the addition of Aztec expands network coverage to 33 states. LOGS Network members represent the mortgage servicing and consumer credit industry in areas such as foreclosure, bankruptcy, eviction, title, and REO management.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)

FHA May Update Automated Underwriting Engine

The Federal Housing Administration is working on the first update of its automated underwriting scorecard, TOTAL, since it was introduced in 2004, according to a report by congressional auditors. The General Accountability Office takes FHA to task for failing to have policies in place to routinely update TOTAL (Technology Open to Approved Lenders), noting that the scorecard may have lost some of its effectiveness in predicting defaults. The GAO also raises concerns about the fact that FHA loans with downpayment assistance or "gifts" from nonprofit groups have higher default and claim rates than other FHA loans, but the scorecard does not include variables for the source of the downpayment. In response, the FHA says the scorecard is "working exactly as it was envisioned" and the contractors and loan data have been secured for the update of the technology. FHA is "revisiting" the issue of downpayments and whether the "source and amount of gifts for the downpayment should be added to the algorithm."

Posted by S. Germain at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)

Bernanke: Housing Market Is Cooling

Speaking at a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago annual meeting, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said it "seems pretty clear" that housing markets are cooling. But, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bernanke responded to a question saying that the housing slowdown is "orderly and moderate" at the time being. In his prepared speech, Mr. Bernanke also addressed new mortgage products, saying that innovation in housing finance has led to "more sophisticated and flexible instruments, more liquid markets, and better risk-sharing." While the net benefits have been positive, Mr. Bernanke said "rapid financial innovation carries some risks," and he urged regulators to be ready to mitigate those risks.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:43 AM | Comments (0)

Wells Fargo Hit Again With Computer Theft

Wells Fargo has confirmed that a computer containing the Social Security numbers and other private information of mortgage holders was stolen while being shipped between its facilities in early May. Executive Vice President Susan Davis said Wells Fargo does not believe the data has been accessed or misused because the San Francisco-based bank uses two layers of security, and spokeswoman Debora Blume indicated that only "a relatively small percentage" of mortgage customers are affected by the theft. The bank has offered the customers free enrollment in an identity theft monitoring service that is designed to notify them when suspicious activity is detected. The incident marks the fourth computer theft at the bank in less than three years.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)

Are Commercial Real Estate Loans Going to Hurt Banks?

Commercial real estate has surged in recent months, resulting in many banks carrying a heavier concentration of real estate loans today than they did during the boom years of the 1980s. In Georgia, for instance, commercial property loan concentration has reached a record $34.5 billion and 61 percent of bank assets last year from $7.5 billion and 40 percent of bank assets a decade ago. Looking to avoid a repeat to the '80s boom-going-bust debacle, regulators have been tightening standards for commercial property lending. While bank profits remain healthy as these loans continue to perform well, Federal Reserve Gov. Susan Bies cautions that the industry is entering a period in which such fundamentals as rising interest rates and a significant amount of new office and other construction coming on the market could affect both re! nts and prices. Not everyone is happy with the tighter standards, including K Bank President and CEO David Wells Jr., who states, "What they've done is to throw a bucket of cold water over the whole business. We're certainly not going to get any more concentrated."

Posted by S. Germain at 07:41 AM | Comments (0)

Alternative Credit Scores Could Open Door for Loans

A push by the financial industry to create a new credit-scoring system that takes rent, utility, child care and medical payments, among other factors, into consideration would help more Hispanics and other underserved populations to achieve homeownership. Latinos typically lack traditional credit histories, which are necessary to obtain conventional financing from most lenders. Alternative credit-scoring models have been made available through First American Credco and Annapolis, Md.-based PRBC, the latter of which allows consumers to report rent and other payments themselves. However, only a few lenders accept alternative credit score; and those who produce the ratings are finding it difficult to get landlords, utilities and other businesses to provide the necessary data.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:38 AM | Comments (0)

Colorado Foreclosure Rate Still No. 1 in U.S.

The number of foreclosures in Colorado fell 31 percent from 5,392 homes in March to 3,706 homes in April, but the decline did not stop the state from continuing to lead the nation in this respect. According to a new report from RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif., Colorado had a foreclosure rate equivalent to one out of every 494 households, compared to the national average of one out of every 1,268 households; while Texas had the largest actual number with 13,829 in April, or one foreclosure for every 582 homes. Colorado officials cited the large number of unsold homes, high credit-card debt, zero-down mortgages, prepayment penalties on adjustable-rate mortgages, rising bankruptcies and mortgage fraud as contributing to the foreclosure problem, adding that rising ! interest rates on ARMs could make it worse. "The problem is buyers who have tons of debt are getting mortgages that are too large for them," said Ben Fiedler, owner of Cherrywood Properties.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:37 AM | Comments (0)

Home Sales Fell in First Quarter

Rising mortgage rates sparked a 1.5-percent decline in existing single-family home sales to an annual pace of 6.8 million units in the first quarter of 2006 from 6.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors. Meanwhile, the median resale price edged up to $217,900 from $197,600 during the January-through-March period in 2005. For the first time in more than a decade, NAR confirms, prices dropped in cities such as Boston and Cincinnati in the first quarter.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2006

Home Inventory Levels

Posted by S. Germain at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

First American Financials

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)

The First American Corporation Expands Title Operations in Turkey

The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF - News), the largest provider of business information in the United States and the leading provider of title insurance services internationally, today announced the formation of First Title Istanbul Inc. in the Republic of Turkey. First Title Istanbul has been established to provide title insurance for foreign investors and title guarantee programs for Turkish banks and consumers.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

Fidelity National Title Group Announces Strategic Partnership With NextAce to Produce Title Reports in As Little as One Hour

Fidelity National Title Group, Inc. today announced a strategic partnership with automated title software and service provider NextAce(SM) to significantly improve delivery speed of title reports.

With NextAce's Title EDGE(SM) "software as a service" (SaaS) offering, FNT's five leading title insurance underwriters -- Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Ticor Title, Security Union Title and Alamo Title -- will be able to reduce the time to deliver a title report from approximately 48 hours to as little as one hour.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

ADP and FIS Join Forces to Launch ProVisor2Go for BlackBerry

ADP Brokerage Services Group and Fidelity National Information Services today announced the formation of a strategic partnership to offer secure wireless access to ADP's ProVisor® broker desktop critical sales, productivity, and account servicing tools for financial professionals.

The joint solution, called ProVisor2Go, is based on ADP's comprehensive, multi-functional ProVisor broker desktop application powered by the FIS wireless wealth management platform. For use with the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution(TM) from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM - News; TSX: RIM - News), ProVisor To Go provides ADP clients with a mobilized version of the ProVisor desktop application that users rely on while in the office.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

Stewart Title of Colorado Announces Opening of Primer Latino Titulo

Stewart Title of Colorado has opened its first full-service office in the Denver metropolitan area, designed specifically to accommodate the Hispanic community in buying and selling homes. The division, Primer Latino Titulo, handles title insurance, escrow and closing services and began operations on May 1.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

Hyland Software Enables eMortgage Delivery for Chase Correspondent Lenders

Hyland Software Inc., developer of the OnBase® enterprise content management (ECM) software suite, today announced at the MBA's National Secondary Conference & Expo the availability of the OnBase eMortgage Delivery module for correspondent lenders of Chase Home Finance. The module delivers loan documents electronically to Chase in its preferred image transfer format. Chase can now receive transferred loan documents and data from correspondent lenders to speed loan funding.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

MindBox Technology Powers 'WRAPS' Automated Risk Analysis Scoring System

MBA National Secondary Market Conference -- MDA MindBox® Inc, a leader in information solutions for automating complex business and decision processes, announced today that its ARTEnterprise decisioning technology is powering the industry's first 100 percent automated risk analysis system -- the Walzak Risk Analysis Process Score (WRAPS).

The WRAPS predictive scoring model can be used by lenders and investors to replace manual quality control reviews and due diligence for evaluation and pricing of loans within a portfolio -- reducing to 45 hours what used to take up to 45 days. The patent-pending risk model was built entirely within MindBox's award-winning ARTEnterprise decisioning software system by MindBox's software engineers.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

DocuTech and Advantage Credit Form Strategic Alliance to Prevent Fraud at the Point of Sale

DocuTech Corp. announced a strategic alliance with Advantage Credit, a provider of credit reporting and loan transaction services.

The alliance between DocuTech's ConformX® and Advantage Credit's LoanShield(TM) provides DocuTech customers with an added layer of security when closing mortgage documents. LoanShield is embedded into ConformX, a Web-based solution that accelerates the closing process through document management, giving customers the option to use LoanShield, while running their closing documents.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)

Marriott Vacation Club International Implements Fiserv Single Provider Solution Using UniFi PRO and MortgageServ

Fiserv Lending Solutions announced that Marriott Vacation Club International is now using the Fiserv UniFi® PRO loan origination solution to automate its vacation ownership lending operations. This implementation follows the company's successful deployment of the Fiserv loan servicing platform MortgageServ® in February 2005.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)

Silver Hill, NetBank Form CRE Alliance

Silver Hill Financial LLC, a Miami-based real estate lender, has announced an alliance with NetBank Inc., an Atlanta-based online lender, to enable the latter to offer commercial real estate loans to its small-business customers. Silver Hill said it offers a customized approach that allows lenders of all sizes to become "instant commercial lenders" by relying on Silver Hill to perform back-office functions. "Our strategic alliance will allow [NetBank] to expand their product line and enhance their brand while we handle all the details of commercial transactions for NetBank's small-business customers," said Jerry Feinstein, senior director of correspondent lending at Silver Hill.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)

Advectis Enhances E-Doc Transfer

Advectis Inc., Alpharetta, Ga., has announced the release of enhanced capabilities for electronic document transfer and investor delivery in its BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite. The added functionality, announced at the MBA's National Secondary Market Conference and Expo in Chicago, enables lenders to export imaged loan folders for secure, fast delivery to the secondary market. The new export capabilities give lenders and correspondent sellers the ability to assign loans, either pool or flow, for electronic delivery to specific investors or due-diligence providers. Once logged in to BlitzDocs, investors can access the assigned loans via a browser and import the document images directly into their internal imaging systems, Advectis said. The delivery is securely transmitted from the BlitzDocs network to the external parties. No additional software, integration resources, or programming is required for electronic loan delivery

Posted by S. Germain at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)

MERS Unveils E-Delivery Service

MERS has announced the launch of a new service to transport electronic documents from one party to the next. MERS's announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference and Expo in Chicago indicated that eDelivery was designed to help aggregators integrate their electronic mortgage technologies with those of their partners. The goal is that every party in the industry will integrate once to MERS and be able to electronically deliver documents to other parties without interfacing to several systems.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)

Fed Hikes Target Funds Rate 25bps

The Federal Open Market Committee has raised its target for the federal funds rate 25 basis points to 5% and issued an accompanying statement indicating that it "sees growth as likely to moderate to a more sustainable pace, partly reflecting a gradual cooling of the housing market." The FOMC's comments indicate that "a) it may pause in June or soon thereafter, b) any pause should not be viewed as necessarily the end of the rate cycle, and c) there is a clear bias toward further tightening," according to a report by Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Foreclosure Surge Predicted

Increases in adjustable-rate mortgage payments will be the main reason why foreclosures will continue to mount, according to Christian Weller, an economist with the Center for American Progress. Weller made the comment during a conference call on Thursday hosted by the Washington think tank, during which Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren estimated that the number of foreclosures would nearly triple from 2005 to 1.2 million this year. Warren said lenders have driven residential prices higher and consumers further into debt, "and they did it through reduced mortgage lending standards and by selling products full of tricks and traps." Rising foreclosures will have a negative impact on home prices, mortgage holders and the construction industry, she warned.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

Countrywide, Quicken Say Rising Rates Spur Mortgage Refinancing

Higher interest rates will spur refinancing activity among borrowers of adjustable-rate mortgages, according to Countrywide Financial Corp. and Quicken Loans Inc. The shift to fixed-rate financing from variable-rate loans accounts for more than half of the mortgages written by Countrywide during the first quarter. Though the housing market appears to be slowing, such activity will give lenders a profit boost. Countrywide reports that $200 billion in floating-rate loans will undergo interest-rate adjustments this year, and another $1 trillion will reset in 2007.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

Bubble's Bursting on All Fronts

Higher mortgage interest costs, a lower pace of homeownership and growth in owner-occupied vacancy rate together suggest that the housing sector is losing steam. The amount of mortgage interest paid by borrowers rose at an annual rate of 15.8 percent in the first quarter--up from 14 percent in 2005--according to Moody's Investors Service chief economist John Lonski, who attributes the increase to the popularity of variable-rate mortgages in recent years. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius blames a drop in the national homeownership rate to 68.5 percent during the January-through-March period from 69.1 percent during the first quarter of 2005 on worsening affordability, as opposed to a decline in supply. Meanwhile, at 2.1 percent, the owner-occupied vacancy ! rate is the highest on record, which Hatzius says "increases our confidence that the housing sector really is slowing substantially."

Posted by S. Germain at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)

Wachovia Buying Into West

Wachovia Corp. has agreed to a $25.5 billion cash-and-stock deal to acquire Golden West Financial Corp. The acquisition ranks as the largest ever for Wachovia, expanding its network of bank branches into the profitable California market. The deal, which still requires regulatory and shareholder approval, also would double the size of Wachovia's overall mortgage lending business and establish the bank in other Western states such as Arizona and Colorado. Golden West approached Wachovia about a possible deal last month, following unsuccessful negotiations with HSBC Group PLC of London and New York's Citigroup Inc.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:35 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2006

New Home Prices

Posted by S. Germain at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

First American Corp. ranks No. 284 on the 2006 Fortune® 500®

The First American Corporation ranks no. 284 on this year's list of the Fortune® 500®, with $8,061.8 million in revenues, up 19.9% from the previous year. The Santa Ana, Calif.-based company was ranked no. 309 on the 2005 list.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)

Bloomfield State Bank Chooses The HORIZON™ Banking System From Fidelity National Information Services

Fidelity National Information Services today announced that Bloomfield State Bank has chosen the in-house version of The HORIZON™ Banking System for its core processing needs.

The Bloomfield, IN-based bank, a family-owned institution established in 1873, is also a user of FIS' ImageCentre™ check imaging solution, CustomerLink™ Internet banking and FIS EFT solutions.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

Fidelity National Financial, Inc. Announces Purchase of 45.5% Stake in Fortune Infotech Limited

Fidelity National Financial, Inc. today announced that it has acquired a 45.5% stake in Fortune Infotech Limited ("Fortune Infotech") from Covansys Corporation.

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)

LandAmerica Financials

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)

Visionet Systems Launches Foreclosure Referral Automation Solution in Response to Increase in Foreclosures Nationwide

Visionet Systems has launched VisiFRS®, a foreclosure referral automation solution for servicers. VisiFRS improves tracking of referrals and provides a real-time management portal for mortgage companies.

The system enables users to pull servicing data and images on exception basis to create Notice of Intent (NOI) and Foreclosure Referral letters. VisiFRS provides task and team queues to manage workload and resources. The exception-based system allows users to proactively manage NOI exception task list and foreclosure referral exception queues.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

Dorado Announces Fifth Third Bank Begins Phased Rollout of Dorado ChannelMaster

Dorado Corporation, delivering the power of the network to home lending, today announced that The Fifth Third Mortgage Company, a division of Fifth Third Bank, has begun a phased rollout of the Dorado ChannelMaster®/POS networked, on-demand loan origination solution. Beginning with a select group of brokers, the solution will soon be deployed nationwide to help Fifth Third increase market share and better serve their loyal broker network. By giving all brokers and branches a single point-of-sale (POS) solution that integrates and automates origination, Fifth Third is creating a more efficient and productive processing solution to help brokers save processing time and close more loans.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

RE/MAX and MortgageBrokers.com Proceed With Strategic Alliance

MortgageBrokers.com Holdings Inc., announced today that the Company will be receiving $2 Million USD, the first installment of a total investment that could be up to $6 million USD through a private placement, from RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada Inc. ("RE/MAX"). With these initial funds, MortgageBrokers.com is on schedule to deploy its mortgage origination business model into participating RE/MAX franchises beginning on June 1, 2006. MortgageBrokers.com announced earlier this year it has entered into a 10-year integrated licensing and marketing agreement with RE/MAX.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

a la mode Blazes Trail Toward 'Last Mile' in eMortgages

a la mode has announced the release of SureDocs as a public beta.

SureDocs allows users to generate mortgage-related documents in industry standard PDF format, deliver them to others in a GLB compliant manner and get e-signed copies back in minutes. The public beta release means SureDocs is absolutely free to all mortgage professionals.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

Citigroup to Tap Booming Market for Loans in India

Citigroup Inc. has announced plans to acquire an additional 9.27-percent stake in Housing Development Finance Corp., India's biggest mortgage lender, boosting its interest in firm to roughly 13 percent. The purchase, which received approval by Housing Development's board of directors earlier in the week, would allow Citigroup to tap India's booming loan market and enable Housing Development to draw on more capital from overseas. Strict government regulations have kept such international lenders from expanding their commercial-banking branch networks rapidly in the country. To date, Citigroup has fewer than 50 bank branches in India.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

Bank of America Equity Loans Soar

In 2005, Bank of America approved $72 billion in home equity loans, making it the nation's largest producer of this financial product for the first time in its history. The achievement is the result of a three-year effort to make its loans more affordable, accelerate its approval process and engage in more focused marketing. Bank of America now controls roughly 10 percent of domestic deposits, with federal restrictions in place limiting its ability to grow further via acquisitions. Instead, the bank will place more emphasis in the future on bolstering the areas where it is not as strong, especially considering that the bank has sold loans to only about 35 to 40 percent of the customers it deems "good candidates."

Posted by S. Germain at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Lender to Consolidate

To lower costs and remain competitive, ACC Capital Holdings Corp. has announced that it will lay off 3,800 workers and shutter its 229 branch offices. The move will enable it to consolidate its Ameriquest Mortgage Co.--the largest subprime lender in the nation--and Town and Country Credit retail mortgage operations. The consolidated companies will operate numerous regional locations. The reorganization will not prevent ACC from complying with a $325 million settlement agreement with several state attorneys general for allegedly deceiving borrowers.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

Housing Market Shows More Signs of Slowing Down

A 6-percent decline in pending home resales during the year-over-year period ended in March, as reported by the National Association of Realtors, is among the reports that point to a downturn in the housing market as interest rates rise. National Association of Home Builders chief economist Dave Seiders says the report aligns with the group's forecast of an "ongoing, but moderate settling of the market." In the new-home arena, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. is experiencing higher cancellation rates, prompting the company to predict a 20-percent drop in contracts in the second quarter. Credit Suisse analyst Ivy Zelman attributes weaker new-home sales to the fact that the markets favored by builders--California, Arizona, Florida and the District of Columbia--are slowing at a faster rate than others.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

NetBank Mortgage Units on Sale Block

NetBank Inc. is scouting for a buyer for its mortgage service business and for the bulk of its mortgage servicing rights portfolio. The Georgia-based financial institution calculates that selling both would free up between $20 million and $35 million of capital, which it would then invest in other growth-oriented initiatives. NetBank will continue to make mortgage loans as well as run a full-service bank via the World Wide Web and a payments processing arm. NetBank Chairman and CEO Douglas Freeman reports that his company's biggest problem is that it is capital restrained, meaning that "you need to deploy that capital where you get the best return for your shareholders, and today that's in the bank, not mortgage servicing."

Posted by S. Germain at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

IndyMac May Sell 20 Percent Stake in Reverse-Mortgage Division

IndyMac Bancorp is considering selling a 20 percent stake in its reverse mortgage division via an initial public offering, as a way to monetize its investment in the unit, facilitate growth and boost the stock prices of both companies. The Pasadena, Calif.-based savings and loans did not offer a timetable for an IPO for Financial Freedom Senior Funding, which originated 56 percent of reverse mortgages and serviced 53 percent of the loans last year in the country. Net profit and originations for Financial Freedom nearly doubled at $8 million and $1.12 billion of loans, respectively, in January through March compared to a year ago, with the reverse-mortgage division accounting for one-eighth of IndyMac's mortgage production profit for the first quarter and one-tenth of its overall $79.8 million in profit. The large number of a! ging Americans gives the reverse mortgage business a good outlook for the immediate future, including this year, even as rising interest rates slow down overall U.S. mortgage lending.

Posted by S. Germain at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2006

2006 Trade Show Calendar

To download the First American trade show calendar for 2006 as an Excel document, you may click here.

Posted by K. Perry at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)