Foreclosure

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in highly delinquent loans, has announced its selection by the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Services Corporation as the group's designated special servicer and preferred partner for dealing with defaulting loans. Wingspan will be providing its services to member credit unions in an effort to save as many of their problem loans as possible from foreclosure.

Fannie Mae announced Monday the opening of a mortgage help center in Miami to help distressed borrowers in South Florida with loans owned by the GSE. The Miami facility is the first in a series of local centers that the mortgage financier plans to open across the country. Fannie Mae says the goal is to accelerate the response time for struggling homeowners and improve the company's resolution of problem loans.

Integrated Mortgage Solution, a Houston-based provider of collateral protection resources for the mortgage servicing sector, recently announced its electronic document retrieval and indexing capabilities, which the company says will help servicers increase permanent loan modifications.

In order to streamline communication between servicer clients and their investors, San Diego-based Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), a nationwide property preservation and inspection services provider to the financial services industry, recently partnered with HomeTelos, a Dallas-based company that specializes in the development and support of Web-based solutions that support the management and marketing of real estate assets.

In an effort to help Realtors understand the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) and its guidelines, the national Association of Realtors has released a brochure about the program and is providing additional resources online, including government forms and guidelines, a video explaining the new federal guidelines, and frequently asked questions.

Despite having a bad rap for being slow and problematic, short sales are quickly becoming a preferred method to dispose of distressed properties. One industry survey shows short sales accounted for a substantial 15.9 percent of home purchase transactions in January nationwide. This foreclosure alternative is becoming particularly attractive in some of the hardest-hit housing markets. Lawmakers in Arizona are considering a bill that would mandate real estate agents there take 15 hours of short sale classes to learn the process.

The administration unveiled a new initiative to help the nation's hardest hit housing markets. President Obama is allocating $1.5 billion for states where unemployment is high and home prices have fallen more than 20 percent. While national indicators point to housing stabilization, local conditions vary considerably. Obama is setting up an ""innovation fund"" for state agencies to develop their own loan modification assistance programs for underwater and unemployed homeowners.

The national residential delinquency rate and new foreclosures initiated both dropped in the fourth quarter. Is it a sign that the industry has finally turned the corner on the housing crisis? The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says yes. ""We are likely seeing the beginning of the end,"" Jay Brinkmann, MBA's chief economist, said. According to MBA, the delinquency rate has fallen to 9.47 percent, down 17 basis points from the third quarter of 2009. Foreclosure starts are down 22 basis points.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Community Capital have released a study which uses interviews with Latino families who have suffered a foreclosure to shed light on the damage inflicted by the loss of their home.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced Wednesday that as of January 31, 2010, it had 137,128 active trial and completed modifications in place under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Of these, 17,652 were permanent modifications--double the number of permanent modifications reported as of the end of December, and 7,554 were permanent modifications pending completion.