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Wayne County Treasurer to Auction Tax Foreclosed Properties Online The Office of the Wayne County Treasurer in Michigan will conduct its first Internet auction of more than 13,000 tax foreclosed properties September 17-23. Bid4Assets.com will perform the online auction. The auctioned properties represent a 44 percent increase over the number of properties seized by the county in 2009, making it the largest auction ever for Wayne County. | Bank Closings Worsen Liquidity Crisis, Remington Capital Reports The uptick in bank failures is further deteriorating the nation's liquidity crisis, according to Andy Bogdanoff, chairman of Remington Capital, an international commercial real estate investment banking company. This surge in bank closings may ignite more bankruptcies for commercial real estate owners in need of financing, he warns, particularly since some $1.2 trillion in commercial mortgage debt is scheduled to mature over the next few years and most U.S. banks are unable or unwilling to extend new credit. | Private Sector Labor Force Grows as Recovery Trudges On Just ahead of the Labor Day holiday, the federal government reported a slight, but notable improvement in the labor market. New numbers released Friday show that the economy added 67,000 jobs in the private sector during the month of August.
Despite growth by private employers, the national unemployment rate edged up from 9.5 percent in July to 9.6 percent in August, as the government cut 114,000 Census jobs and some 550,000 Americans who had given up on finding work decided there were jobs to be had and returned to the hunt. | PHH Mortgage Names New SVP of Fulfillment Operations PHH Mortgage Corporation has named William J. Steinmetz SVP, fulfillment operations. Steinmetz will manage all aspects of loan processing, underwriting operations, and loan closing activities. Prior to joining PHH, Steinmetz held a number of senior-level positions, including managing all retail loan operations as an SVP at Aurora Bank and a 20-year career with JP Morgan Chase. | Fannie Mae Says Foreclosure Delays Represent a Breach by the Servicer The nation's largest mortgage company is about to start cracking down on servicers for letting delinquent loans languish too long without action.
Fannie Mae has issued a notice alerting servicers that it is monitoring all delinquent loans to ensure foreclosures are handled within an acceptable time frame, and may assess penalties for poor servicer performance. By the tone of Fannie's announcement, the GSE wants these nonperformers off its books as quickly as possible. | Commercial Mortgage Delinquencies Vary by Investor: MBA Delinquency rates were mixed in the second quarter for commercial and multifamily mortgage investor groups, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The delinquency rate for loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) is the highest it's been since MBA began tracking the sector in 1997. Delinquency rates for other groups, on the other hand - such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - remain below levels seen in the early 1990s, some by large margins. | NAR's Index of Pending Home Sales Unexpectedly Climbs Following a sharp drop in the months immediately after the homebuyer tax credit expired, the National Association of Realtors' gauge for future sales of previously owned homes has risen.
NAR reported Thursday that its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in July, increased 5.2 percent from last month's reading. The month-to-month jump was an unexpected development, and some analysts say it may be a sign that the post-tax credit lull in home sales will soon come to an end. | Securities Unit of Bankrupt Capmark Lands with MountainView MountainView Capital Holdings recently announced that it has acquired the fixed income broker-dealer arm of the bankrupt commercial real estate lender Capmark Financial Group. Capmark sold off its North American loan origination and servicing businesses to Berkadia Commercial Mortgage at the end of last year, and its real estate equity advisory subsidiary, Capmark Investments, to Trecap Partners in March 2010. | Report: Massachusetts Foreclosure Deeds Climb, Petitions Drop Massachusetts foreclosure deeds increased nearly 80 percent in July from the same month in 2009, according to a new study by the Boston-based research firm the Warren Group. However, foreclosure petitions, the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts, decreased more than 20 percent. The Bay State is on track to outpace foreclosure activity from the past two years. Already completed foreclosures year-to-date are 60 percent above the tally during the same period of 2009. | Mortgage Rates...How Low Can You Go? There seems to be no bottom in sight for mortgage rates. Already at their lowest level in a half-century, they dropped to new record lows again this week. Analysts say we have the weak economy to thank, but that same trigger is also thwarting what would be the ideal upshot - enticing would-be buyers to put a dent in the ballooned housing supply. Freddie Mac reports 30-year mortgages are now averaging 4.32 percent; 15-year rates have dropped to 3.83 percent. Bankrate says the larger jumbo 30-year fixed rate fell to a new low of 5.17 percent. | Fisher Law Group, M. Richard Epps Announce Partnership The Fisher Law Group, PLLC and M. Richards Epps, PC have created a partnership whereby Epps, who is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, will serve as of counsel to the Fisher firm, which is headquartered in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Epps will locally manage Virginia court appearances for all court and litigated matters regarding Fisher's Virginia foreclosure and bankruptcy cases. | Mortgage Builder Creates New Client-Focused Position Mortgage Builder, a provider of loan origination software technology, recently announced the creation of its new client-focused position of VP, client development. The company designed the position for Kelli Himebaugh, Mortgage Builder's sales manager for the western United States. In her new position, Himebaugh will work with new clients from product demonstration through training and implementation phases of the sales cycle. |
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