Despite the Federal Housing Administration’s new reverse mortgage product being relatively new, data shows that two lenders are dominating the industry in terms of HECM Saver production by a wide margin. According to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Wells Fargo and MetLife own almost 70% of the market for the HECM [...]

The number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) that indicate possible mortgage loan fraud increased 4% to 70,472 in 2010 according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). While the number of reports rose during the year, during Q4, the number of incidents fell 18,759, down 1% from the same period during 2009. In all, 11% of SARs [...]

Seventeen people were charged on Monday for various real estate scams in New York. The arrests stem from New York’s Mortgage Fraud and Real Estate Crimes Unit, which has undertaken 250 investigations, resulting in 40 prosecutions said Charles J. Hynes, Kings County District Attorney. Working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the [...]

The Case-Shiller housing index report released today indicates that U.S. home prices have deteriorated further into 2011, falling 2% in January from the prior-year level. The only areas to post positive annual growth rates in January were San Diego and Washington, D.C., which gained .1% and 3.6%, respectively. They are the only two cities with positive annual [...]

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll indicates that fewer than 25% of Americans are in support of budget cuts that impact Social Security or Medicare, even though such cuts would work toward combating the country’s deficit. Other poll results show the economic outlook for 2011 is bleak, but President Obama is handling the economy well, according [...]

With the April 1 implementation date for the Federal Reserve’s loan officer compensation rule just four days away, several lenders have confirmed that new compensation plans will change the way lenders offer fixed-rate reverse mortgages as the industry knows it. In general, most wholesalers have settled on a lender-paid compensation model for fixed-rate reverse mortgage loan [...]