A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues:
The congressional Super Committee remains in a deadlock. The committee is left with only three days to bridge a bipartisan divide to develop a plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit over the course of ten years.
One of the committee’s members Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told Fox News Sunday that no one is giving up hope, but “reality is starting to overtake hope.”
A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues:
The congressional Super Committee remains in a deadlock. The committee is left with only three days to bridge a bipartisan divide to develop a plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit over the course of ten years.
One of the committee’s members Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told Fox News Sunday that no one is giving up hope, but “reality is starting to overtake hope.”
Fellow committee member Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., agreed with Hensarling that both parties continue discussions. “I think we are deep into the fourth quarter and there is still time left on the clock,” Becerra said.
As of Sunday night, the committee remained unable to reach an agreement on a bipartisan plan. Congress created the super committee this past summer, charging the members with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions over the course of the next decade in exchange for raising the debt ceiling in August.
Foreclosure discounts are not as deep in non-judicial foreclosures states like California where inventory levels are moving faster than in judicial foreclosure states, according to a Housing Market Trends report for November produced by FNC Inc.
The report notes that the median price discount on foreclosures sold in California was at 10.8% in the third quarter, compared to 19.1% countrywide and 18.1% in Florida – another state hit hard by an influx of foreclosures.
The report, authored by FNC senior research economist Yanling Mayer, noted that foreclosure discounts in Florida have been declining these past two years and fell below the national average for the first time since the mortgage market crisis developed three to four years ago.
During the third quarter, the median foreclosure sale price hit $129,000 down 4% from $135,000 last year. Meanwhile, the median discount for the third quarter is at 19.1%, up from 18.6% a year earlier.
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins hosted a national conference on MERS litigation issues for legal scholars and attorneys representing various counties in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Dallas County sued Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, and its parent company Merscorp, earlier this year, claiming the registry failed to pay fees to the Dallas County on various mortgage transfers made during the securitization process.
MERS contends the Dallas County case and several others that have popped up since then are without merit.
Oklahoma City-based a la mode, a mortgage technology firm, says its Mercury Network is already submitting live appraisals to the Uniform Collateral Data Portal, ahead of the Dec. 1 deadline set up by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The UCDP is a single portal created by the GSEs for the submission of real estate appraisals. Every industry player submitting appraisal information to the GSEs on or after Dec. 1 will have to submit their appraisals through this portal.
The Mercury Network is a la mode’s existing vendor management platform. Earlier this year, the network was named an appraisal submission platform for the GSEs.
Veros Real Estate Solutions is the technology vendor behind the UCDP services; however, a la mode will link companies to the platforms.
Lenders and appraisers using the Mercury Network to make submissions will be able to access an audit trail of the appraisal file and receive automatic revision requests sent to appraisers when necessary. The system also has an error-checking mechanism to ensure appraisals submitted are ready for review.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Louisiana banking regulators closed Central Progressive Bank in Lacombe, La., last Friday. All deposit accounts were transferred to First NBC Bank of New Orleans, La. The FDIC estimates the action will cost the FDIC Insurance Fund about $58.1 million.
The same day Polk County Bank in Johnston, Iowa, was shut down by the Iowa Division of Banking. The FDIC was appointed receiver and entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Grinnell State Bank in Grinnell, Iowa. Grinnell State Bank has assumed all of the deposits of the Polk County Bank.
Handling the closing will cost the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund $12 million. Polk County Bank is the 89th FDIC-insured bank failure in the nation this year and the first in Iowa for 2011.
Write to Kerri Panchuk.
