DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.
Issue link: http://digital.dsnews.com/i/288957
88 STATE OF AFFAIRS: MIDWEST » Charlotte, North Carolina, serves as the East Coast regional headquarters for the San Francisco Bank, which previously cut workers in August, September, and October. Total job losses this year have reached 5,800 as rising interest rates have dramatically slowed the number of home refinancings. Historically low interest rates pushed consumers toward refinancing, and as interest rates began to rise, refinancings cooled in the process. e extra staff once needed to process the influx of refinancings are being let go. "Wells Fargo's mortgage banking income fell nearly 50 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period the year before, according to its most recent earnings report," the Charlotte Observer noted. Wells Fargo has considered lowering its credit requirements on home loans back to the subprime market to increase earnings. Josh Dunn, Wells Fargo spokesman, said in a statement the cuts were made to "better align with the market and increase the efficiency of our organization." Wells Fargo isn't the only bank cutting staff—Bank of America recently cut 450 jobs from its West Coast offices and 280 workers from its St. Charles, Missouri, office. South Carolina Dustin Johns, Broker Resource Realty Group 1224 Huger Street, Columbia SC 29201 803.513.4247 cell 803.758.4444 offi ce 888.437.0486 fax dustin@dustinjohns.com www.GoogleREO.com Oklahoma RANK: 18 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 2.27% 2.31% 5.2 YEAR AGO 2.20% 3.18% 5.4 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 3.1% -27.3% -0.2 Top County ADAIR COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 4.57% 7.64% YEAR AGO 3.59% 10.33% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 27.4% -26.1% Top Core-Based Statistical Area TAHLEQUAH, OK 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 2.37% 5.01% YEAR AGO 2.02% 5.32% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 17.4% -5.8% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the January 2014 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary January 2014 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. South Carolina RANK: 19 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 2.58% 2.31% 6.4 YEAR AGO 2.63% 3.64% 8.2 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -1.9% -36.6% -1.8 Top County DILLON COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 5.71% 4.72% YEAR AGO 4.88% 5.53% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 17.1% -14.6% Top Core-Based Statistical Area DILLON, SC 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate JANUARY 2014 5.71% 4.72% YEAR AGO 4.88% 5.53% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 17.1% -14.6% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the January 2014 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary January 2014 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. IN THE NEWS More Local Markets Experiencing Full Recovery Homes.com released its December Local Market Index, a price performance summary of repeat sales of U.S. properties. e index notes year-over-year gains for single-family properties in all 300 top U.S markets for the ninth consecutive month. e total markets that are considered "fully recovered" have increased to 89, up from the previous month's 87. Mid-size markets saw a large improve- ment in recovery efforts; 60 of the top 200 mid-size markets have fully recovered previ- ous losses in home prices. e index considers a market to be "fully recovered" based on the market's current index value to its corresponding value in the year 2000. "An index value above 100 indicates sales prices above the normalized level while an index value below 100 indicates sales prices below the normalized level," the company's website notes. e South dominated the top 100 rebounding markets with 15 energy-based economies in Texas and Oklahoma. "Despite the holiday season and the early winter storms in most of the nation, the num- ber of top 100 markets to reach or surpass their peak prices at the height of the boom in 2007 increased to 29 markets, according to December's data," said Brock MacLean, EVP of Homes.com. "With the largest year-over-year housing market price increases in seven years, the U.S. housing market is in a great position to continue making steady gains in 2014." e Homes.com index is significantly more optimistic than other reports, specifically the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for December, which is cautious to project continued growth in 2014. The total mortgage property count in January was 454,000 homes, according to CoreLogic. KNOW THIS Institutional investors made up 14 percent of purchases in Greenville, South Carolina in January, one of the highest percentages in the nation, according to RealtyTrac. KNOW THIS