Stocks drop fiercely as Lehman bankruptcy weakens markets.

Oil slides to $96 Monday 9/15

Accounting "house of cards" at Fannie Freddie forecast their demise ir borrower defaults were to grow

Fannie, Freddie seized by U.S.

Fitch says $29 billion in Option ARM mortgages will recast in 2009 and an additional $69 billion in 2010. Average additional payments will exceed $1,000 to monthly payments that already average about $1672,.

Hopefully Lehman BrosHoldings is one of the last to come clean. Wall Street giant looking to offload real estate loans to a "bad bank' for which it seeks investors."

Freddie Mac's difficulties deepen, making a U.S. rescue more likely

Greenspan says home prices should begin stabilizing in FH2009

Financial firms' writedowns are almost a half trillion dollars since Jan of 2007

Fannie Mae's big quarterly loss may move rates up, loan purchases down

Mercury Companies close title offices in Texas, Arizona, and California

Merrill Lynch to dump $30 billion worth of CDOs for $6.7 billion

Key Bank and other regionals fight bad loans, and see share prices droop, continuing the bad housing news

Highfields Capital Management, a Boston Fund Manager, Acquires 9.7% of First American

Wall Street Journal says FHA has replaced subprime lenders in making questionable no-down-payment loans likely to go bad

OCC tells OFHEO "Whoa there" on deal with NYAG Cuomo re Fannie - Freddie appraisal standards

New mortgage company (yes, there is one) will offer low flat closing costs

May housing starts at 17 year low

Washington Post blames HUD for subprime crisis, having urged Fannie and Freddie to go too far on affordable housing

Delinquencies, foreclosures worst they've been in 30 years

California home prices drop 32%

Home prices continue their decline; off in the first quarter 1.7 percent from the 4th quarter of 2007

Watch out, here comes Forbes again, with some strange descriptions of property records floating around online.

Thirty six percent of subprime loans being serviced by Countrywide are in some stage of delinquency. Countrywide is the nation's largest servicer of subprimes, with $112 billion in its portfolio.

Buffet says the worst of the crisis is over for Wall Street firms

Continuing downgrades show storm isn't over, says the Wall Street Journal

WaMu is reported to be shutting down its entire wholesale lending wing as well as all its home loan centers across the country. More than 10,000 jobs will be lost.

The U.S. economy actually grew in the first quarter, says the Commerce Department. Not much, a mere 0.6%, but enough to help the current downturn escape being technically termed a recession.

LandAmerica reports FQ2008 revenues off 26.7% last year's first quarter and a loss of $24.2 million for the period

Sales of new homes were down in March to the lowest pace in sixteen years

Nine of twelve Federal Reserve Districts report slowing activity while three say things are stable. The so- called Beige Book is the Fed's periodic roundup of the national economic situation.

James Lockhart, currently running Fannie-Freddie regulator OFHEO, is said to be likely choice for HUD chief, according to National Mortgage News

Steven Preston has been named HUD secretary by President Bush, replacing Alphonso Jackson. Mr. Preston is currently head of the Small Business Administration

Nine of twelve Federal Reserve Districts report slowing activity while three say things are stable. The so- called Beige Book is the Fed's periodic roundup of the national economic situation.

James Lockhart, currently running Fannie-Freddie regulator OFHEO, is said to be likely choice for HUD chief, according to National Mortgage News

Greenspan predicts house prices will begin recovering by early 2009

WaMu is expected to receive a major cash infusion, helping it catch up to its capital requirements but diluting present shareholders' holdings

Landata Technologies and Optical Storage Solutions form a new strategic alliance integrating their erecording systems

Senate comes up with foreclosure assistance program to mixed reviews

UBS takes big quarterly loss, mainly from writing down $19 billion in mortgage securities.

New home sales in February were off 1.8% from January to an annual rate of 590,000 sales. This is almost 30% below February of 2007. So says the U.S. Commerce Department.

Say hello to PennyMac, a new venture formed by the ex-CFO of Countrywide to buy distressed mortgages, work them out, and see them at a profit.

Fannie and Freddie are back in business in a big way. New easing of capital requirements puts them in a position to buy $2 trillion in loans this year

Preliminary ALTA statutory results for all of 2007 show First American increased its national market share by about a point, to 30.05 percent; Fidelity National declined by about a point, to 26.40 percent; LandAmerica increased by about a third of a point, to 19.34 percent; and Stewart decreased by a hair to 11.73 percent. Old Republic was up a shade to 5.48 percent..

Why isn't someone making a market in mortgages? Yes, Fannie and Freddie are preparing to gear up their buying, but what the market seems to need is somebody big to stand up and say we're buying good mortgages, bring em on. They could be just as particular as they wanted to be, and the more particular the better. But the market needs buyer and as long as no one can get a handle on MBS pricing, it's going to have to be mortgages themselves.

H&RBlock has sold the mortgage servicing side of its Option One Mortgage Corp subsidiary for one billion to a Wilbur Ross company, repeating a phrase we'll doubtless hear often in coming months. "We have to get back to our core business." In this case, that's doing people's taxes.

Stewart has introduced touch-screen closing technology

HUD releases new RESPA reform rule of March 14, 2008

The best thing the U.S. goverment could do, perhaps, is simply begin buying subprime mortgages. Many if not most are fundamentally good and making a market in them is something neither Fannie, Freddie, or anyone else is quite ready to do. This might cure the nation's problems in a hurry.Title companies would be happy to close the deals and check to make sure there is good title insurance on them.

Spitzer's fall comes a little late for title agents in New York, forced as they were to decrease title premiums by 10% in a deal struck between Spitzer (then NY Attorney General) and the major title insurers

Countrywide may have misrepresented the quality of the mortgages it was making and its financial position, and is being investigated by the FBI. So says the Wall Street Journal

Rating Firm Fitch Says Outlook for Title Insurance Turns Negative, Looking at Steep Downturn

January home sales were unchanged from December, NAR reports. Some see this as bad, others as good. "Sign of a stabilizing market," says NAR economist.

FHA to the rescue? HUD, Congress working to beef it up and get it going

PHH Corp is one retail mortgage lender that appears to have things under control. As expected, it reports 2007 was down from the prior year but expects to do a solid business in 2008.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway says its insurance holdings can be expected to do poorly in 2008

As if on cue from this WebCenter, a major investor is putting what he calls "opportunity capital" into a major bond insurer. It's not a struggling firm, to be sure, but the action helps nevertheless. It's been suggested here that what the markets need are savvy investors seeking bargains. See this Feb 29 piece in the WSJ

First American reports decreases in revenues and a strengthening of claims reserves of $122 million result in net losses for the 4Q of 2007 and a small loss of $3 million for the entire year 2007

In a report dramatizing the larger financial situation today, luxury home builder Toll Brothers says it netted $57.3 million in the first quarter but after writedowns of $245 million had to report a net loss of $96 million. Revenues were $843 million. Management says buyers are worried about a recession and sales are weak right now. See the Toll Brothers report.

A recession-type mentality dominates the news today. OFHEO confirms rapidly sinking home prices, foreclosures increase, rating agencies are looking at monolines, banks heavy in commercial real estate, and additional tranches of MBS issues of all kinds Consumer confidence is also down.

Existing home sales continue to drop, as do home prices, which were down 4.6% from a year ago .Worst of all is the current annual sales rate, which worked in the 5 million per year range throughout the 1990s and is now down to a 4.34 million annual rate

Thirty-year fixed rates settled above six percent for the first time in seven weeks

Lenders Processing Services, Inc. to be spun off FIS in mid 2008

LandAmerica chooses SoftPro Select automated system to power its LandAmerica Link enterprise-wide closing and policy system. Softpro is a unit of Fidelity National Information Services

Fidelity National Financial reports 4Q and full year 2007 financial results

CoreLogic releases December 2007 LoanPerformance house price index

Another anti-trust class action in New York makes the same arguments as Dolan v Fidelity National (see The Scene) but adds a RESPA violation prong as well. It's Miley v Fidelity National et all. Click to read the complaint.

Old Republic National Title is building its default management division.

JP Morgan Chase and WaMu are discussing a deal, according to several reports. It might begin with an investment by Morgan Chase and end in acquisition, as B of A did with Countrywide

How about one more complication? It seems MGIC ( Magic), the mortgage insurance firm, owns 42% of FGIC, the bond insurance firm now struggling with liquidity and possible downgrading. Private equity firms own most of the rest. This is revealed as MGIC appears desirous of starting a new go-forward company, alarming banks holding bonds. This reported by WSJ.

Banks could be looking at more than $200 billion more in writedowns, says a UBS analyst in Bloomberg.com, delaying the recovery and cooling any remaining enthusiasm banks may have for residential lending.

HUD sends Congress on Feb. 6, 2008 a proposed RESPA rule change that would improve the Good Faith Estimate to include information on Yield Spread Premiums, a subject of great importance to mortgage brokers. There is no mention of guaranteed mortgage packages in the OMB summary

Perhaps the first small signs of the financial markets righting themselves have appeared. First, Legg Mason, an investor, buys into Countrywide, confident its shares will rise whether Bank of America completes its acquisition or not. And Warren Buffett announces a willingness to reinsure bond guarantors, an offer the guarantors didn't immediately appear to like. Both minor but signs nevertheless. Won't shorten the recovery but might signal recovery might soon begin. Feb 12, 2008

Wall Street Journal Makes the NY Anti-Trust Suit Against Four Title Insurers a Front Page Affair Feb 11, 2008

The likelihood of a more widespread slowdown is increasing. Corporate bonds, municipal bonds, securities backed by student loans, and securities backed by commercial real estate are all falling in value, reports the WSJ. If this trend continues they'll soon be calling this a recession.

The downturn isn't being felt evenly from a geographic standpoint. Home prices are declining differently in different states and the basic economy differs regionally as well. States that do well on both counts should have an easier time of it. States that do poorly on both counts will find things much more difficult. The Economist shows us where is where.

Here's what happened in 2007 to residential resales, a continuous slide since August to a 4.89 million annual rate in December, as reported by the National Association of Realtors (click on pages to advance)

Fidelity National follows First American, adds $135.7 million to its claims reserve. Asked by analysts the cause, Chairman Foley says nothing special, just more of them. First American saw it a little differently, blaming the current crisis and increased foreclosures.

The cleanup of dealers in mortgage-backed subprime securities intensifies, says the Wall Street Journal. It can't happen quickly enough for title firms

Countrywide's maneuvers to escape regulators wound up sending it into the arms of BankAmerica

Will the Government's Stimulus Plan Help Real Estate Recover from the Subprime Meltdown?

Did investment banks withhold information about subprimes from investors? NY attorney general begins investigation

A bankruptcy court hearing on the proposed sale of Lawyers Title and Commonwealth Land Title by LandAmerica Financial Group will be held in Richmond on December 16, 2008

LandAmerica announces it has sold Lawyers Title and Commonwealth Land Title to Fidelity National and Chicago Title.

LandAmerica files for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankrupcty code.
November 26, 2008

On Nov 21, Fidelity National terminates its Nov 7 agreement to merge with LandAmerica.

Panic hits the markets but nobody calls it that. If they did, might it all stop?

Fannie, Freddie suspend foreclosure, cutting off one good source of orders for title companies

LandAmerica will be acquired by Fidelity National Financial for $125 million in stock. Press release and earnings report, Nov 10, 2008

Centex has shut down its mortgage origination subsidiary and lost a bunch of money -- $44 million -- doing so. The home builder will continue making mortgages to buyers of its new homes 

An association of independent title agents has been formed in Ohio. Similar attempts have been going on in the U.S. for the last 20 years. None has been well-thought out or well funded. This is no exception.

The new association immediately picked a fight with the Ohio Land Title Association over its failure to oppose AfBAs.

Title insurance underwriter families' common shares dropped 20% last week after sinking about 25% the week before.

First American is the only underwriter family so far to announce that it is exposed to decreases in the value of Fannie/Freddie securities.

U.S. will buy equity in banks as soon as Paulson can arrange it

First Am will open new direct offices in Colorado

Jerry Hauptman's Mercury Companies files for Chapter 11

Fed leaves key rate unchanged, Sept 16

Fidelity National buys Mercury Companies' four Colorado agencies