Servicing

The number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity fell more than five percentage points throughout the year's second quarter, CoreLogic reported Tuesday. According to the company's analysis, approximately 2.5 million residential properties returned to a state of positive equity last quarter, bringing the total number to 41.5 million. Meanwhile, 7.1 million homes--or 14.5 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage--were still in negative equity.

loanDepot.com, LLC and imortgage.com, Inc., have entered into a definitive agreement to combine, creating the nation's third-largest private, independent retail mortgage lender.

Having been approved in August, Norcom Mortgage's Fairfield, Connecticut, branch is open for business, the company announced. The Fairfield branch will take direction from Manny Gomes, a resident of the area since graduating from Southern Connecticut State University in 2006.

Market indicators continue to point to an imminent slowdown in home price gains--further allaying fears of another housing bubble in the making, Capital Economic says.

In Florida, ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc., announced the appointment of Carolyn Downey as a new independent member of the company's board of directors.

The National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index reached its highest level on record in September with a little more than 80 percent of markets qualifying as improving. Of the 291 markets that made it onto the latest Improving Markets Index, 242 were repeats from the previous month, and 49 were new to the list. However, the association noted that September's result was largely due to a change to the way Freddie Mac measures home prices.

LRES, a national provider of commercial and residential valuations and appraisal management, announced the opening of a new operations facility in Phoenix to accommodate the company's growth and to serve as a key component of its disaster recovery plan.

Genworth Financial, Inc., announced Wednesday that the company is strengthening the senior leadership team of its U.S. Mortgage Insurance (USMI) unit with the addition of two key executives. Paul Gomez was recently promoted to COO of USMI, and George Reichert was named chief information officer (CIO).

360 Mortgage Group, a privately owned mortgage banker headquartered in Austin, Texas, has entered the top-tier mortgage market with Conforming elite, an aggressive new pricing program.

The nation's economy added 169,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday. Economists had forecast payrolls would grow by 180,000 and that the unemployment rate would remain at July's 7.4 percent.