Print Archive - 2005

OFHEO In Charge as Fannie Execs Exit

Over the next few months when OFHEO says jump, the correct response from Fannie Mae officials will be: how high? (Read More)

Timeline: GSE Scandal

2003 June 6: Freddie Mac's board fires long-time chairman/CEO Leland Brendsel and chief operating officer David Glenn as that GSE's $5 billion earnings restatement scandal explodes into public view. (Read More)

Agency's Stockholders Shrug It Off

Top executives have been booted out, the company stands accused of being undercapitalized and politicians want to tighten reins on the firm. (Read More)

Regulator Reviews Comp

Fannie Mae's regulator said it will take a hard look at the multimillion dollar compensation packages owed to recently ousted chairman and CEO Franklin Raines, and chief financial officer Timothy Howard. (Read More)

Cuomo Favors OFHEO as Fannie, Freddie Regulator

Andrew Cuomo believes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's days of riding roughshod over the secondary mortgage market are numbered. But he thinks responsibility for regulating the two giant financial institutions should remain with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Picks Timothy McBride as New Chief Lobbyist

Freddie Mac has hired Timothy J. McBride to lead its lobbying efforts as Congress prepares to take up legislation early this year to restructure federal oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. (Read More)

Cal Lenders Win Victory on YSPs

A California Appeals Court has ruled the state's predatory lending law does not require lenders to include yield-spread premiums in the points and fees test. (Read More)

New Year, New Market

Last year saw a big drop in the conventional market and a big increase in the nonprime. This year will see a lot more conventional lenders expanding their credit horizons. (Read More)

Banks Should Heed Warnings

Ms. Williams recently addressed the Bank Administration Institute in New York. Excerpts of her remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Sizing Up Political Risk at the Government-Sponsored Enterprises

There continues to be this interesting dichotomy between how institutional investors perceive Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities and the political perception of those companies, with the former figuring that the latter should be taken with a grain of salt and given less priority than other fundamental factors like rates and housing. (Read More)

FHA Hikes Loan Limits, and Raises Some Controversy As Well

Parts of Jefferson County, W.Va., are considered a high-cost area under the new loan limits issued late last month for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. (Read More)

E&Y Settlement Ends Superior Flap

Ernst & Young and federal regulators have settled their long-running feud over the failure of Superior Bank FSB. (Read More)

Stock Forecast Differs by Sector

The marketplace is expecting interest rates to rise in 2005, but that hasn't put much of a dent in mortgage-related stocks recently. (Read More)

Fitch: Relative Fortune of Prime vs. Nonprime MBS Could Shift

The nonprime credit sector may have proved to be hotter than the prime sector when it comes to origination volume recently, but that trend could reverse to some extent if higher interest rates and slower home price appreciation pressure the securitized mortgage market this year, Fitch Ratings has reported. (Read More)

ULI, PricewaterhouseCoopers Are 'Cautiously Optimistic' on RE

Concerns about the economy and job growth, combined with the prospect of higher interest rates, are causing real estate investors to rein in their expectations for real estate in 2005, although they are cautiously optimistic, according to a report from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. (Read More)

'Home Equity Fever'To 'Hit Hard'

Among the trends the president and chief operating officer of Integrated Loan Services expects to hit hard in 2005" are "home equity loan fever" and recruiting and training. (Read More)

New Products Coming to FHA?

The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging Congress to hold hearings on the Federal Housing Administration with an eye toward generating support for legislation that would allow the FHA to conduct pilot programs and develop new loan products. (Read More)

GSEs Top Washington's Agenda

With GSE legislation topping the Washington agenda in 2005, it is going to be a very busy year for the mortgage industry. (Read More)

Housing: 'No Crash, but Slower'

Housing markets will not crash this year but there is likely to be a cool down in some areas and a slowdown in some "overheated" coastal markets, according to Harvey Green, president & CEO, Marcus & Millichap. (Read More)

Key Issues for AH: Transportation, Housing Costs

Emerging market initiatives, long-term housing goals set forth by the Bush administration and data showing a growing affordable housing demand indicate that industry efforts to attract new business in 2005 will be challenged by factors such as changing immigration trends, average housing wages and transportation costs. (Read More)

German Mortgage Banking Group Prepared for Legislative Change

The Association of German Mortgage Banks forecasts that new developments will dramatically improve and reshape the covered bond market in the coming year, executive director Louis Hagen told this publication in a recent interview here. (Read More)

Wholesale Roundup: Lassoing Loans

If the companies we talked to in this Special Report are any indication, then the focus of most wholesalers when it comes to rounding up loans these days is on finding the right people and giving them the tools they need to get their jobs done quickly and effectively. (Read More)

Inside

Third Time's the Charm 16 Axis Mortgage & Investments was able to triple its loan volume in the course its third year. (Read More)

Axis Triples Its Loan Volume in Its Third Year of Existence

After forming in 2002 and building its operations and software platform in 2003, the wholesale division of Axis Mortgage & Investments has seen a significant increase of 300% in its loan volume since January 2004. (Read More)

First Franklin Plans to Continue 'Organic Growth'

First Franklin Financial Corp. plans to continue to pursue going forward what executives call an "organic growth" strategy through local branch expansion, product development, technology upgrades and the operation of a six-region sales structure. (Read More)

MILA to Upgrade Its Automated Underwriting Functionality

Mortgage Investment Lending Associates Inc., Mountlake Terrace, Wash., a wholesaler serving the nonprime residential market in 26 states, plans to provide its products and technology to brokers in another 12 states by the end of 2005. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: R.J. Arnett

Mr. Arnett has been named to the new position of national wholesale prime production manager and executive vice president of MortgageIT Inc. Before joining MIT Lending, Mr. Arnett spent nine years with Countrywide, departing as executive vice president of its wholesale division. His new responsibilities were formerly held by Gary Bierfriend, who was recently elevated to president of MortgageIT. (See page 19.) Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Orange-Ameriquest Mortgage Co. has added Amy Cobb, community relations specialist, to its government/public affairs and community relations team. Ms. Cobb will support Ameriquest's community initiatives throughout Texas, including affordable housing and youth programs. (Read More)

Fannie Raises $5 Billion of Capital

Fannie Mae last week sold $5 billion of preferred stock - $1 billion more than expected - to institutional investors. (Read More)

Two NAHB Members Quit Fannie Panel

Two top officers of the National Association of Home Builders have resigned from Fannie Mae's national advisory council, a move that was prompted by the trade group's review of its GSE policies. (Read More)

Agency MBS Weathering Scandal

While the so-called political risk of Fannie Mae's accounting scandal in 2004 has hammered the government-sponsored enterprises' subordinate debt and from time-to-time temporarily pressured the rest of the GSE debt market, agency mortgage-backed securities are emerging from 2004 in better shape than in 2003 thanks to what is apparently a first-time-ever decline in fixed-rate supply, slower prepayments and increased buying by Asian investors. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 184.6 Change: 2.7 (part 1 of 2) Wkly. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 264.8 Change: -3.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 12/30/2004 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 0.61 5.75 1.17 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.50 10.19 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 85.31 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 17.15 27.91 22.85 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.49 49.81 New Century (NCEN) 37.91 66.95 64.69 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 49.53 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 9.33 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 23.35 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.52 (part 2 of 2) Wkly. % Chg. P/E Company % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AMSF) 0% 18% na American Business Fin. (ABFI) -61% 92% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 28% 70% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 2% 22% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) -1% 33% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 5% 102% na New Century (NCEN) -1% 71% na Novastar (NFI) -11% 72% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 2% 25% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -6% 28% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) -9% 2% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Industry Spotlight: Roger Gudobba

Mr. Gudobba, senior principal for strategic business development at VMP Mortgage Solutions Inc., has been named chairperson of the eMortgage Alliance, replacing Dave Williamson of the Performance Group. The eMortgage Alliance is a consortium of companies that have assembled to promote standards-based electronic technology. (Read More)

GSE Woes May Spark Tough Law

The accounting scandal at Fannie Mae has upped the odds that Congress will pass a strong GSE regulatory reform bill, but there are concerns among some housing groups that the Bush administration might try to push for an even tougher bill. (Read More)

Alt-A Volume Robust in 3Q

The hot alt-A market remained robust in the third quarter as many top-ranked lenders continued to register double-digit production gains. (Read More)

Top Alt-A Lenders in Q3 2004

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. (Read More)

Defiance Raines' Downfall

On Oct. 6 when Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines testified before Congress about the GSE's widening accounting scandal he was cocky, confident and defiant. (Read More)

Commercial Market Passes $2.2T

Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding grew 2.4%, by $51.7 billion, to $2.2 trillion between the second and third quarters of 2004, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. (Read More)

Holdings Of Commercial/MF

Banks $918 billion CMBS Pools $401 Billion Insurers $247 Billion GSEs $181 billion Thrifts $178 billion As of Sept. 30, 2004 Source:MBA Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Social Security Extends Program to Cut ID Theft

Rapid Reporting here has successfully lobbied for the Social Security Administration to extend a pilot program giving the mortgage fraud prevention company access to its database to catch mortgage fraud at various stages of the process. (Read More)

Economists Expect Volume to Contract

Expect single-family mortgage origination to decline by 10% to 20% in 2005, according to two secondary market economists. (Read More)

Credit Watch Has FHA Lenders Tightening Loan Standards

The penalties for getting caught under the Credit Watch program are not all that painful sometimes, but they are forcing Federal Housing Administration lenders to tighten their underwriting standards. (Read More)

FHFB Backtracks On Extending Terms

The Federal Housing Finance Board dismissed one-third of the public interest directors who serve on the boards of the 12 Federal Home Loan Loans last week, after the agency learned it exceeded its powers in extending their terms. (Read More)

Opportunities for Investment

Fannie Mae has taken advantage of what seems like a great vehicle to invest in affordable housing and lower income and underserved communities. (Read More)

Don't Take GSEs for Granted

Mr. Syron recently addressed the Workforce Housing Symposium, co-hosted by the National Association of Home Builders and Freddie Mac in Washington. Excerpts of his prepared remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Investors Hoping for More Data about Loans in Ginnie Mae Pools

As tough as it's been for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the past year or two, in the mortgage-backed securities market it's been tougher in some respects to be Ginnie Mae. (Read More)

REITs Extend Winning Streak with 23% Gain

Real estate investment trusts continued to chalk up performances that beat market averages last year, according to an industry's trade group analysis. (Read More)

At a Glance: REITs Post Another Strong Year

Year REIT composite mortgage REITs 2000 25.89% 15.96% 2001 15.50% 77.34% 2002 5.22% 31.08% 2003 38.47% 57.39% 2004 30.41% 18.43% Source: NAREIT. Note: Total return assumes dividends are reinvested. (Read More)

Merrill Lynch: No 'Sizzle' in Mortgage Outlook

It shouldn't be the best of times, nor should it be the worst of times. (Read More)

Roundup: Fidelity Buys Back $112 Million of Stock

Fidelity National Financial has repurchased just over 2.5 million shares of its common stock from Willis Stein & Partners, a Chicago-based private-equity firm, and J.P. Morgan Chase, as escrow agent for the former shareholders of Aurum Technology, which was acquired by Fidelity last March. (Read More)

Freddie Declares Dividends

Freddie Mac has declared a $0.30 dividend on the company's common stock, payable Dec. 31 to stockholders of record as of Dec. 13. (Read More)

Lehman Earnings Rise

Lehman Brothers reported net earnings of $585 million in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2004, up from $481 million during the same period last year. (Read More)

Realty Rated Top Investment

Individual investors surveyed by the National Association of Investors Corp. selected real estate, pharmaceuticals and technology as their top investment choices for 2005. (Read More)

WaMu's Killinger Buys 50,000 Shares

Washington Mutual chairman and chief executive Kerry Killinger recently purchased 50,000 shares in the company, a transaction that cost him just shy of $2 million. (Read More)

E-Mortgage Pioneers Say They Are Saving $800 Per Loan

On average, users of the Prime Alliance Web-based offering are going paperless and saving an average of $800 a loan with this electronic mortgage strategy. (Read More)

More Balance in Commercial?

Commercial mortgage lending has been more of a borrower's market this year but it is likely that the market will become more balanced over the next 12-18 months, according to Tom McManus, president, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Horsham, Pa. (Read More)

Commercial Transactions

* Gramercy Capital Corp. has provided $84.7 million of LIBOR-based floating rate mortgage financing backed by a portfolio of Southern U.S. office and warehouse properties, comprising 1.9 million square feet, and one 22-acre land parcel. (Read More)

Mezzanine Is Getting Crowded

The commercial real estate mezzanine financing niche may be getting crowded with opportunistic investors and it is likely that some players will be forced out of the field when times get tougher, according to some lenders at a recent Realshare structured finance conference here. (Read More)

Data-Vision to Integrate Doc Delivery and E-Signatures

Data-Vision Inc. will expand into new areas in 2005 while continuing to build on its doc preparation and delivery expertise to include electronic signature and electronic loan folder functionality. (Read More)

Mortgage Cadence Looks to Enterprise

3T Systems here has plans to continue to upgrade the functionality of its Mortgage Cadence loan origination software offering so that it will touch every part of a company's enterprise, including departments that are not directly mortgage related. (Read More)

NHS: Buyers Need More Help in High Cost Areas

Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City aims to further develop extensive business partnerships, complex financing solutions and homeownership education efforts in 2005 as the best strategy to produce affordable housing in high-cost metropolitan areas such as New York. (Read More)

Tax Credit for CDE Investments

The New Markets Tax Credit final regulations issued by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service include a tax credit to investors who make qualified equity investments in Community Development Entities effective Dec. 22, 2004. (Read More)

Affordable Housing Costs 3 Times Minimum Wage

A recent report found the so-called housing wage, or the minimum wage necessary to afford a fair-market two-bedroom apartment without exceeding 30% of income, in 2004 rose to $15.37 an hour - almost three times higher than the minimum wage. (Read More)

Group Backs Asian Ownership Interests

A group of real estate professionals is working to make sure Asian-Americans aren't ignored in the effort to boost homeownership among minorities. (Read More)

Industry Aids Tsunami Victims

A number of U.S. and international mortgage market participants have responded to the deadly Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami waves in South Asia with promises to help fund disaster relief efforts. (Read More)

Extent of Damage Remains Unclear

Determining the full extent of the damage to life and property from the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in South Asia may take some time. (Read More)

U.K. Home Price Appreciation at 4%

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has forecast that United Kingdom home prices, which appreciated by 15% annually in 2003 and 2004, will grow by just 4% in 2005. (Read More)

Roundup: Diversity Good for Canada

Canadian commercial mortgage-backed securities deals have higher economic diversity scores than their U.S. counterparts, according to Moody's Investors Service's office here. (Read More)

Housing Starts Rise

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in Canada rose to 238,200 in November from 225,000 in October, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. here has reported. (Read More)

German Deal on Review

Moody's Investors Service's office here has placed on review for possible downgrade DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's B- financial strength rating. (Read More)

Standardization Urged

A report on mortgage credit markets by the European Commission shows that consumers and the industry don't agree on much but they do agree that standardization in some key areas involving property-related data, taxes and oversight are needed, the United Kingdom's Council of Mortgage Lenders said. (Read More)

Santandar Deal Downgraded

Fitch's office here has reported that it has downgraded and removed from Negative Rating Watch the ratings of two series of mortgage-backed securities issued by Santander SA Soc Securitizadora Part 3 (Chile). (Read More)

Moody's Adds Mexico Index

Moody's Investors Service has created and is introducing to the market a new "Mexican Residential Construction Loan Take-Out Securitization Composite Index." (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Brea-ResMAE Mortgage Corp. said that Erik P. Amneus has been promoted to senior vice president, managing director, information technology. (Read More)

Fannie Hires D&T As Auditor

Fannie Mae has hired Deloitte & Touche LLP as its independent auditor, a firm that has been working for its regulator conducting a special forensic investigation into the GSE's accounting practices. (Read More)

Fannie Execs on Hook for Bonuses?

Fannie Mae executives may have to return at least $22 million worth of bonuses dating back to 2001 if Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., gets his way. (Read More)

Price War Not So Bad This Time Around?

Conforming and nonconforming mortgage executives alike have been griping about the current "price war" but is it really all that bad? (Read More)

GSE Affordable Goals 'Too High'

Industry and consumer groups continue to gripe that the GSE affordable new housing goals are too high or poorly targeted, but they generally agreed that HUD should minimize distortions caused by counting single-family refinancings toward the goals. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 251.6 Change: -13.2 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/6/2005 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 0.41 5.75 0.81 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.50 10.19 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 83.74 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 21.17 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND 24.71 50.75 45.94 New Century (NCEN) 38.02 66.95 59.69 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 46.46 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 9.14 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 23.19 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.54 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AMSF) 0% 18% na American Business Fin. (ABFI) -31% 98% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 70% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -2% 20% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -7% 23% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND -8% 86% na New Century (NCEN) -8% 57% na Novastar (NFI) -6% 62% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -2% 23% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -1% 27% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 4% 6% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 178.8 Change: -5.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 12/30/2004 1/6/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Worries MF Has Peaked

Freddie Mac is raising concerns that multifamily originations may have "peaked," making it harder for the government-sponsored enterprise to meet its affordable housing goals. (Read More)

Inside

REFIS NEAR 50% Refinancings increased to 49% of the market last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped three basis points, to 5.74%, according to Freddie Mac. The agency noted that 2004 had the second-lowest average rate for the 30 year since 1970. (Read More)

A New Start On RESPA

An attempt to change the rules that govern real estate settlement practices crumbled apart last March, but the Bush administration is poised to start over again. (Read More)

U.S. Mortgage-Backed Securities

(Bear Stearns Overtakes UBS for Top Underwriter Slot) (part 1 of 2) 1/1/04 - 12/31/04 1/1/03 - 12/31/03 Proceeds* Market Managers ($Mil) Share Bear Stearns & Co Inc 90073.8 12.4 UBS 79437.0 10.9 Lehman Brothers 73068.5 10.0 Banc of America Securities LLC 70263.6 9.6 Credit Suisse First Boston 52715.2 7.2 Morgan Stanley 51566.2 7.1 Citigroup 50849.2 7.0 Goldman Sachs & Co 46291.2 6.4 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 45991.8 6.3 Deutsche Bank AG 32626.9 4.5 Industry Total 729306.4 -100.0 (part 2 of 2) # of Proceeds* Market # of Managers Issues ($Mil) Share Issues Bear Stearns & Co Inc 130 100805.6 11.0 151 UBS 106 104136.6 11.4 119 Lehman Brothers 96 95390.9 10.4 145 Banc of America Securities LLC 99 75207.5 8.2 84 Credit Suisse First Boston 84 82456.7 9.0 155 Morgan Stanley 74 70188.3 7.7 94 Citigroup 70 70828.3 7.7 78 Goldman Sachs & Co 81 100211.2 10.9 105 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 79 52057.0 5.7 74 Deutsche Bank AG 54 22193.5 2.4 54 Industry Total 1,121 915946.8 -100.0 1,267 *Full to Book Manager (Equal if Joint) Source: Thomson Financial (See story pg.6) Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

CHL Raises Ante

Countrywide Home Loans is raising the ante once again on its efforts to put more minorities and lower-income families into homes of their own. (Read More)

GSEs May Lose an Ally On Regulator

In what could be a major policy shift - and a major blow to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - a National Association of Home Builders task force has recommended that the politically powerful group support the creation of an independent regulator for the housing government-sponsored enterprises. (Read More)

Loan Officers Sue for OT

Three loan officers have filed a complaint against Global Executive Mortgage Inc. in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida here for failure to pay minimum-wage and overtime compensation. (Read More)

GSEs 'Don't Cut Rates'

Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan's concerns about the financial risks posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's giant mortgage portfolios have prompted Fed researchers to take a closer look at the impact these portfolios have on rate mortgages- and they have found there isn't much. (Read More)

Credit Woes Brew for IOs?

The red-hot interest-only residential loan market - which is believed to be fueling huge home price increases on the coasts - could be headed for a fall. (Read More)

FHFB Will Scrutinize FHLB Mortgage Program

The new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board is trying to determine if the Federal Home Loan Banks are taking excessive risks in purchasing mortgages from their members and holding them in portfolio. (Read More)

Wells Buys $9B Servicing, Ohio Selling

General Electric has finally unloaded the last chunk of its residential servicing portfolio, selling about $9 billion in receivables to the firm subservicing the loans - Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. (Read More)

Fed to Lenders: On Your Own

The mortgage industry should not expect Federal Reserve Board governors to come to their aid if the new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data on subprime loans stir up public criticism about their lending practices. (Read More)

Founding Partner Of NMN Is Dead

John R. Glynn, a founding partner and former president of National Mortgage News, died Jan. 1 at his home in Redding, Conn., at the age of 85. Mr. Glynn died from complications of Alzheimer's disease. (Read More)

FBR Hires Two Former Freddie MBS Traders

Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc. here said that it is creating a new institutional mortgage-backed securities trading business in conjunction with its hiring of two key executives from Freddie Mac's former securities sales and trading group. (Read More)

A Rebuilding Year

In sports, any time it looks as if a team doesn't have a chance to win the championship, they call it a rebuilding year. This may well be such a year for the mortgage industry. (Read More)

Rethinking 'Too Big to Fail'

Mr. Poole recently addressed the Czech Economic Association Conference in Prague. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Changes in Funding Home Loans Mean Reversal of Old Relationship

The question of what happens to housing in a rising rate environment when past rules regarding housing's relationship to the economy have been overturned came up often prior to last year's succession of short-term rate hikes by the Fed. (Read More)

MBS Volume Falls 20% in '04

Mortgage-backed securities underwriting volume in the United States totaled $729.31 billion in 2004, down 20.4% from the $915.95 billion recorded in 2003, according to Thomson Financial. (Read More)

U.S. Asset-Backed Securities

(part 1 of 2) 1/1/04 - 12/31/04 Proceeds* Market # of Managers ($Mil) Rank Share Issues Citigroup 82,962.3 1 9.7 177 Countrywide Securities Corp 74,082.5 2 8.7 78 Lehman Brothers 73,045.7 3 8.5 172 Credit Suisse First Boston 68,299.9 4 8.0 154 Morgan Stanley 64,762.5 5 7.6 135 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 63,024.6 6 7.4 120 Deutsche Bank AG 59,557.3 7 7.0 140 JP Morgan 56,981.7 8 6.7 110 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 55,919.6 9 6.5 110 Banc of America Securities LLC 53,303.0 10 6.2 141 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 52,290.3 11 6.1 115 UBS 33,416.8 12 3.9 70 Wachovia Corp 25,830.4 13 3.0 77 Goldman Sachs & Co 23,205.7 14 2.7 48 Barclays Capital 20,102.0 15 2.4 54 Washington Mutual Inc 13,063.5 16 1.5 19 First Tennessee Bank 3,096.3 17 0.4 10 ABN AMRO 3,039.5 18 0.4 7 Unicredito Italiano 1,935.9 19 0.2 1 General Motors Corp 1,915.5 20 0.2 12 Nomura 1,412.1 21 0.2 5 HSBC Holdings PLC 1,399.4 22 0.2 5 WestLB AG 1,079.4 23 0.1 3 BNP Paribas SA 919.5 24 0.1 1 Societe Generale 738.2 25 0.1 2 Groupe Caisses d'Epargne - - - - Blaylock & Partners LP - - - - Wells Fargo Bank NA - - - - Industry Total 856,713.0 - 100.0 1,595 (part 2 of 2) 1/1/03 - 12/31/03 Proceeds* Market # of Managers ($Mil) Rank Share Issues Citigroup 67,666.2 2 11.2 161 Countrywide Securities Corp 24,047.0 11 4.0 49 Lehman Brothers 52,714.5 4 8.7 175 Credit Suisse First Boston 52,843.0 3 8.7 146 Morgan Stanley 50,312.4 5 8.3 139 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 36,077.2 8 6.0 96 Deutsche Bank AG 48,392.9 6 8.0 118 JP Morgan 84,156.2 1 13.9 154 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 29,319.4 9 4.9 73 Banc of America Securities LLC 40,329.1 7 6.7 120 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 29,169.4 10 4.8 90 UBS 19,485.2 13 3.2 47 Wachovia Corp 21,784.6 12 3.6 66 Goldman Sachs & Co 13,383.1 15 2.2 35 Barclays Capital 14,248.6 14 2.4 30 Washington Mutual Inc - - - - First Tennessee Bank 3,432.6 17 0.6 6 ABN AMRO 2,046.1 18 0.3 5 Unicredito Italiano - - - - General Motors Corp 1,974.3 19 0.3 10 Nomura 635.6 24 0.1 2 HSBC Holdings PLC 981.3 22 0.2 1 WestLB AG 4,093.0 16 0.7 9 BNP Paribas SA 267.0 30 0.0 2 Societe Generale 1,119.3 21 0.2 5 Groupe Caisses d'Epargne 1,600.0 20 0.3 2 Blaylock & Partners LP 708.5 23 0.1 4 Wells Fargo Bank NA 534.5 25 0.1 1 Industry Total 604,533.9 - 100.0 1,255 *Full to Book Runner (Equal if Joint) Source: Thomson Financial Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments

(For December Period) Cpn Year WAC Fctr Dec '04 Nov '04 Fannie Mae 6.00 2004 6.43 .896 24.0 23.9 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.49 .567 34.7 33.0 Fannie Mae 6.00 2002 6.50 .319 31.7 31.5 Fannie Mae 6.00 1998 6.63 .137 29.0 28.7 Freddie Mac 6.00 2004 6.38 .900 24.4 24.3 Freddie Mac 6.00 2003 6.43 .627 31.3 28.4 Freddie Mac 6.00 2002 6.47 .315 31.5 28.9 Freddie Mac 6.00 1998 6.66 .136 29.1 28.2 Source: Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Speeds Rise Modestly at Freddie

Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities were little changed in December, while 30-year Freddie Mac MBS speeds rose modestly, according to Bear Stearns. (Read More)

Roundup: Five Deals Downgraded

Class B-5 of Bear Stearns Mortgage Securities Inc. series 1997-4 has been downgraded from B to B-minus by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Lehman MH Deal

Class B-1 of Lehman ABS manufactured housing contracts, series 2001-B, has been downgraded from BBB-minus to BB by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Morgan Stanley CMBS

Ten classes of Morgan Stanley Capital I Inc. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2003-TOP11, have been placed on review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Ryland Securities

Class B-1 of Ryland Mortgage Securities Corp.'s series 1994-5 mortgage securitization has been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Credit Suisse Deal

Class J of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1997-C1, has been downgraded from C to D by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Dexma Bundle to Cut 100 BP Out of the Process

Dexma Inc. here has embraced bundled services to create a Web-based application that the company claims will be able to cut the cost of a loan by 100 basis points. (Read More)

CIO Change of the Guard for Freddie

James P. Witkins will take over as the new senior vice president of technology, chief information officer at Freddie Mac, effective this month, for William I. Ledman who will be retiring. (Read More)

MISMO Tackles Fraud Dataset

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has OK'd Kroll Factual Data's petition to start a fraud workgroup within MISMO. The new group will meet for the first time as part of the MISMO trimester workgroup meetings to be held the week of Jan. 24-28 in Fort Collins, Colo. (Read More)

Abernathy Resigns at Treasury, Moves to ABA

Treasury assistant secretary Wayne Abernathy is stepping down from his government post Jan. 31 to take a top-level position at the American Bankers Association. (Read More)

Economist Sees Home Price Fall

Many low-income families will not benefit from buying a home at today's inflated prices, according to an economist who believes some markets will see substantial price declines in the years ahead. (Read More)

Interest-Only Loans Funded In Select MSAs

Name of IO Loans Funded % of Lns that % of Lns that MSA Jan - Oct 2004 are IOs, 2004 are IOs, 2001 San Diego 37,765 14.46 % 0.31 % Santa Rosa 6,413 14.29 % 0.23 % Salinas, CA 4,214 14.00 % 0.32 % Las Vegas 15,702 13.22 % 0.39 % Santa Barbara 3,987 12.53 % 0.54 % Notes: MSAs selected by LoanPerformance. These five MSAs are ranked high to low by IOs funded as a percentage of all residential loans funded in that area. These MSAs tend to be high cost areas. (Read More)

DeepGreen Names New CEO

Home-equity lender DeepGreen Financial here has appointed Saiyid T. Naqvi to the position of chief executive officer following the departure of Jerome J. Selitto. (Read More)

Fitch, Worried About CMBS Collateral, Increases Enhancement

Fitch Ratings has increased credit enhancement levels for commercial mortgage-backed securities loans taking into account "the declining quality of CMBS loans over the past several months." (Read More)

MA Predatory Law 'Subjective'

The Massachusetts Division of Banks has issued final regulations to clarify the implementation of the controversial "borrower's interest" standard under the state's Predatory Home Loan Practices Act, but one Washington attorney says the changes made to "tweak" the regs are not significant. (Read More)

Ameriquest to Make Super Bowl Splash

Ameriquest Mortgage Co. here is the title sponsor of this year's Super Bowl halftime show. The game is to be played on Sunday, Feb. 6 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., and as part of the festivities, the company is conducting a sweepstakes promotion. (Read More)

Maryland County's Lending Law May Hurt Volume

The County Council of Montgomery County here has proposed an anti-predatory lending bill that could have an adverse impact on the flow of residential mortgage loans in the county, according to the Washington law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. (Read More)

Quicken Chief Buys Cleveland Cavaliers

The chairman of Rock Financial and Quicken Loans here, Dan Gilbert, has agreed to purchase a majority ownership stake in the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers. (Read More)

I-Bank Purchases First NLC

The executives at Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc., Arlington, Va., said its purchase of First NLC Financial Services LLC here is not a conflict with its investment banking business. That business serves many of First NLC's competitors in the nonprime mortgage originations business. (Read More)

Ameriquest Sponsors Calif. Meeting

Ameriquest Mortgage Co. sponsored the California Governor's Conference on Women and Families on Dec. 7 at the Long Beach Convention Center. (Read More)

First Franklin Direct Becomes NationPoint

First Franklin Direct, the retail direct-to-consumer division of nonprime mortgage lender First Franklin Financial Corp. here, has been rebranded. (Read More)

H&R Block/Option One Hoping to Offer Its Brokers Memorable AU

Former "Jeopardy" champion Ken Jennings had a problem remembering the name of H&R Block Inc., but brokers who sell to the company's Option One Mortgage Corp. subsidiary may find it memorable for its recently publicized efforts to provide them with easy access to the firm's proprietary automated underwriting system. (Read More)

MI Tax Deduction Now 'Off the Table'?

It appears the Bush administration has no designs on reducing the tax deductibility status of mortgage interest payments. (Read More)

Lime Cracked the $1B Mark in '04

LIME Financial here cracked the $1 billion market in residential fundings in 2004 - a record for the fast-growing nonconforming lender. (Read More)

Publicly traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 249.9 Change: -1.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/13/200 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 0.41 5.75 0.80 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.24 9.20 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 81.97 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 17.15 27.91 21.34 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 47.37 New Century (NCEN) 38.50 66.95 59.39 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 46.86 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.81 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 22.39 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.60 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. %Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AMSF) 0% 18% na American Business Fin. (ABFI) -1% 95% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) -10% 53% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -2% 17% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 1% 24% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 3% 92% na New Century (NCEN) -1% 54% na Novastar (NFI) 1% 63% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -4% 18% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -3% 23% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 11% 18% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 179.8 Change: 1.0 (part 1 of 2) Company 1/6/2005 1/13/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Fitch Won't Rate IN High-Cost

Indiana has joined New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kentucky and New Mexico as states where Fitch Ratings will not rate residential mortgage-backed securities that contain high-cost home loans. Under the Indiana High Cost Home Loan Law, Fitch said the assignee liability for these loans is unquantifiable. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Morgan Hill-Scott Coburn has been promoted to vice president, division manager of CreditFlex Funding. (Read More)

No Surprise: Fannie Purchases Slow as It Raises More Capital

As it tries to increase capital, Fannie Mae is expected to grow more slowly and judging by its November loan purchases the GSE is doing just that. (Read More)

Correction

In a page one news analysis on Franklin Raines appearing in our Jan. 10 issue, National Mortgage News transposed the sentiments that the now former Fannie Mae chairman/CEO was expressing to some of its customers and lobbying allies. The sentence should have read as follows: Industry sources note that all during the autumn, Mr. Raines kept telling some of his customers as well as his lobbying allies - including the National Association of Home Builders - that OFHEO was wrong and Fannie was right. NMN had printed the reverse. We apologize for the error. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Holdings/Purchases 2004

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Year/ Mort. Port Portfolio Multi- MBS Month Holdings Growth Rate Family(1) Purchases Jan-04 $886,665 -14.60% $577 $268 Feb $882,108 -6.00% $337 $181 Mar $880,911 -1.60% $854 $6,507 Apr $880,481 -0.60% $1,451 $10,198 May $878,386 -2.80% $1,226 $10,670 June $891,210 19.00% $2,389 $13,330 July $892,724 2.10% $950 $5,676 Aug $895,428 3.70% $1,040 $4,676 Sept $904,766 12.90% $3,468 $5,074 Oct $913,246 12.20% $4,034 $3,665 Nov $912,608 -0.80% $2,486 $2,717 YTD na 1.70% $18,812 $62,962 (part 2 of 2) Total Year/ Portfolio MBS MBS Accq'd Total Pur./ Month Purchases(2) Issued(3) by Others Bus. Vol(4) Jan-04 $8,573 $44,794 $44,527 $53,100 Feb $12,170 $38,804 $38,624 $50,794 Mar $20,260 $45,365 $38,858 $59,118 Apr $27,448 $56,541 $46,344 $73,792 May $26,686 $58,559 $47,889 $74,575 June $37,164 $53,692 $40,362 $77,526 July $21,618 $39,636 $33,960 $55,578 Aug $21,787 $34,961 $30,285 $52,072 Sept $27,661 $40,870 $35,796 $63,457 Oct $27,142 $38,289 $34,623 $61,766 Nov $19,121 $36,259 $33,542 $52,662 YTD $249,630 $487,770 $424,810 $674,440 Notes: (1) Multifamily volume listed above represents portfolio purchases only. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Holdings/Purchases 2004

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Year/ Total Retained PCs Held in Port. Growth Month Portfolio Portfolio Rate(1) 4-Jan $640,660 $388,471 12.50% Feb $638,034 $382,916 -0.20% Mar $636,595 $376,563 -2.40% Apr $632,482 $370,182 -4.90% May $634,895 $371,239 10.90% June $645,185 $374,238 12.60% July $656,342 $378,689 9.20% Aug $661,358 $378,001 1.40% Sept $660,713 $373,392 1.90% Oct $660,301 $373,031 3.80% Nov $656,982 $365,781 -0.40% YTD Total/Bal. $656,982 $365,781 4.00% (part 2 of 2) Year/ Sing-Fam Total Mort. Mort. PC Month Delinquen.(2) Purch.(3) Issuance 4-Jan 0.27% $36,916 $31,653 Feb 0.27% $33,808 $26,368 Mar 0.25% $43,055 $32,651 Apr 0.24% $48,299 $38,219 May 0.23% $50,671 $41,778 June 0.23% $53,283 $39,022 July 0.23% $44,758 $30,709 Aug 0.23% $37,765 $23,461 Sept 0.23% $35,199 $23,586 Oct 0.24% $34,392 $26,541 Nov na $34,606 $23,207 YTD Total/Bal. na $452,752 $337,195 Notes: (1) Portfolio growth rate is an annualized rate. (2) No PMI included. (3) Preliminary. (Read More)

2004 Volume Just Short of 2d-Best Year

Mortgage bankers funded $595 billion in home loans in the fourth quarter, the industry's weakest quarterly showing of the year, according to preliminary survey results compiled by National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Residential Lenders in Q4 2004 (A Sample)

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Americorp Credit Corp. Anaheim, CA 2 Cherry Creek Mortgage Greenwood Villiage, CO 3 Colonial Savings, F.A. Fort Worth, TX 4 Franklin American Mortgage Franklin, TN 5 Mortgage Investors Corporation St. Petersburg, FL 6 No Red Tape Mortgage Sherman Oaks, CA 7 People's Bank Bridgeport, CT 8 PFF Bank & Trust Rancho Cucamonga, CA 9 Platinum Direct Funding Rolling Meadows, IL 10 Republic Bancorp Inc. Owosso, MI (part 2 of 2) Origination Volume % Rk Q4 04 Q4 03 change 1 $75 na na 2 $395 $302 31% 3 $563 $610 -8% 4 $1,266 $883 43% 5 $782 $1,811 -57% 6 $594 $310 92% 7 $247 $512 -52% 8 $124 $119 4% 9 $101 $92 10% 10 $444 $526 -16% Submitted Totals: $4,590 $5,164 -11% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. Excludes subprime specialists. (Read More)

Fannie Closer to Slashing Servicing Fee?

Fannie Mae could be moving closer to slashing its minimum servicing fee to as low as 13 basis points, a move that would radically alter the way mortgage firms manage their receivables. (Read More)

27 Cities Facing Price Bubbles

Twenty-seven "urbanized areas" are facing a home price bubble because housing costs, as a ratio to personal income, are exceedingly high, according to a new research report by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. here. (Read More)

Pricey Home?

Urbanized Ratio of home price Area's Area to per capita income Population Santa Barbara, CA 20.82 410,700 Santa Cruz, CA 18.69 259,300 San Luis Obispo, CA 14.70 260,600 San Jose, CA 14.43 1,769,400 Salinas, CA 13.92 420,900 Oxnard, CA 12.23 804,900 Petaluma, CA 11.78 480,800 San Diego, CA 11.67 3,002,100 Los Angeles, CA 11.6 12,991,900 Santa Rosa, CA 11.54 480,800 Notes: FBR evaluated the ratio of median home prices to per capita personal income of 369 urbanized areas or UAs. The ten areas listed here have the highest ratio and in FBR's opinion could "pop." Overall, FBR found 27 possible UA bubbles. (Read More)

SBC Hearings Coming in Feb.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., plans to start hearings on GSE regulatory reform in February, but he has not set a timetable for quick action on a bill this year. (Read More)

'Olive Branch' from NAHB

The National Association of Home Builders is taking on a new legislative approach and the trade group is holding out an olive branch to Congress and the Bush administration in establishing a new independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Read More)

Freddie Says Its PC Market Share Up

Freddie Mac said that it now has a market share of 40%, a sign that the GSE is perhaps benefiting, at least a little bit, from the woes of its chief competitor, Fannie Mae. (Read More)

WaMu's Earnings Down Sharply, Mortgage Net Up

Declining mortgage origination volume was one factor behind a 26% drop in Washington Mutual's earnings for 2004, but WaMu's chairman said that the company's mortgage unit contributed more to profits than he had expected. (Read More)

At a Glance: Mortgage Banking Group Profits

Qtr Net Income 2nd '04 ($63 million) 3rd '04 $270 million 4th '04 $138 million Source: Washington Mutual. Note: ()=loss. (Read More)

First American Promotes Two Execs

The First American Corp., Dallas, has promoted Chris Leavell to chief operating officer for the company's Mortgage Information Services Group and Anthony Merlo will become the new president of eAppraiseIT, taking the position vacated by Mr. Leavell. Mr. Leavell will now assume responsibility for MISG's enterprise initiatives, international expansion and product bundling programs. In addition, he will have direct operating responsibility for various MISG companies. (Read More)

Wells Sees Mortgage Volume Slip, HE Growing

Wells Fargo reported record 2004 earnings despite a sharp drop in mortgage volume. (Read More)

At a Glance: Wells Fargo Originations Down, Servicing Up

2004 1st mortgage originations: $298 billion 2003 1st mortgage originations: $470 billion Dec. 31, 2004 servicing portfolio: $805 billion Dec. 31, 2003 servicing portfolio: $710 billion Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Commitment

Countrywide Home Loans' recently-announced commitment of $1 trillion in affordable housing lending this decade is welcome news and a sign of the firm's sincerity in targeting minority and low-mod borrowers for homeownership. (Read More)

Home Equity Stretched Thin

Mr. Apgar, senior scholar at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, argues that rising home equity lines of credit combined with overvalued home prices could end up being a financial disaster for banks and borrowers. He is also on the advisory board of AMCO, an independent appraisal firm. (Read More)

Sizing Up the Importance of the Agencies' Implied Guarantee

It has often been argued that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac couldn't be quickly and/or entirely privatized, as Freddie chairman and chief executive Richard F. Syron said at a National Association of Home Builders meeting last week. (Read More)

Price Pressure Eases on Builders

After being hit by "a huge increase" in the cost of many building materials this summer, builders throughout the country are now reporting easing prices and fewer shortages. (Read More)

Move to Save Aging Rural Rentals

The Department of Agriculture is working on a program to rehabilitate nearly 17,000 small, rural apartment properties throughout the country that are in need of repair. (Read More)

FHA, VA to Expand Business with New Products

Two key federal housing agencies are planning new initiatives this year, programs they believe will allow them to dig deeper into the new home market. (Read More)

Freddie Looks at a 45% Back-End Ratio for A- Loans

Downpayments as low as $550, 45% debt-to-income ratios and other "very flexible" terms will be part of Freddie Mac's newly redesigned A-minus loan initiative. (Read More)

More Funders Are Available for 2005 Health Care Properties

A larger group of capital providers will be funding health care projects in 2005, according to Cambridge Realty Capital Companies, a health care lender. (Read More)

Agency Funds Top Rankings

Mutual funds invested mainly in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities topped the rankings of mortgage funds in 2004, reporting an average cumulative total return of 3.68%, according to data from Lipper Inc., New York. (Read More)

Selected National Mortgage fund performance

(part 1 of 2) 1 Year Latest 12/31/2003- Total Net 12/31/2004 Fund Assets Cumulative Name (Mil$) Tot Return(%) Rank Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Funds Evergreen Adj Rt;I 2585.0 2.07 1 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 717.2 1.81 2 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv;A 573.6 1.79 3 Evergreen Adj Rt;A 1151.6 1.76 4 Average/Total 13389.8 1.38 18 Ginnie Mae Funds Vanguard GNMA;Adm 5207.7 4.21 1 Fidelity Inc:GNMA 4042.2 4.20 2 SunAmerica:GNMA;X 9.8 4.17 3 PaydenFunds:GNMA 113.5 4.16 4 Average/Total 53156.1 3.20 64 U.S. Mortgage Funds Dreyfus Mortgage Shrs 18.4 6.38 1 Huntington:Mtge;Tr 60.8 5.86 2 Huntington:Mtge;Inv A 1.3 5.66 3 TCW Galileo:TR Bd;Instl 171.0 5.19 4 Average/Total 14990.4 3.68 84 (part 2 of 2) 1 Quarter 5 Years 09/30/2004- 12/31/1999- 12/31/2004 12/31/2004 Fund Cumulative Cumulative Name Tot Return(%) Rank Tot Return(%) Rank Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Funds Evergreen Adj Rt;I 0.56 2 26.11 1 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 0.50 3 24.56 2 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv;A 0.40 8 21.02 4 Evergreen Adj Rt;A 0.48 4 N/A N/A Average/Total 0.36 18 20.86 10 Ginnie Mae Funds Vanguard GNMA;Adm 1.24 2 N/A N/A Fidelity Inc:GNMA 0.95 21 37.43 14 SunAmerica:GNMA;X 1.11 8 N/A N/A PaydenFunds:GNMA 1.38 1 41.30 4 Average/Total 0.82 64 35.41 46 U.S. Mortgage Funds Dreyfus Mortgage Shrs 1.59 4 N/A N/A Huntington:Mtge;Tr 2.09 2 44.85 6 Huntington:Mtge;Inv A 2.12 1 42.93 7 TCW Galileo:TR Bd;Instl 1.12 11 49.60 1 Average/Total 0.93 84 36.01 58 Source: Lipper, a Reuters company Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Website Spotlights Community Development

Community development and rehabilitation services provider and subsidiary of Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., K. Hovnanian Homes, has launched a new website designed to provide municipalities and landlords with information on land-use practices and best practices accompanied by before-and-after photos of various sites nationally. (Read More)

Bonds Funding Lease/Purchase

Freddie Mac is providing a $35 million lease purchase revenue bond program to enable cash- and credit-challenged potential buyers here to become homeowners through the Strategic Housing Finance Corp. of Travis County. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Pasadena-IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said it is adding new members to the Wholesale Lending, Correspondent Services and Subprime Lending Divisions. (Read More)

Fannie Mae 'Suspected NC Fraud'

A Fannie Mae internal review has concluded that regional officials suspected a North Carolina lender was engaged in fraudulent loan sales to Ginnie Mae, but did nothing to stop it. (Read More)

GMAC Reorganizes Mortgage Structure

General Motors, which recently posted lower-than-expected earnings due to concerns in non-mortgage business lines, reported that it may seek to restructure its residential mortgage operations in order to make their financing more cost effective. (Read More)

GSE Status Enables G-Fees

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can charge highly profitable guarantee fees because their GSE status "inhibits" competition in the secondary market for conforming loans, according to the enterprises' regulator. (Read More)

Bank of America Sees Record Net

Bank of America reported record full-year and fourth-quarter 2004 earnings, citing success with the acquisition of FleetBoston Financial as one factor for the earnings growth. (Read More)

HE Hurts Morgan-Chase Earnings

J.P. Morgan Chase said that it earned $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004, down from $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Wind, Powell Co-CEOs of Chase

J.P. Morgan Chase has promoted Thomas Wind and Scott Powell to serve as co-chief executive officers of Chase Home Finance. The company also has named Thomas Garvey CHF's vice chairman. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 252.6 Change: 2.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/20/2005 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 0.41 5.75 0.67 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 81.97 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 22.69 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 47.84 New Century (NCEN) 38.50 66.95 60.08 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 47.16 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.65 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 23.31 Transnational Finl Network I(TFI) 0.51 1.45 0.60 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AMSF) 0% 18% na American Business Fin. (ABFI) -16% 63% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) -2% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 0% 17% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 6% 32% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 1% 94% na New Century (NCEN) 1% 56% na Novastar (NFI) 1% 64% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -2% 16% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 4% 28% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFI) 0% 18% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Retirees Want to Stop Payouts

Attorneys for a Michigan public pension fund, the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System, have filed a temporary restraining order, requesting a federal judge to stop what is says are multimillion-dollar payouts to Fannie Mae's former CEO and CFO who left the company amid allegations of a massive accounting scandal. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 178.2 Change: -1.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 1/13/2001 1/20/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Another Wall Street Firm in B/C

While subprime loan servicing may be losing its shine with the mortgage insurance firms, Wall Street still sees some luster in the business. (Read More)

Street Firms & Their Platforms

($ in Millions) Street Servicing Non-Conf. Housing Firm Affiliate Receivables Citigroup CitiFinancial $55,227 Lehman Bros. Aurora Loan (AA) $48,393 Wachovia Homeq Servicing $39,129 CSFB (1) Select Port. Serv. $23,703 C-BASS (e) Litton Loan Servic $14,000 Bear Stearns EMC Mortgage $11,300 Merrill Lynch Wilshire Credit $8,798 TOTALS: $200,547 Notes: Firms ranked by non-conforming (subprime, alt-A, scratch and dent and so on) receivables at September 30, 2004. (1) CSFB has agreed to buy SPS but the deal has not yet closed. (AA) Firm focuses mostly on 'alt-A' mortgages. (e) Estimate. Firm does not answer NMN's quarterly surveys. (Read More)

Some Surprises in GSE Bill

The first GSE reform bill introduced this year contains several surprising provisions, including one that requires a new regulator to set parameters on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's secondary market activities. (Read More)

Industry Production in 1980-2005

($ in Billions) Year $ of Orgs. Avg. Vol. Inc. From in Year Yr. Rate Prev Yr. (Read More)

PA Lender Bankrupt

American Business Financial Services here, once a top-ranked subprime funder, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leaving its unsecured investors in the lurch. (Read More)

Freddie CIO Takes Charge

In his new position, James P. Witkins, senior vice president and chief information officer at Freddie Mac, plans to get the GSE's technology house in order with initiatives to isolate areas for technology spending, make the flow of data more efficient and continue the rollout of Freddie's new selling and servicing systems. (Read More)

FHA Share Shrinks to 3.5% as Conventional Market Rises

The Federal Housing Administration share of the single-family loan market has shrunk to 3.5% in 2004, as its traditional customers are increasingly attracted to conventional low-downpayment products. (Read More)

IndyMac Sees Higher Volume

IndyMac earned $55.9 million, or $0.87 per share, during the fourth quarter. For the full year, IndyMac earned $170.5 million, or $2.74 per share on a GAAP basis. (Read More)

WaMu Expects Mortgage Income to Be Flat in 2005

Washington Mutual exceeded expectations by turning a profit in its mortgage banking business during 2004, but the company seems eager to lower expectations for the unit this year. (Read More)

More Heads Rolling at Fannie

In the wake of its accounting scandal, Fannie Mae has reassigned at least four executives in its bookkeeping department, giving them temporary "advisory" positions with the company. (Read More)

Getting a Return

It's a sign of the maturity of the mortgage technology niche that there is so much emphasis on achieving, and quantifying, a return on technology investments. (Read More)

Millions of Minority Owners

Mr. Jackson recently addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington. Excerpts of his prepared remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

In Absence of Alternatives, Mortgages May Still Look Pretty Good

There's an increasing sense out there among market participants that mortgages won't be quite the source of growth they previously were this year. Nevertheless they still look relatively strong - especially given that there appears to be no particular clear successor to their role as a vehicle for growth in the market. (Read More)

Home Sales Register Another Record in 2004

Sales of existing homes hit another record in 2004 and price gains were the highest in 24 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. (Read More)

Fannie Will Buy Low-Cost HECMs

Fannie Mae has finally agreed to purchase refinancings of FHA-insured reverse mortgages that give seniors a break on the upfront mortgage insurance payment. (Read More)

Economists Keen on Industry's Growth Prospects This Decade

A roundtable of housing industry economists shows continued optimism about the prospects for the mortgage finance sector over the next 10 years, according to an article compiled for LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based database and analytics company. (Read More)

Realtors Create Fund To Aid Tsunami Victims

The National Association of Realtors has created a special project to aid the victims of a tsunami that ravaged South Asian countries recently. (Read More)

Survey Finds Foreign Demand for U.S. Real Estate Slackening

Foreign investors are looking to reduce their U.S real estate acquisitions to 55% of their total global real estate investments for 2005, compared to 71% of the total allocation for 2004, according to an Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate survey. (Read More)

Lower Ratings for PHH Debt

Moody's Investors Service here has reported that it plans to lower PHH Corp.'s Baa1 senior unsecured debt rating and Prime-2 rating for commercial paper to Baa3 and Prime-3, respectively, with a stable outlook, when Cendant Corp. completes its spin-off of the mortgage, fleet and appraisal businesses. Prior to the spin-off, all of PHH's ratings remained under review for potential downgrade. (Read More)

Banks' Demand for MBS Slips

There is likely to be "modest to weak demand from banks" in the mortgage-backed securities market this year, but they remain "a force to be reckoned with" as investors, according to Bear Stearns senior managing director Steven Abrahams. (Read More)

TBMA Asks Buy-Ins Be More Flexible

The Bond Market Association here has asked Treasury to make its buy-in rule more flexible so that dealers can better manage risk of failed customer sell orders in the mortgage-backed security and Treasury markets, particularly when fails are widespread. (Read More)

Guardian to Move into Title and Escrow Business

Guardian Mortgage Documents Inc. has made a strategic move to add title and escrow to its list of offerings to the mortgage industry. The document preparation vendor will make the official announcement at the annual Mortgage Technology Conference in Miami this week. (Read More)

SharperLending Reaches Out to Spanish Speakers

SharperLending here has added a Spanish export that will translate its credit functionality into Spanish to reach this emerging market. (Read More)

American Home Fastest-Growing Wholesaler

Among the top 20 residential mortgage wholesalers as compiled by the Quarterly Data Report for the first nine months of 2004, American Home Mortgage here was by far the fasting growing. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Jeffery Sorensen

ResMae Financial Corp., Brea, Calif., has promoted Mr. Sorensen to executive vice president, managing director, capital markets and investor reporting. He previously was a senior vice president at the company. (Read More)

Fifth Third Sees Lower Earnings

Fifth Third Bancorp's 2004 fourth-quarter earnings per diluted share were $0.31, down from $0.77 for the same period in 2003, on net income of $176 million, down from $442 million in the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Buy a House, Get Many Points

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. here has entered into an arrangement with Awards for Mortgage and Real Estate, which provides rewards for consumers who buy, sell, finance or refinance a home or purchase van line moving services, to give its frequent guest program members points when using any of the above services. (Read More)

She's Looking for Excellence

Pat Sherlock, president of QFS Consulting Group here, which will host the Top Women Producers and Managers Conference in October, is currently looking for nominees for the Second Annual Mortgage Banking Excellence Award. (Read More)

Earnings at MDC Are Up by 66%

Disciplined operating and growth strategy have resulted in strong performance over the last five years for MDC Holdings Inc., according to Gary Reece, chief financial officer of the regional homebuilding company, whose subsidiaries build homes under the name Richmond American Homes. (Read More)

Brookfield Wants to Increase EPS 15%

Brookfield Homes Corp. said it closed 1,798 homes in 2004, an increase of 270 units over 2003. Brookfield also achieved its targeted backlog at Dec. 31, 2004 of approximately 30% of an estimated 1,875 home closings in 2005. (Read More)

Weather Will Hurt Builder Net

Due to severe weather in California, national homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. said it expects earnings for the first quarter ending Jan. 31 to be less than its previous projection of $1.40 per fully diluted share. (Read More)

Mortgage Dip No Problem for NCC

National City Corp. earned $2.8 billion in 2004, or $4.31 per diluted share, up from $2.1 billion, or $3.43 per share, in 2003. (Read More)

Privately Held Fieldstone Going Public

Fieldstone Investment Corp. here, a top-ranked nonconforming lender, has filed to register its privately held shares with the public. (Read More)

Roundup: Sovereign Sees Double Digit Growth

Sovereign Bancorp said its net earnings increased 13% to $617 million, or $1.88 per share, in 2004, in part because of strong growth in consumer banking. (Read More)

U.S. Bancorp Earns $4.2 Billion

U.S. Bancorp reported earnings of $4.2 billion in 2004, up 13% from one year earlier. (Read More)

Meritage's Orders Rise

Meritage Homes Corp. reported that full-year 2004 sales orders were up 59% from 2003 to $2.6 billion, and full-year home closing revenue increased 38% from 2003 to $1.3 billion. (Read More)

Hibernia Sees Net Grow 13%

Hibernia Corp. reported 2004 net income of $293 million, up 13% from a year earlier. (Read More)

PMI Group Sees Chance to Export Its Core Expertise

A key executive involved in the PMI Group's global efforts, Tony Porter, told this publication he expects this year will be one in which the United States-based mortgage insurer will further "play through on the hope we had when we went international." (Read More)

Mortgage Insurer Monitoring Basel

Among the developments a key executive involved in the PMI Group international and European efforts is keeping an eye on is the future implementation of the Basel II international risk standards. (Read More)

Study: Prepay Penalties Equal Higher Rates

A new study says that contrary to subprime industry claims, borrowers subjected to prepayment penalties are given higher interest rates on purchase loans, with minority neighborhood homeowners being 35% more likely to get a prepayment penalty than their non-minority counterparts. (Read More)

REITs May Not Match Stellar '04

The NAREIT REIT Composite Index posted a total return of 30.4% for 2004, outperforming most other stock market benchmarks for the year, but real estate investment trust analysts don't see a follow up for 2005. (Read More)

FL Lender Forms CRE Finance Unit

EverBank, a mortgage originator and banker, has formed a commercial real estate lending division to meet the needs of the small balance commercial real estate loan market. (Read More)

Commercial Transactions

* Prudential Mortgage has originated a $220 million loan, at 5.2%, which is to be securitized, for Vornado Realty Trust, secured by 11 Penn Plaza, a one million square foot New York City office building in Midtown Manhattan. (Read More)

MF, Retail Sectors Gain Strength

Property sectors driven by consumer spending - multifamily and retail - remain strong while those tied more to the corporate side - office and industrial - lag, although they continue to recover, Moody's Investors Service says in its commercial real estate market report for the third quarter of 2004. (Read More)

$475 MM Funding For 7 World Trade

The New York City Industrial Development Agency has authorized $475 million in Liberty Bond funding for reconstruction of 7 World Trade Center, the first Ground Zero building on which rebuilding activity has begun. (Read More)

Loan Websites: Completing the Puzzle

The days of the Internet and the World Wide Web being buzz terms that send chills down your spine are gone. Now everyone in the mortgage industry - and in most parts of the world for that matter- uses the Internet to conduct crucial business. (Read More)

Inside

Upping the Ante 26 GHR further streamlines the piggyback mortgage process. (Read More)

GHR Automates Online Piggyback Loan Process

GHR Systems here has updated its wholesale origination site to further streamline the process to apply for piggyback loans. (Read More)

MortgageHub Says Firms That 'Get It' Turn to the Web

If you believe that Web services are the future for mortgage technology, keep an eye on Conshohocken, Pa.-based MortgageHub. MortgageHub.com now bills itself as the No. 1 ranked Web-services platform for the mortgage industry. (Read More)

Web-based Technology Is Making Real Headway Overseas

Mortgage originators overseas often benefit from Web-based technology that can help them communicate with multiple parties and maintain various business relationships. (Read More)

Exstream Software

(Company Facts) Headquarters: Lexington, Ky. (Read More)

Myers Internet Adds New Pricing Functionality

Myers Internet Inc., a provider of technology to the mortgage industry based in San Jose, Calif., is adding a new pricing product to its broker website. The Web developer, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in March, has released interest-only rate search functionality on its Multi Lender Platform. (Read More)

a la mode Inc. Launches New XSite Features

A la mode Inc. of Oklahoma City is about to release a new Web-based solution for loan officers and brokers that the technology vendor says will get users closer to a paperless mortgage. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Walnut Creek-PMI Capital Corp. has named Patrick L. Mathis as senior vice president, chief risk officer. (Read More)

GSE Purchase, Market Share Falls

Loan purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac floundered last year as the waning refinancing boom and the rise of nonconforming loans clipped their business volumes. (Read More)

Fannie and Freddie's Loan Purchases Fell in 2004

($ in Billions) GSE: 2004 Loan 2004 Mkt 2003 Loan 2003 Mkt Name Purchases Share Purchases Share Fannie Mae $725.2 26.95% $1,423.1 36.45% Freddie Mac $494.6 18.38% $826.4 21.16% TOTALS: $1,219.8 45.33% $2,249.5 57.61% Notes: Market share was calculated by dividing the GSE's loan purchases by all residential originations in a given year and not just conventional originations. In 2004 all lenders funded $2.691 trillion compared to $3.904 trillion in 2003. (Read More)

Ginnie Mae II Gains on Ginnie Mae I

Ginnie Mae issuers divided their securitizations of fixed-rate single-family loans equally between Ginnie I mortgage-backed securities and Ginnie II MBS in calendar year 2004, according to the secondary market agency. (Read More)

Deloitte Hires Wall Street Veteran

Deloitte & Touche LLP here has hired investment banking veteran Brenda White to head its consumer and financial services department. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 254.1 Change: 1.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/27/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 10.46 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 82.60 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 22.05 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 47.22 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 57.55 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 45.75 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.6 8.75 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 21.58 Transnational Finl Network I (TFNI) 0.51 1.45 0.60 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) 345% 410% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) -3% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 1% 18% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -3% 29% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) -1% 91% na New Century (NEW) -4% 49% na Novastar (NFI) -3% 59% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 1% 17% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -7% 18% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFNI) 0% 18% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

MBA Meeting On GSE Servicing Fee

The Mortgage Bankers Association - which has yet to take a position on the GSEs' slashing their servicing fees - will host a meeting here on the issue this Thursday. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 175.5 Change: -2.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 1/20/2005 1/27/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Freddie Wants Basel II Conformity

Freddie Mac wants any regulatory reform of its capital requirements to be risk-based and competitive with the global standards being enacted through Basel II, an executive told investors here last week. (Read More)

Bill Could Regulate GSEs' AU

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's use of their automated underwriting systems could come under regulatory review if Congress passes a tough GSE bill introduced by three Senate Banking Committee Republicans, further analysis confirmed last week. (Read More)

'AU Used, Models For Risk, Less So'

The digital divide is closing between U.S. households with Internet access and those without. Similarly, most mortgage originators have websites and ready access to automated underwriting. However, there's a real digital divide between mortgage lenders that use computer modeling to manage their businesses and those that do not, said Mortech LLC principal Jeff Lebowitz in a session on knowledge-based management at the Mortgage Technology Conference just concluded here. (Read More)

Conduits See Servicing Issues

Nonconforming lenders that sell their loans to Wall Street conduits are starting to express concerns about the quality of "interim" servicers. (Read More)

Commercial Lenders in 4Q 2004 (A Sample)

($ in Millions) (MBA's 4Q commercial servicer rankings story on p. 17) (part 1 of 2) Lender 4Q '04 Comm. (Read More)

Fannie to Save $500 Per Loan?

Fannie Mae unveiled a plan to streamline the mortgage loan process and cut the cost of origination by $500 a loan using new technology at the 8th Annual Mortgage Technology Conference here last week. (Read More)

Eliminating the Gap

Over the past 10 years, I've chaired or co-chaired two dozen mortgage conferences for our parent company. In that time I've heard some interesting presentations, heard a few company commercials, heard some overblown predictions about when the e-mortgage will take over the market. But at last week's Mortgage Technology Conference that I chaired and that National Mortgage News sponsored in Miami, I heard something truly visionary. (Read More)

HE Deduction Under Scrutiny

The tax deduction for interest on home-equity loans is "inconsistent" with encouraging homeownership and should be repealed, according to congressional tax experts. (Read More)

Hedging Woes Take Toll on Countrywide Earnings

Investors reacted skittishly as the nation's biggest mortgage lender reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. (Read More)

Mortgage Bankers: Streamline State Licensing of Loan Officers

The Mortgage Bankers Association has created a task force to find ways of streamlining state licensing of loan officers to reduce costs and facilitate interstate lending. (Read More)

MBA Seeks Dialogue On MD County Bill

The Mortgage Bankers Association is making an effort to bring industry members together to discuss a proposed Montgomery County, Md., ordinance which it believes could have a negative impact on members who do business there. (Read More)

Homeownership's Value

Excerpts of Secretary Snow's prepared remarks before the Real Estate Roundtable's State of the Industry Meeting in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Short-Term Rates Rise, Long-Term Rates Fall Again as Fed Acts

Once again the Fed has moved, short-term rates have risen and long-term rates have fallen, further flattening the yield curve and moving 30-year mortgage investments closer to the point at which some think they might actually become prepayment sensitive again if lower rates are sustained. (Read More)

'Governance' Score For Fannie Slips

Standard & Poor's Governance Services has lowered its corporate governance score on Fannie Mae from CGS-9 to CGS-7 following meetings with the company's management and directors. (The top score is CGS-10.) S&P lowered the score mainly due to recent determinations by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding Fannie Mae's accounting policies, late regulatory filings, and concerns about board oversight of finances and of management's regulatory relations. (Read More)

MuniMae to Move Beyond Multifamily with MONY Acquisition

MuniMae is acquiring MONY Realty Capital from AXA Financial. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Read More)

Moody's: $1 Bil In CMBS in '05

Moody's is expecting issuance of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities to touch $100 billion for 2005, following issuance of $93 billion for 2004. (Read More)

Colliers: Office Occupancy Recovers, Returns to Year 2000 Levels

Occupancy levels in the office sector have nearly rebounded to their year-2000 levels following two years of positive absorption in markets nationwide, according to Colliers International. (Read More)

Merger's End Sparks Lawsuit

Prime/Mansur Investment Partners has filed a lawsuit against office real estate investment trust Prime Group Realty Trust in connection with the recent termination of a merger agreement between the two parties. (Read More)

iStar Purchasing Falcon Financial

iStar Financial is acquiring Falcon Financial Investment Trust for $7.50 per share, making for a total acquisition price of about $120 million. (Read More)

Fannie Deal Is a First-Ever in Indian Lending

Fannie Mae has entered into an agreement that for the first time ever will provide needed liquidity to lenders that provide affordable conventional financing on Blackfeet tribal lands. (Read More)

Moody's Modifies Its MQ Rating

Citing intention to avoid confusion, Moody's Investors Service has assigned a new management quality rating scale to affordable housing providers and real estate entities, asset management companies, custodian banks and other administrative service providers, which goes into effect immediately. (Read More)

Nehemiah Receives Bank Grant

Downpayment assistance pioneer Nehemiah Corp. of America has received a $100,000 grant from Western Sierra Bank, Cameron Park, Calif., earmarked as support for Nehemiah's homeownership and financial education services online. (Read More)

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades Some Home Equity Classes, Etc.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded nine classes from three IndyMac Home Equity Mortgage Loan Asset Backed Trust securitizations. (Read More)

Some CSFB tranche ratings slip

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded 11 mezzanine and subordinated tranches from five fixed-rate mortgage securitizations issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. in 2002 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Arbor closes a CDO

Arbor Realty Trust Inc., New York, has closed a collateralized debt obligation through two subsidiaries: the issuer, Arbor Realty Mortgage Securities Series 2004-1 Ltd., and the co-issuer, Arbor Realty Mortgage Securities Series 2004-1 LLC. (Read More)

Fitch Takes FNF ratings Off watch

Fitch Ratings has affirmed and removed from Rating Watch Negative its A-minus financial strength ratings for the title insurance underwriting subsidiaries of Fidelity National Financial Inc. and its BBB-minus long-term issuer rating of FNF. (Read More)

Encore REIT Switch Planned

Wholesale subprime mortgage lender Encore Credit Corp. here is the latest company looking to convert to a publicly traded firm using a real estate investment trust structure. (Read More)

American Home's Earnings Quadruple

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. here posted fourth-quarter 2004 earnings of $48.6 million, or $1.14 per share, compared with $11.9 million, or $0.59 per share, for the same period in 2003. (Read More)

Downey Financial Has More ARMs Than It Needs

Downey Financial Corp. earned $46.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, or $1.66 per share, up 95% from the year-earlier period. (Read More)

BBT Recaptures Servicing Value

BB&T Corp. reported net income of $416.9 million in the fourth quarter, 37% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Flagstar Bancorp Misses Target

Flagstar Bancorp here earned $28.2 million in the fourth quarter, or $0.44 per share, down from $36.7 million, or $0.57 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Merrill Earnings Slipped in 4Q, Rose in Year

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. earned $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004, down 2% from a year ago, but saw its annual earnings rise 16% over 2003 to a record $4.4 billion. (Read More)

Archstone Smith EPS Jumped 76% in 4Q

Archstone-Smith earnings per share for the fourth quarter rose 76% to $1.11 per share from $0.63 EPS during the same period of 2003. (Read More)

Del Mar Adds New Feature to DocumentTrac

Del Mar Database here will add automatic document recognition to its DocumentTrac offering with its new release due out at the end of this month. (Read More)

BNP Paribas Hires Former Freddie MBS Professionals in the U.S.

BNP Paribas here has hired six mortgage-backed securities professionals from Freddie Mac, including Kevin Heal, previously an institutional sales manager at Freddie, who has been named managing director and head of sales at the company's new Tysons Corner, Va., office. (Read More)

Moody's Tallies '04 EMEA RMBS

Residential mortgage-backed securities issuance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa totaled 149.7 billion euros (about $194.2 billion) in 2004, remaining the dominant asset class, representing 53.3% of the entire securitized market, Moody's Investors Service here has reported. (Read More)

Pulte Sells Off Argentina Unit

Builder Pulte Homes here has sold its operations in Argentina to Grupo Farallon SA, an Argentine company involved in residential and commercial real estate development. (Read More)

Moody's Proposes Covered Bond Rating Changes

Moody's Investors Service has proposed incorporating a structured finance-like analysis of collateral into its rating process for Europe's mortgage-related covered bond market. (Read More)

GE, Shinsei Ally

GE Commercial Finance Real Estate here has formed a strategic partnership in Japan. The Y12 billion (about $1.12 billion) partnership with Shinsei Bank Ltd. "combines GE's capital strength with Shinsei's strong commercial banking relationships," Yoshiaki Fujimori, chairman of GE Japan, said. (Read More)

AHBR Ratings May Face Change

Moody's Investors Service's office here has placed on review for possible downgrade Allgemeine Hypothekenbank Rheinboden AG's deposit and long-term and subordinate debt ratings. (Read More)

GMAC Tops List of Primary and Master Servicers of Commercial

The leading commercial mortgage servicer, by total primary and master servicing volume, as of the end of 2004, is GMAC Commercial Holding, according to data that the Mortgage Bankers Association plans to release at its conference in San Diego this week. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 178.2 Change: 2.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 1/27/2002 3/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Wells Opposing GSE Servicing Fee Cut?

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the nation's second-largest servicer, is adamantly opposed to a significant cut in the minimum servicing fee charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, industry sources said last week. (Read More)

'Mold Is No. 1 Contaminant for CRE/MF Lenders'

A poll conducted by the Environmental Assurance Group has found that mold is now the No. 1 feared environmental contaminant for real estate lenders and developers. (Read More)

OCC Emphasizing Enforcement

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has reissued its 2003 anti-predatory lending guidelines in a regulation to emphasize its commitment to take enforcement actions when it discovers unfair and deceptive lending practices at national banks and their mortgage subsidiaries. (Read More)

Ruling Finds for CA's Authority vs. City's in Lending Case

The California Supreme Court held that California's anti-predatory lending law pre-empts Oakland's predatory lending ordinance in a 4-3 decision issued last week. The ruling is good news for California, according to the American Financial Services Association, which brought the case against the city of Oakland, because it means that legitimate subprime lenders can remain in business. (Read More)

Budget Questions GSEs' Role

The Bush administration, in its new fiscal budget, questions the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the mortgage market, citing the "potential for systematic risk" arising from their size. (Read More)

Top Residential Servicers at 12/31/04

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (Read More)

Comm/MF See Record Year

Commercial and multifamily mortgage bankers enjoyed a record year in 2004, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported here last week. (Read More)

Senator Eyeing GSE 'G-Fee' Charges

Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is looking into complaints from small lenders that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge them high loan guarantee fees while offering discounts to large seller/servicers. (Read More)

Goldstein Takes the Helm of AAMG

Thomas M. Goldstein has been named chairman, president and chief executive of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Chicago. In this role he will oversee all mortgage and home-equity line of credit business. (Read More)

Gallagher Sold To First Amer?

First American has purchased loan origination vendor Gallagher Financial Systems here, according to market sources. (Read More)

Bank of America Shuts 20-Month-Old Private-Label Unit

Bank of America - which has experienced a series of ups and downs in mortgages over the past five years - is closing its private-label outsourcing unit, Financial Services Solutions. (Read More)

Connecticut Challenges Ameriquest's Licenses

The state banking commissioner here has told subprime giant Ameriquest Mortgage that it will not renew its lending licenses, accusing the company of charging consumers excessive finance charges. (Read More)

Colorado Eyeing Title Underwriters

The Colorado Department of Insurance is investigating at least nine title insurance underwriters for allegedly paying kickbacks to homebuilders, lenders and Realtors, the deputy commissioner in charge of the investigation confirmed. (Read More)

OFHEO Gives the Go-Ahead to Money for Raines and Howard

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has given Fannie Mae the green light to pay initial pension and deferred compensation benefits to its recently ousted chairman/CEO Franklin Raines and CFO Timothy Howard. However, the order does not include stock options, 2004 bonuses, or other incentive pay. (Read More)

Restore the HUD Cuts

The federal government is terminally clumsy and inefficient in managing just about everything it touches, right? While that may be true in just about every instance, it's not true in the housing and mortgage field. The federal government greatly empowers the private sector in housing finance, and the resulting collaboration has been for many years an outstanding success, producing by far the best mortgage market in the world. (Read More)

Home Mortgage Debt Growing

Excerpts of Mr. Greenspan's remarks at the Advancing Enterprise 2005 Conference in London recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Employment Report Kicks Off a Period of Lower Mortgage Rates

A recent weaker-than-expected overall employment report at press time had kicked off a period of lower rate-indicative bond yields and speculation as to whether federal officials would continue to raise short-term rates. (Read More)

ABFS Names Prez, Seeks Credit Line

Subprime lender American Business Financial Services here, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has promoted Milton Riseman to president and chief operating officer. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Cut from Dividend Index

Dow Jones Select Dividend Index is deleting Fannie Mae and replacing it with Astoria Financial because Fannie's recent halving of dividends caused the company to fall below the index's yield requirement. (Read More)

PHH Spin-off Comes at a Price

Cendant Corp. here earlier this month spun-off its mortgage and fleet unit to the public, a move that will cost the parent company as much as $650 million after taxes. (Read More)

New Century Earnings Rose Year-to-Year in 4Q

New Century Financial Corp. here reported fourth-quarter 2004 net earnings of $78.7 million, or $1.44 per share, compared with $74.1 million, or $1.80 per share, for the same period in 2003. For the full year, the company had earnings of $375.6 million, or $8.29 per share, vs. $245.5 million, or $6.32 per share, posted for 2003. New Century's fourth-quarter earnings were affected by $0.26 in inducement expenses for its $210 million tender offer for senior notes of New Century TRS Holdings Inc. (Read More)

Rice Retiring, FHLB Facing Earnings Pressure

Norman Rice is retiring as president and chief executive of the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank and he plans to step down on March 15. (Read More)

Radian Group Sees Record Net Income in Fourth Quarter and Year

Record net income for the fourth quarter and year was the earnings story at two of the four publicly traded mortgage insurance companies, with a third reporting only record annual profits. (Read More)

Equity Residential Sees Earnings Rise on Higher RE Sales Gains

Equity Residential reported earnings per share of $0.48 for the fourth quarter, compared to EPS of $0.33 for the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Beazer Earnings Up 47.7% in Qtr.

Despite difficult conditions in the Midwest and Charlotte, N.C., markets, Beazer Homes USA Inc. increased its net income to $69.7 million for the fourth quarter, up 47.7% year-over-year, according to Ian McCarthy, president and chief executive officer. (Read More)

Shift to ARMs Hurt NVR in '04

Although mortgage production increased in 2004, homebuilder NVR Inc. saw operating income from its mortgage banking operations decrease 12% for the year, due to a shift away from fixed-rate mortgages to adjustable-rate and brokered mortgages, both of which are generally less profitable than fixed rates, the company said. (Read More)

How Countrywide Plans to Meet Its Raised Goal

When Countrywide Financial Corp. here said it would expand its lending commitment to minority and low-income borrowers from $600 billion to a challenging $1 trillion by the end of the decade, company executives began approaching the ambitious new goal as the next logical step for the company. (Read More)

Financing AH Via E-Securities

For the first time ever, the Calvert Social Investment Foundation has opened the electronic securities marketplace to individual and institutional community investors who address affordable housing, employment and social service needs in economically distressed communities in the United States and abroad. (Read More)

AmeriDream Giving Homebuyers Who Warrant It a 'FreshStart'

AmeriDream Inc. here has launched FreshStart, a new gift program designed to provide one downpayment to a deserving individual or family every month. (Read More)

Fieldstone Investment Corp. Begins Its Life as a Public Company

Shares of Fieldstone Investment Corp. here began trading publicly on Feb. 3, after the Securities and Exchange Commission signed off on the nonconforming lender's registration statement. (Read More)

Same Six States Remain the 'Best'

The same six states, including four known as oil-producing areas, remain on University Financial Associates' Nonprime Mortgage Report Best Places to Lend. (Read More)

N.J. Changes Definition Of High-Cost Loan

The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance has increased the current maximum principal amount falling within the high-cost home loan from $350,000 to $365,674. (Read More)

CarsDirect Acquires Myers Web Properties

CarsDirect has acquired several mortgage website properties from Myers Internet Inc. (Read More)

E-Mortgaging in Fits and Starts

When Chicago-based 1st Advantage Mortgage LLC set out to do an actual e-mortgage with "the first MERS-regulated commercially reproducible eNote," recalled Paul Lueken, the company's president and owner, the event was delayed because someone at the title company "was afraid that somebody might trip over a computer wire" at closing. It was months before he got the OK to try again. (Read More)

Electronic Recording Seen Making Some Progress

Electronic recording is picking up momentum as more counties come online and could soon be the common way of recording a loan, panelists at the 8th Annual Mortgage Technology Conference here said. (Read More)

Roundup: Prepayment Decline Most Pronounced in Freddie MBS

Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities decreased in January, while 30-year Freddie Mac MBS speeds declined even more sharply, according to Bear Stearns. (Read More)

TBMA weighs in on SEC proposal

The Bond Market Association supports some aspects of the Securities and Exchange Commission's offering reform proposal but has concerns about its application to asset-backed securities. (Read More)

AAMES Class downgraded

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded class B of Aames Mortgage Trust 2001-2 to Caa3 from B2, and placed class B of Aames Mortgage Trust 2001-1 on review for possible downgrade. (Read More)

ABFC CLASS rating lowered

Moody's Investors Service has placed class B of ABFC mortgage loan asset-backed certificates, series 2001-AQ1, on review for possible downgrade. (Read More)

Amresco Classes' Ratings Slip

Fitch Ratings has downgraded two classes from Amresco's series 1997-3 mortgage-backed securities issue. (Read More)

CFN terminates home equity deal

CFN Liquidating Trust, the successor to ContiFinancial Corp. and affiliates pursuant to their confirmed Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, has terminated Soundview Home Equity Loan Trust 1999-1. (Read More)

Fitch downgrades CMAC CLASS

Ftich Ratings has downgraded class L of Commercial Mortgage Acceptance Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1998-C2, to CC from CCC by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

DLJ Classes' ratings lowered

Two classes from DLJ Mortgage Acceptance Corp. mortgage pass-through certificate series 1994-3 face downgrades by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

GMAC Classes' ratings affirmed

The ratings on Classes D and E of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Securities Inc.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2002-FL-1, have been affirmed and removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Fitch downgrades Merrill class

Fitch Ratings has downgraded class J of Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors Inc.'s series 1997-C2 certificates to CCC from B-minus. (Read More)

Ocwen MBS class rating falls

Class B-4F of Ocwen Residential MBS Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-R1 group F, has seen a downgrade to CC from CCC by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Orchard park class downgraded

Fitch Ratings has downgraded one class of notes issued by Orchard Park CDO Ltd., a collateralized debt obligation partly composed of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

Putnam cdo classes downgraded

Classes C-1 and C-2 of Putnam Structured Products CDO 2001-1 Ltd. have seen downgrades to BB-plus from BBB by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

RAMP class rating lowered

Fitch Ratings has downgraded class B of Residential Asset Mortgage Products Inc. series 2001-RZ2, groups 1 and 2, to C from CCC. (Read More)

Fitch downgrades RASC Classes

Fitch Ratings has downgraded two classes of Residential Asset Securities Corp. home-equity transactions and removed those transactions from Rating Watch Negative. (Read More)

Red Mountain class rating slips

Fitch has downgraded class G of Red Mountain Funding LLC's commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1997-1, to C from CC. (Read More)

Only 0.01% of S&P-Rated Loans Were High-Cost

Through an internal study, Standard & Poor's has evaluated the impact that anti-predatory lending statutes have had on the funding of high-cost loans through the capital markets and found that only 0.01% of the U.S. residential mortgage loans it rated during 2004 were high cost. (Read More)

Nonprime Risk Deal Is 2nd for Radian

As part of its efforts to manage the risk associated with nonprime loans it provides mortgage insurance for, Radian Group Inc. here has entered into a second-of-its-kind structured finance transaction: Smart Home Reinsurance 2005-1 Ltd., a deal funded through the sale of $98.5 million of credit-linked notes backed by a pool of $1.68 billion of Radian-insured alt-A mortgages. (Read More)

MBA: 'Global Issues at the Margin' to Shape Economy, CRE Prospects

"Global issues at the margin" is the theme that Douglas Duncan, chief economist, Mortgage Bankers Association, sees for the economy in 2005. (Read More)

Top Commercial Servicers at Sept. 30, 2004

($ in Millions) (part 1of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 GMAC Commercial Holding Corp. Horsham, PA 2 Wachovia (E) Charlotte, NC 3 Midland Loans Services Inc. Overland Park, KS 4 GEMSA Loan Services, L.P. Houston, TX 5 Wells Fargo San Francisco, CA 6 Prudential Asset Resources Dallas, TX 7 Washington Mutual (E) Seattle, WA 8 Orix (E) Dallas, TX 9 NorthMarq Capital, Inc. Bloomington, MN 10 Berkshire Mortgage (E) New York, NY 11 Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC Des Moines, IA 12 ARCS Commercial (E) Calabasas, CA 13 N.Y. Community Bancorp Jericho, NY 14 New York Life Insurance Co. New York, NY 15 Zions Bancorp. Salt Lake City, UT 16 Key Corp. Cleveland, OH 17 Red Mortgage Capital, Inc. Columbus, OH 18 Collateral Mortgage Capital, LLC Birmingham, AL 19 Capstone Realty Advisors, LLC Cleveland, OH 20 Churchill Mortgage Corp. Los Angeles, CA 21 Cohen Financial Chicago, IL 22 Fremont General Corp. Santa Monica, CA 23 NCB, FSB Washington, DC 24 Synovus Financial Columbus, OH 25 M&T Realty Capital Corp. Baltimore, MD (part 2 of 2) Rk 3Q '04 3Q '03 % Chg 1 $241,828 $249,394 -3% 2 $143,000 na na 3 $92,606 $79,813 16% 4 $61,889 $59,310 4% 5 $49,517 $46,947 5% 6 $43,433 $35,716 22% 7 $33,500 na na 8 $30,000 na na 9 $25,322 $21,852 16% 10 $20,000 na na 11 $16,660 $15,571 7% 12 $12,750 na na 13 $11,930 $5,855 104% 14 $10,605 $10,613 0% 15 $7,148 $6,223 15% 16 $6,448 na na 17 $5,936 $5,230 14% 18 $5,657 $4,751 19% 19 $5,481 $5,880 -7% 20 $4,533 $4,468 1% 21 $4,462 na na 22 $3,851 $4,000 -4% 23 $3,526 $3,173 11% 24 $3,301 na na 25 $3,226 $2,620 23% Totals: $846,610 $561,416 51% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not provide numbers. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Top Multifamily Lenders in 3Q 2004

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. Aurora, CO 3 Chase Home Finance Edison, NJ 4 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY 5 Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY 6 American Home Mtg. Investment Melville, NY 7 Everbank/Alliance Mortgage Co. Jacksonville, FL 8 ABN Amro Mortgage Ann Arbor, MI 9 Impac Funding Corp. Newport Beach, CA 10 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD 11 M & T Mortgage Buffalo, NY 12 Ridgewood Savings Bank Ridgewood, NY 13 Mid America Bank, FSB Clarendon Hills, IL 14 ComUnity Lending, Inc. Morgan Hill, CA 15 Washington Federal Savings Seattle, WA 16 People's Bank Bridgeport, CT 17 AmSouth Mortgage Birmingham, AL 18 Perl Mortgage Chicago, IL 19 Doral Financial Corp. San Juan, PR 20 Charter Bank Albuquerque, NM (part 2 of 2) Multifamily % Rk Vol. 3Q '04 Vol. 3Q '03 Change 1 $2,050 $2,598 -21% 2 $755 $621 22% 3 $400 $796 -50% 4 $331 na na 5 $248 $426 -42% 6 $235 na na 7 $210 na na 8 $199 $455 -56% 9 $124 $90 38% 10 $59 na na 11 $50 $95 -47% 12 $25 $27 -7% 13 $24 $64 -63% 14 $21 na na 15 $18 $29 -38% 16 $12 $26 -53% 17 $6 $10 -40% 18 $3 na na 19 $3 $14 -79% 20 $3 $10 -70% Top 20 Totals: $4,776 5,261 -9.2% Note: Results may be incomplete because several firms would not disclose multifamily originations. (Read More)

Top Multifamily Lenders in 2003

($ in Thousands) (part 1 of 2) Rk Company City 1 Washington Mutual Bank Seattle 2 Citibank (West), FSB Long Island City 3 ARCS Commercial Mortgage Calabasas Hills 4 ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Inc. Troy 5 Wachovia Bank Winston-Salem 6 Provident Bank Cincinnati 7 World Savings Bank Oakland 8 Astoria Federal Savings Lake Success 9 Southtrust Bank Homewood 10 GMAC Commercial Mortgage Horsham 11 The Dime Savings of Williamsburg Brooklyn 12 Bank of America, N.A. Charlotte 13 CW Capital Needham 14 JP Morgan Chase Bank Edison 15 United Commercial Bank San Francisco 16 Commercial Capital Bank Irvine 17 LaSalle Bank NA Chicago 18 M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank West Allis 19 Citibank, FSB Long Island City 20 Independence Community Bank Brooklyn 21 Collateral Mortgage Capital Birmingham 22 Wells Fargo Bank, NA Beaverton 23 M&T Real Estate Trust Buffalo 24 M&T Realty Capital Corp. Buffalo 25 First Federal Bank of California Santa Monica (part 2 of 2) Rk State Multifamily 1 WA $7,564,939 2 NY $2,014,928 3 CA $1,744,390 4 MI $1,549,896 5 NC $1,495,697 6 OH $1,222,207 7 CA $1,074,599 8 NY $1,040,466 9 AL $1,029,509 10 PA $935,207 11 NY $888,355 12 NC $762,687 13 MA $762,013 14 NJ $701,674 15 CA $682,393 16 CA $673,809 17 IL $670,604 18 WI $664,455 19 NY $622,810 20 NY $607,805 21 AL $603,874 22 OR $582,576 23 NY $541,122 24 NY $529,752 25 CA $473,356 Total: $29,439,123 Notes: Based on 2003 production. Volumes for 2004 won't be available until August 2005. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Multifamily Puts Good Face on Challenging Year

The head of Fannie Mae's multifamily division tried to put a good face on his unit's lackluster 2004 performance at last week's Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multi-Family Housing Conference here. (Read More)

Correction

Moody's Investors Service is expecting commercial mortgage-backed securities issuance to reach about $100 billion in 2005. The projected issuance amount stated in a headline and a table of contents listing in the Feb. 7 issue was incorrect. (Read More)

Church Lending May Be a Way to Achieve Portfolio Diversification

Looking to diversify your commercial mortgage portfolio and not quite sure what to do? One option is to have faith and check out the church mortgage lending arena, one that lenders already active in the niche say is growing. (Read More)

Maguire Buying Office Portfolio

Maguire Properties is acquiring a five-million-square-foot office portfolio from a partnership between the Rockefeller Group and the California Public Employees Retirement System for $1.51 billion. (Read More)

Continuing Improvement Seen in MF

Apartment and condo builders expect the multifamily housing market to continue to strengthen over the next six months, the National Association of Home Builders said, based on the latest multifamily market index survey. (Read More)

Servicing Execs Gather in Orlando

The largest annual gathering of mortgage servicing professionals will be happening in Florida next week, with the Orlando World Center Marriott serving as the host hotel. (Read More)

Woodward Visit Timely with Renewed Interest in 'Deep Throat'

American media icon Bob Woodward, whose name brings to mind the historical exposure of the Watergate scandal that lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, is the featured speaker at the 2005 MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference. (Read More)

Ameriquest, Argent Open Facility

Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and its wholesale affiliate, Argent Mortgage, have expanded and upgraded their affiliated loan servicing center here with the opening of a new center in an 11-story office tower just north of Chicago. (Read More)

U.S. Recordings Sees Diminishing Volume of Paper

US. Recordings, a provider of mortgage recording solutions since 1967, said that its image-based document processing resulted in a substantial decrease in the handling of paper documents last year. (Read More)

Fiserv Sticks to Technology End of the Servicing Business

Fiserv's biggest competition in the business of providing technology to lenders comes from two giants in the title insurance industry, but don't expect Fiserv to get into that game anytime soon. (Read More)

Appraisal Specialist Sees High Stakes for Servicing Sector

Lenders always want to know the value associated with collateral backing a loan in their portfolio, but after loan origination there isn't much reason to worry about it. (Read More)

MBA Hotel Is Marriott's Largest

Servicers, investors and service providers at the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference are in for a one-of-a-kind treat when they step inside the world's largest Marriott hotel, the 2,000-room Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center. (Read More)

The Nation's Top Five Residential Servicers

($ in Billions) Servicer Res. Serv. Res. Serv % Change Charter Name Yr-end '04 Yr-end '94 Over 10 Years Type Countrywide $838 $110 662% bank Wells Fargo Home $782 $72 986% bank Washington Mutual (1) $772 na na S&L Chase Home $563 $64 779% bank CitiMortgage $364 $44 727% bank TOTALS: $3,319 $290 1044% Notes: Firms ranked by housing receivables (servicing rights) at year-end 2004. (1) NMN began collecting servicing figures a decade ago but had no information on WaMu in 1994. Over the past decade every firm among the top five, with the exception of Countrywide, has been a buyer of other firms or a merger partner with others. (Read More)

MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference Schedule

SUNDAY, Feb. 20 Workshop Schedule 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Workshop and Conference Registration 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Opening General Session 9:00 a.m.-9:15 a.m. Coffee Break 9:15 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Breakout Sessions Default Management, Management Training 10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m. Coffee Break 10:45 a.m.-Noon Breakout Sessions Continued Default with Management Training Noon-1:00 p.m. Workshop Luncheon 1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Default Subcommittee Meeting 1:15 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Golf Shotgun Start Tournament at Hawk's Landing. Check-in at 12:45 p.m. The course is just over 6,800 yards and carries a slope rating of 134. Water is in play on 15 of the 18 holes. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Offers Recognition to a New Class of Servicers

Freddie Mac has a history of recognizing and rewarding its top performing loan servicers, and now a new class of servicers will be getting recognition as well. (Read More)

Walz Outsourcing Does More than Just Drop Certified Mail

Walz Group, Temecula, Calif., made a name for itself as a provider of certified mailing services, but now the company is offering to clients the option of outsourcing related functions as well. (Read More)

Fannie to Update Investors, Servicers

Fannie Mae will be updating servicers about its investor requirements during the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference in Orlando, Fla. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Carson-Document Systems Inc. said that Melanie A. Feliciano and Renee M. Smith have joined the company's in-house legal team as assistant general counsel and staff counsel, respectively. (Read More)

'Split Opinions on GSE Serv. Fee'

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, isn't the only firm adamantly opposed to a significant cut in the minimum servicing fee mandated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Read More)

Loan Volume

(By Property Type) Q4 '04 Q4 '03 Multifamily $15.9 $15.3 Office $9.9 $8.8 Retail $7.0 $6.8 Industrial $2.7 $2.6 Hotel $1.3 $0.9 Health Care $0.9 $0.8 Other $4.6 $3.7 Source: MBA Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

White House Backs Zero Downpay

The Bush administration is sticking to its guns and once again it will push for a federally insured zero-downpayment program, despite resistance in Congress and concerns about high default rates and claims. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 233.3 Change: -10.9 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 2/10/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 9.19 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 84.84 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 17.15 27.91 21.73 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 41.55 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 52.01 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 35.20 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.24 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 18.25 30.75 18.19 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.56 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -8% 348% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 3% 21% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) -3% 27% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 0% 68% na New Century (NEW) -5% 35% na Novastar (NFI) -18% 22% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -3% 10% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -14% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) -7% 10% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 175.3 Change: -2.9 (part 1 of 2) Company 2/3/2005 2/10/2005 Wkly. % Chg. (Read More)

Baker Tries Again on GSE Reform

It's a new Congress and Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., is preparing to introduce another GSE reform bill. But this time around he really believes a Congress will finally pass legislation to strengthen regulation of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. (Read More)

2004 2d-Best Production Year

Residential loan fundings fell by almost 29% in 2004, but mortgage bankers still enjoyed their second-best year ever. (Read More)

The Top Ten: How They Stacked Up in 2004

($ in Billions) (part 1 of 2) Lender 1Q Prod 2Q Prod 3Q Prod Countrywide $76.20 $99.70 $91.80 Wells Fargo $64.70 $96.10 $68.50 WaMu $60.20 $76.40 $59.80 Chase $37.70 $56.90 $48.00 Bank of Am. $23.80 $28.50 $16.90 CitiMortgage $22.40 $30.40 $25.00 GMAC $17.70 $24.40 $21.20 NatCity $15.00 $18.70 $15.50 ABN Amro $13.20 $19.40 $11.90 Cendant/PHH $11.30 $17.60 $12.70 (part 2 of 2) Lender 4Q Prod FY 04 % Chg to '03 Countrywide $95.30 $363.00 -16% Wells Fargo $69.10 $298.40 -37% WaMu $59.00 $255.40 -41% Chase $44.40 $187.00 -34% Bank of Am. $34.60 $103.80 -21% CitiMortgage $25.40 $103.20 -5% GMAC $12.20 $75.50 -33% NatCity $16.40 $65.60 -37% ABN Amro $10.60 $55.10 -56% Cendant/PHH $11.00 $52.60 -37% Notes: A figure in parenthesis indicates a decline in loan fundings year-over-year. Subprime specialists excluded from this ranking. Fundings include loans produced through all three origination channels: retail, wholesale, and correspondent. Volumes based on exclusive surveys sent out by NMN. (Read More)

Some Servicers Delaying Foreclosures?

Some participants in the secondary market are concerned that servicers, in an effort to avoid "headline risk" associated with aggressive collections, may be delaying inevitable foreclosures. (Read More)

Bankruptcy Reform Gains

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bankruptcy reform bill last week over the objections of Democratic members, clearing the way for the full Senate to consider the measure during the first week of April. (Read More)

High-Profile Marketing Pays

Ameriquest Mortgage Co. here said it received "high marks" for the two advertising spots it ran during Super Bowl XXXIX on Feb. 6. The company also received a huge amount of attention for sponsoring this year's halftime show, which featured Sir Paul McCartney. (Read More)

Big Lenders Signing LOs

At five-foot, nine-inches and a strapping 240 lbs., Owen Thatcher doesn't look much like a free agent. He is, though, commanding a five-figure signing bonus to jump teams. (Read More)

WaMu Seeks Home Loan Chief

Two months ago Washington Mutual reached across the country and plucked Stephen Rotella away from J.P. Morgan Chase to be its president and chief operating officer. (Read More)

Ousted GSE Exec Among 'Best' CFOs

Timothy Howard, Fannie Mae's recently ousted chief accounting officer, has been named among the best chief financial officers in America, according to Institutional Investor magazine. (Read More)

Thrift Trade Group Cools to Idea of Having FHLBanks Issue MBS

America's Community Bankers, which represents a majority of Federal Home Loan Bank shareholders, has turned its back on a legislative proposal that would allow the 12 FHLBanks to guarantee and issue mortgage back securities. (Read More)

Small Servicer Wants Fee Cut

So, what do the little guys of the mortgage industry think about the government-sponsored enterprises slashing their minimum servicing fee to 12.5 basis points? (Read More)

Thrift Earnings Down 17% in '04

Thrift originations of single-family loans totaled $603.3 billion in 2004, down 17.3% from the record set in 2003, according to the Office of Thrift Supervision. (Read More)

ABS Top MBS Handily During 2004

Issuance of mortgage-backed securities fell 42% in 2004 while asset-backed securities issuance - driven largely by strong volumes in the home-equity sector - climbed 50%, The Bond Market Association reported. (Read More)

Home-Grown Genius

The highlight of the recent Turn On Your Million Dollar Brain sales seminar in Delray Beach, Fla., had to be the annual Share-and-Tell session. Each of the five years we have sponsored this mortgage marketing meeting it has featured the home-grown marketing measures offered up by brokers and loan officers from around the country. Many of the ideas are modest, but many show real genius. (Read More)

GSE Accounting Irregularities

Rep. Baker, R-La., made the following opening statement at a Feb. 9 Capital Markets Subcommittee hearing on Fannie Mae's accounting problems. The opening statement is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Eyeing the Mystery of Long-Term Rate Dynamics vs. Fed Moves

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield at press time last week had rebounded back to 4.18%, a level just shy of where it had been before the previous week's weaker-than-expected employment report pressured it downward briefly. (Read More)

NationalLink Provides Appraisals, Closing Service

National City Mortgage Inc. here and the Aliquippa, Pa.-based closing technology company ServiceLink LP have formed a joint venture called NationalLink LP. (Read More)

Qvault: Brokers Achieve Gains

Qvault, which provides enterprise management solutions for the mortgage industry, said two national mortgage brokerage firms achieved an impressive return on investment through the use of Status Sweep. (Read More)

Technology Providers Concerned about Desktop Underwriter Plan

Many in the industry are concerned about Fannie Mae's plan to bring the Desktop Underwriter decision to the point-of-sale, scrub it for fraud and order the services to fulfill the loan because they fear this initiative will cut several players out of the process and is not too far away from the creation of a Fannie Mae loan origination system. (Read More)

California Mortgage Bankers Sponsor First E-Recording Summit

To herald creation of what one speaker touted as the coming deployment of "the largest and most advanced system of electronic recordation in the nation," the 2005 California E-Recording Summit was held here last week. (Read More)

Nexstar Offers Menu Of Service Choice

In many cases, outsourcing mortgage functions tends to be an all-or-nothing affair. But, expanding on its Powered by Nexstar program, Nexstar Financial here has created NexChoice. (Read More)

Homebuyers Borrowing More to Get in Homes, Saving Less

Despite claims by the Federal Reserve Board that fears of a housing bubble have been exaggerated, data show that consumers are not saving at all but continue to borrow more to get into homes, according to Dean Baker, co-director at the Center for Economic Policy and Research. (Read More)

Texas Builder to Buy Colonial Homes

Homebuilder Meritage Homes Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of Colonial Homes of Fort Myers, Fla., a privately held builder of single-family homes and condominiums. The acquisition is expected to be complete within the next week, according to Meritage. (Read More)

Many Community Lenders Upbeat

Executives at small- and medium-size banks and thrifts seem to be upbeat about the mortgage business in 2005, according to a real estate lending survey by America's Community Bankers. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Tom Couture

PlainsCapital McAfee Mortgage, Lubbock, Texas, has promoted Mr. Couture to chief executive officer. Mr. Couture is a mortgage industry veteran with more than 25 years experience and previously served as chief operating officer. (Read More)

VA Asking More of Loan Servicers

The Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing to revamp its servicing requirements and delegate more responsibilities for loss mitigation to private servicers. (Read More)

Top Subservicers at 12/31/04

($ in millions) (part 1 of 2) Subservicing Volume % Market Rk Organization Name 12/31/2004 12/31/2003 change Share % 1 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) $52,000 $47,000 11% 17.81% 2 Cenlar FSB $35,000 $30,000 17% 11.99% 3 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage $26,061 $20,586 27% 8.93% 4 Wendover Financial Services $17,802 $20,384 -13% 6.10% 5 Countrywide Financial Corp. $16,847 $14,404 17% 5.77% 6 Netbank $16,705 $554 2915% 5.72% 7 GMAC Residential Holdings $13,939 $9,066 54% 4.78% 8 Flagstar Bank, FSB $9,147 $3,369 172% 3.13% 9 Waterfield Mortgage $6,405 $3,060 109% 2.19% 10 Ohio Savings Bank, F.S.B. $5,655 $6,572 -14% 1.94% 11 LoanCare Servicing Center I $4,987 $5,557 -10% 1.71% 12 CUNA Mortgage Corp. $4,242 $4,380 -3% 1.45% 13 CDC IXIS Real Estate Captial $3,219 na na 1.10% 14 Cendant/PHH Mortgage $2,828 $5,892 -52% 0.97% 15 Security Savings Mtg. Corp. $2,272 $2,151 6% 0.78% 16 Midwest Loan Services $2,175 $1,824 19% 0.75% 17 Graystone Mortgage Corp. $2,111 $2,490 -15% 0.72% 18 RBC Mortgage $1,972 $4,849 -59% 0.68% 19 Washington Mutual $461 $1,718 -73% 0.16% 20 Cimarron Mortgage $392 $400 -2% 0.13% Top 20 Totals: $224,547 $184,674 22% 76.92% (part 2 of 2) Number of Loans % Rk Organization Name 12/31/2004 12/31/2003 change 1 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) na na na 2 Cenlar FSB 270,000 270,000 0% 3 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage 202,467 280,367 -28% 4 Wendover Financial Services 180,585 214,558 -16% 5 Countrywide Financial Corp. 171,633 159,357 8% 6 Netbank 126,990 5,043 2418% 7 GMAC Residential Holdings 99,082 97,029 2% 8 Flagstar Bank, FSB 57,266 22,880 150% 9 Waterfield Mortgage 41,771 23,984 74% 10 Ohio Savings Bank, F.S.B. 35,322 37,722 -6% 11 LoanCare Servicing Center I 45,050 46,565 -3% 12 CUNA Mortgage Corp. 42,000 43,571 -4% 13 CDC IXIS Real Estate Captial 20,542 na na 14 Cendant/PHH Mortgage 56,888 78,823 -28% 15 Security Savings Mtg. Corp. 17,892 18,483 -3% 16 Midwest Loan Services 17,144 13,687 25% 17 Graystone Mortgage Corp. 17,158 21,304 -19% 18 RBC Mortgage 11,297 24,948 -55% 19 Washington Mutual 7,313 20,437 -64% 20 Cimarron Mortgage 2,960 3,076 -4% Top 20 Totals: 1,424,602 1,383,350 3% Notes: Subprime subservicers listed separately. Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose figures. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Issuance of ARM Securities Rises to $435 Billion in '04

The secondary market for adjustable-rate mortgages has really heated up in the past year. (Read More)

Wells Reported Buyer of $5B Servicing

Ohio Savings Bank FSB, Cleveland, has sold a $5 billion bulk portfolio of servicing rights - reportedly to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines. (Read More)

Condo Sales Hit New High in '04

Sales of existing condominium and cooperative units eased in the fourth quarter of 2004, the National Association of Realtors reports, but hit an annual record for the ninth consecutive year. (Read More)

GMAC Commercial Acquires Highland Mortgage

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. is acquiring Highland Mortgage Company, a Birmingham, Ala.-based HUD lender, in an effort to expand GMACCM's HUD lending operations in the Southeast. (Read More)

Baynorth Gets CRE Capital

BayNorth Capital, an asset manager for Charlesbank's real estate investments, has closed its BayNorth Realty Fund VI with $430 million. (Read More)

Lenders Fuel MF Development

Rather than "build it and they will come," today's multifamily market is more aptly summed up as "finance it and they will build it," according to Chris Wheeler, chairman and CEO, Gables Residential Trust. (Read More)

Document Services: Choosing the right path

Which way do you go? In today's mortgage environment the area of document preparation and delivery is becoming more complex and all-inclusive at the same time. Gone are the days when all a doc prep company needs to do to compete is draw docs. By the same token, doc delivery companies are doing more than moving those documents from party to party. (Read More)

Inside

Dazed and Confused 18 The mortgage app has many consumers scratching their heads. (Read More)

Confusing Docs Hamper Customer Retention

There are a lot of confusing documents in consumers' lives but the one that consumers most often find to be the most difficult to understand are mortgage applications, according to a recent poll sponsored by branding strategy consultant Siegel & Gale, New York. (Read More)

DOC Perceptions

Mortgage Apps Baffle Most Easy to Difficult to Understand Understand Mortgage Application 40% 60% Explanation of Benefits Form For Health Insurance Claim 43% 57% Federal Income Tax Return Instructions for Completing 52% 48% Stock Market Listings 54% 46% Investment Account Statement 58% 42% Source: Siegel & Gale/Gelb Consulting Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

DocumentTrac Integrates With Investors Like Countrywide

In order to make the shipping process of loan files easier and less prone to errors for the lender, Del Mar Database of San Diego is integrating its document imaging and management solution, DocumentTrac, with several investors, beginning with Countrywide. (Read More)

Entyre Uses Web Services to Take Doc Prep to the Next Level

Spring 2005 is going to see a flurry of announcements by Entyre, following the release of Version 3.0 of its X4 product, and a number of strategic alliances. (Read More)

Imaging to Pave the Way for SMART Docs

Many lenders are investing heavily in an imaging system as a vehicle to go paperless with the hope of moving toward a complete electronic mortgage down the line. While imaging is merely an interim technology, it is a small step toward SMART Doc industry acceptance. (Read More)

GMD and ARC Form Partnership

To help brokers and midtier lenders increase closing rates, Guardian Mortgage Documents and ARC Systems of Austin, Texas, are completing the integration of their application service provider solutions offering users real-time access to highly accurate product and pricing data, along with disclosure documents, at the point-of-sale. (Read More)

NovaStar Sees Lower Production

The retail loan production network of NovaStar Financial Inc. saw its volume shrink from $1.84 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003, to $1.77 billion in the third quarter 2004 to $1.40 billion in the fourth quarter of this year. (Read More)

Market Cap. of Publicly-traded Non-conforming Firms

(part 1 of 2) Company Location New Century (NEW) Irvine, CA IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) Newport Beach, CA Novastar (NFI) Kansas City, MO Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) San Diego, CA Saxon Capital (SAXN) Glen Allen, VA Fieldstone Investment Corp.(FIC) Columbia, Md Ocwen (OCN) West Palm Beach, FL Aames (AIC) Los Angeles, CA Delta Financial Corp. (DFC) Woodbury, NY Transnational Fin. Network (TFN) San Francisco, CA American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) Philadelphia, PA (part 2 of 2) Company Shares Outstanding Market Cap. Sh. Price New Century (NEW) 48,390,000 $2,570,000,000 $53.09 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 70,640,000 $1,470,000,000 $20.74 Novastar (NFI) 25,490,000 $901,470,000 $35.36 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 21,200,000 $884,040,000 $41.70 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 49,850,000 $883,320,000 $17.72 Fieldstone Investment Corp. (FIC) 43,328,000 $657,000,000 $14.98 Ocwen (OCN) 62,740,000 $506,900,000 $8.08 Aames (AIC) 41,000,000 $360,800,000 $8.89 Delta Financial Corp. (DFC) 16,940,000 $147,360,000 $8.70 Transnational Fin. Network (TFN) 6,790,000 $3,740,000 $0.55 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 3,600,000 $1,620,000 $0.45 Totals 389,968,000 $8,386,250,000 Note: Market capitalization in units. Market cap is derived by multiplying number of shares by the share price. (1) ABFS is operating under bankruptcy protection. (Read More)

Wells Fargo Launches Ten-Year IO

Retail and wholesale originator Wells Fargo Home Mortgage here said that it is launching an interest-only loan that doesn't require principal payment for a period of 10 years. (Read More)

Roundup: New Offices Around the U.S.

Reverse Mortgage of America, a unit of Seattle Financial Group, has opened an office here, an area of the country where many Americans have elected to retire to. (Read More)

Golden Oak Opens in Yuba City

Golden Oak Mortgage, a joint venture between RBC Mortgage, Houston, and Team Dusa, a real estate company here, has opened its branch office here. (Read More)

CreditFlex to Double Branches

CreditFlex Funding, the nonprime lending division of ComUnity Lending here, said it plans to double the number of branch offices it has open during 2005. (Read More)

ABN Amro in Ford Relocation Deal

ABN Amro Mortgage Group's National Lending Center Affinity and Relocation Lending Division has entered into an agreement to provide private-label mortgage origination services to employees of Ford Motor Co., Detroit. (Read More)

Freddie Introduces New Lineup of Low Downpayment Loans

In what is being billed as its "most sweeping revision of affordable lending products ever," Freddie Mac last week rolled out an entirely new group of loans the company says will allow lenders to dig deeper into the pool of hard-working families who can handle the monthly payments but don't have the upfront cash needed to close. (Read More)

Parents Key to Financial Education

Challenging common beliefs that parents do not talk to their children about personal finance issues, about 91% of those over the age of 18 surveyed by Americans for Consumer Education & Competition and Operation Hope said parents have been their primary source of financial education. (Read More)

IndyMac Production Helps Boost Earnings

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. here has reported that record mortgage production of $11.2 billion during between October and December of 2004 contributed to its quarterly net income of $55.9 million. (Read More)

Flatter Yield Curve Poses Threat

Many banks have coped with low commercial loan demand by putting mortgage loans on their balance sheets, but that strategy may look less rosy as the yield curve flattens. (Read More)

NetBank Suffers 4th-Quarter Loss

NetBank reported a loss of $17.7 million, or $0.38 per share, in the fourth quarter. The company cited lower mortgage profits and a $29 million provision relating to the bankruptcy of Commercial Money Center, formerly of Las Vegas, as primary factors in the quarterly loss. (Read More)

MBA Economist Anticipates 'Modestly Slowing' Housing Market

The Mortgage Bankers Association here forecast that there will be strong economic growth through 2007, with gross domestic product growing at a trend rate of about 3.5% annually vs. 4.4% in 2004. (Read More)

Donoghue Named Freddie Counsel

Freddie Mac has appointed Joan E. Donoghue to be senior vice president and general counsel after working at the giant mortgage company for four years. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 232.9 Change: -0.4 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 2/17/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 9.11 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 85.45 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 20.02 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 40.98 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 52.63 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 35.41 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.08 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 17.62 30.75 18.73 Transnational Finl Network I (TFNI) 0.51 1.45 0.58 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -1% 344% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 1% 22% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -8% 17% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) -1% 66% na New Century (NEW) 1% 37% na Novastar (NFI) 1% 23% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -2% 8% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 3% 6% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFNI) 4% 14% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

'Sound Fundamentals' for RE?

With the frenzied holiday season over, could the spring real estate market, traditionally the busiest for home sales, be far behind? (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 176.8 Change: 1.5 (part 1 of 2) Company 2/10/2002 2/17/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Garden Grove-Informative Research, an independent mortgage credit reporting agency, said that Will Parks has been appointed vice president, operations. (Read More)

Countrywide Restates 2004 EPS

Countrywide Financial Corp. has had to restate its diluted earnings per share for 2004 because its independent auditor determined that it had reported gain on sale of certain mortgage securitizations too soon. (Read More)

4Q IO Loans Reach $100B

Mortgage bankers funded $101 billion in interest-only mortgages in the fourth quarter, accounting for about 15% of all loans funded in the U.S., according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News. (Read More)

IO Volume Leaders in Q4 04

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 2 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. Aurora, CO 3 GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Novato, CA 4 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX 5 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY 6 Impac Funding Corporation Newport Beach, CA 7 First Franklin Financial (BC) San Jose, CA 8 New Century Financial Corp. Irvine, CA 9 American Home Mtg. Investment Melville, NY Homecomings Minneapolis, MN 11 AmSouth Mortgage Birmingham, AL 12 Chase Home Finance Edison, NJ 13 GMAC Residential Holdings Horsham, PA 14 SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. Richmond, VA 15 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BC) Woodland Hills, CA 16 First Magnus Financial Corp. Tucson, AZ 17 Credit Suisse First Boston New York, NY 18 Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. Sante Fe, NM 19 Fieldstone Mortgage Company Columbia, MD 20 Option One Mortgage Corp. (BC) Irvine, CA 21 Union Bank of California San Diego, CA 22 Finance America Corporation Irvine, CA 23 Wachovia Charlotte, NC 24 Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY 25 HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. Atlanta, GA (part 2 of 2) I/Os in Funded in % Rk Q4 2004 Q4 2003 Change 1 $9,530 na na 2 $8,347 $3,582 133% 3 $7,410 $4,523 64% 4 $6,600 $1,249 428% 5 $5,793 na na 6 $4,550 $1,117 307% 7 $3,478 $2,375 46% 8 $2,400 $200 1100% 9 $2,343 na na $2,341 $135 1634% 11 $2,314 $1,601 45% 12 $1,933 $365 430% 13 $1,884 $210 797% 14 $1,734 na na 15 $1,713 $171 902% 16 $1,148 na na 17 $1,065 $519 105% 18 $1,031 $1,196 -14% 19 $948 $751 26% 20 $939 na na 21 $782 $410 90% 22 $742 $34 2082% 23 $719 na na 24 $679 $388 75% 25 $658 $104 533% Top 25 Totals: $71,080 $18,930 275% Totals Submitted: $79,185 $20,904 279% Note: Results may be incomplete because some lenders would not provide interest-only volumes. (BC) Firm mostly engaged in subprime lending. (Read More)

Subprime Market Share Nears 25%

Mortgage bankers funded a record $608 billion in residential subprime loans last year, a stunning 55% increase in production. Subprime market share rose to 24% for the fourth quarter. (Read More)

B&C Volume Soars

($ in Billions) The Total Res. B&C B&C % Year Prod. Vol. of Total 2004 $2,790 $608 21.8% 2003 $3,904 $390 9.9% 2002 $2,787 $241 8.6% 2001 $2,066 $180 8.7% 2000 $1,067 $134 12.5% 1995 $639 $35 5.5% Notes: Subprime loans include credits that are A- to D in quality. (Read More)

Now, 'Affordable Servicing'

Freddie Mac has started a new pilot program designed to make sure that affordable home loan customers that run into potential trouble have the opportunity to stay in their homes. (Read More)

3 Title Firms End Captives

A trio of the nation's largest title insurance underwriters, while denying that the reinsurance arrangements they have entered into with builders and others represents kickbacks, have still said they are ending or will end those relationships. (Read More)

Fannie's Purchases Fall Again

Fannie Mae, which is facing a host of regulatory problems, acquired $48 billion in home mortgages in January, its lowest purchase volume in more than three years. (Read More)

OFHEO Approves Fannie Cap Plan

Fannie Mae dropped a mini-bombshell on the market last week, disclosing that its regulator is raising questions about additional accounting problems - including concerns about how it values some $450 billion in MBS investments. (Read More)

Canadian Bank Looks to Sell U.S. Unit

Royal Bank of Canada is looking to exit the U.S. mortgage market and has hired an investment banking firm to advise it on its options, industry sources told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Holdings/Purchases 2005-2004

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Year/ Mort. Port Portfolio Multi- MBS Month Holdings Growth Rate Family(1) Purchases Jan '04 $886,665 -14.60% $577 $268 Feb $882,108 -6.00% $337 $181 Mar $880,911 -1.60% $854 $6,507 Apr $880,481 -0.60% $1,451 $10,198 May $878,386 -2.80% $1,226 $10,670 June $891,210 19.00% $2,389 $13,330 July $892,724 2.10% $950 $5,676 Aug $895,428 3.70% $1,040 $4,676 Sept $904,766 12.90% $3,468 $5,074 Oct $913,246 12.20% $4,034 $3,665 Nov $912,608 -0.80% $2,486 $2,717 Dec $904,555 -10.10% $2,036 $1,642 Total '04 na 0.70% $12,292 $56,580 Jan '05 $890,834 -16.80% $3,312 $451 YTD $890,834 -16.80% $3,312 $451 (part 2 of 2) Year/ Portfolio MBS MBS Accq'd Total Pur./ Month Purchases(2) Issued(3) by Others Bus. Vol.(4) Jan '04 $8,573 $44,794 $44,527 $53,100 Feb $12,170 $38,804 $38,624 $50,794 Mar $20,260 $45,365 $38,858 $59,118 Apr $27,448 $56,541 $46,344 $73,792 May $26,686 $58,559 $47,889 $74,575 June $37,164 $53,692 $40,362 $77,526 July $21,618 $39,636 $33,960 $55,578 Aug $21,787 $34,961 $30,285 $52,072 Sept $27,661 $40,870 $35,796 $63,457 Oct $27,142 $38,289 $34,623 $61,766 Nov $19,121 $36,259 $33,542 $52,662 Dec $13,016 $39,375 $37,732 $50,748 Total 04 $203,367 $413,222 $356,645 $560,012 Jan '05 $11,095 $37,457 $37,006 $48,101 YTD $11,095 $37,457 $37,006 $48,101 Notes: (1) Multifamily volume listed above represents portfolio purchases only. (Read More)

GSE Executives Face Liability for Ignoring Fraud

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives and board members could face civil money penalties if their companies failed to report incidents of actual or suspected mortgage fraud to their primary regulator - the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. (Read More)

Cal. Lawsuit Aims At Guarantee Fees

A class-action suit has been filed against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in Superior Court of California here on behalf of California borrowers who claim they paid more for residential real estate loans because of inflated prices for guarantee fees. (Read More)

On Fire

The subprime mortgage market is on fire. According to just-released figures from our research unit, subprime originations last year surged an incredible 56% to $607 billion. That's a near tripling of market share (21.7% of a total market of $2.79 trillion) in just two years. (Read More)

FAS 133 Gets Poor Marks

Resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago Mr. Pollock's summary and "report card" of respondents to a questionnaire on the topic of FAS 133 recently conducted by NMN is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Average Rate, Yields Higher; Personnel Shifts Seen in Bond Market

The long-term rate-indicative Treasury yield at press time was sustaining the higher trading levels seen the previous week, completing its return to the point it had been at before a weaker-than-expected employment report had pressured it downward to 4.0%, even moving higher at times. (Read More)

a La Mode Urges Appraisers To Copyright Results

At the premiere a la mode appraiser conference here, company chief executive officer David Biggers urged the audience of appraisers to copyright their reports to stop them from being used to create competing automated valuation models, contending that lenders are selling their appraisal data to AVM companies without consulting the appraiser. (Read More)

Freddie Revises AU For A-minus Loans

Freddie Mac will change Loan Prospector to give lenders greater certainty on pricing for A-minus and caution loans. (Read More)

JD Power Study: Servicers Own the Customer

When it comes to wooing customers, mortgage brokers and loan officers may be the first in line, but a recent study suggests that servicers are the ones who win the customers loyalty in the long run. (Read More)

Orion Launches Title Retrieval

Orion Financial Group, Southlake, Texas, a document services provider, is offering a new service to retrieve certified or duplicate copies of final title policies. (Read More)

MBA Wants More Servicer Input

The chairperson of the Mortgage Bankers Association loan administration committee called on loan servicers to expand their involvement in the industry association's efforts to influence public policy at the MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference here. (Read More)

MBA Adds Servicer Certification to Its Roster

The Mortgage Bankers Association this week is launching the industry's first formal training program for loan administration professionals. (Read More)

Freddie Sets Record in Multifamily

Freddie Mac closed a record $23.8 billion in new multifamily business transactions in 2004, the government-sponsored enterprise said. (Read More)

CRE Lenders Look For Higher Volume

A Bridger survey of commercial real estate lenders in the banking sector finds that 64% of respondents expect higher commercial real estate loan volume this year, up from 51% for last year. (Read More)

Investor Buys New Jersey Office-Industrial REIT

The Lightstone Group, a New Jersey-based private investment company, is acquiring Prime Group Realty Trust for a total of about $889.4 million, Prime Group reports. (Read More)

Some Buyers Looking at Criimi Mae

Criimi Mae may possibly be up for sale, with BREF One LLC, Series A, the company's largest shareholder, a potential buyer. (Read More)

Borrower Upheld

A recent jury ruling in a commercial mortgage-backed securities case against GMACCM as special servicer has awarded a borrower $7.8 million for breach of contract and $33 million in punitive damages "for committing conversion," Fitch Ratings reports. (Read More)

Negative Watch For CMBs

Classes E and F of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Capital commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-PPM, have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

RAIT Earns $16.2 Million

RAIT, a commercial real estate financing real estate investment trust, reported net income of $16.2 million ($0.63 per share) for the fourth quarter, an increase of 20% compared to net income of $13.5 million ($0.60 per share) for Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Freddie Settles 1st Strip of '05

Freddie Mac has settled its first strip offering for the year, a $2.5 billion 6% gold MACS Strip security. (Read More)

CMSA, MISMO project

The Commercial Mortgage Securities Association and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, a subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association, have established an alliance that will result in the development of an extensible markup language version of the CMSA Investor Reporting Package. (Read More)

Downgrades For Citi

Two classes in Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust, series 2003-1, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Japanese CMBS Increased 25% in 2004

Japan's commercial mortgage-backed securities market increased 25% in 2004 compared to 2003 in terms of new issuance growth, Moody's Investors Service's office here has reported. (Read More)

Roundup: Australian Group Invests in Properties in 17 States

Regency Centers and its joint venture partner Macquarie CountryWide Trust of Australia are buying a 101-property retail portfolio for about $2.74 billion from a joint venture between California Public Employees Retirement System and First Washington, Bethesda, Md. (Read More)

UK lending down

Gross United Kingdom mortgage lending in January fell to PN17.9 billion (about $34.1 billion) from PN21.3 billion (about $40.6 billion) in December, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders here. (Read More)

CMBS Mixed

Moody's Investors Service's recent "Red-Yellow-Green" report on the retail sector of Europe's commercial mortgage-backed securities market indicates the health of that market is mixed. (Read More)

O&Y For Sale

Canada's O&Y Real Estate Investment Trust here has joined O&Y Properties Corp. in a process designed to seek proposals leading to the sale of both entities. "In connection with the joint process, O&Y Properties and O&Y REIT, of which O&Y Properties directly and indirectly owns approximately 42%, have entered into an agreement under which O&Y Properties has agreed that it will only support an offer for its shares or its direct and indirect interest in O&Y REIT that includes an offer on an equivalent price basis for the limited voting units of O&Y REIT, not owned by O&Y Properties," O&Y REIT reported. (Read More)

HUD Now Reviewing All Regs for Affordable Housing Impact

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is stepping up its effort to remove the adverse effect certain regulatory barriers have had for years on affordable housing development. (Read More)

Countrywide Sponsors Spanish Reality Show

Countrywide Home Loans Inc. has agreed to sponsor a home makeover reality television show on Telemundo, one of the largest Spanish-language networks in the country, aiming to use this nontraditional marketing tool to reach out to Hispanic borrowers. (Read More)

2004 Single-family Sales Hit an All-time High in Illinois

Continued strong demand for homeownership drove single-family home sales to an all-time high in 2004, with no sign of a slowdown in the last quarter. (Read More)

Dynex Sued On MH Security

Dynex Capital Inc. here said Teamsters Local 445 Freight Division Pension Fund is suing it and an affiliate over a manufactured housing loan securitization. (Read More)

Top Subprime Servicers at 12/31/04

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 2 Ameriquest Mortgage (E) Orange, CA 3 Option One Mortgage Corp. Irvine, CA 4 CitiFinancial Baltimore, MD 5 Homecomings Minneapolis, MN 6 Chase Home Finance Woodcliff Lake, NJ 7 Homeq Servicing Corp. North Highlands, CA 8 Ocwen Financial Corp. West Palm Beach, FL 9 HSBC Mortgage/Household (1) Prospect Heights, IL 10 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 11 National City Home Loan Pittsburgh, PA 12 New Century Financial Corp. Irvine, CA 13 Select Portfolio Servicing/FairBanks Salt Lake City, UT 14 Saxon Mortgage Glen Allen, VA 15 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 16 Fremont Investment & Loan (E) Santa Monica, CA 17 Key Consumer Real Estate Parsippany, NJ 18 NovaStar Mortgage, Inc. Kansas City, MO 19 EMC Mortgage (E) (2) Irving, TX 20 Wilshire Credit Corp. Beaverton, OR (part 2 of 2) Total Servicing Vol. Percent Market Rk 12/31/2004 12/31/2003 Change Share 1 $89,872 $39,361 128% 9.78% 2 $86,000 $49,900 72% 9.36% 3 $59,382 $41,365 44% 6.47% 4 $56,986 $50,400 13% 6.20% 5 $49,230 $44,227 11% 5.36% 6 $45,826 $27,985 64% 4.99% 7 $42,618 $28,953 47% 4.64% 8 $34,384 $37,507 -8% 3.74% 9 $32,458 $23,104 40% 3.53% 10 $31,667 $12,727 149% 3.45% 11 $23,797 $18,376 30% 2.59% 12 $23,400 $11,600 102% 2.55% 13 $21,989 $40,957 -46% 2.39% 14 $20,166 $9,900 104% 2.20% 15 $19,143 $19,264 -1% 2.08% 16 $16,000 $798 1906% 1.74% 17 $14,696 $14,578 1% 1.60% 18 $12,147 $7,206 69% 1.32% 19 $11,700 $11,000 6% 1.27% 20 $10,130 $6,004 69% 1.10% Top 20 Totals: $701,591 $495,211 42% 73.37% Submitted Totals: $765,411 $538,092 42% 80.14% Notes: Includes sub-servicing contracts. Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose subprime receivables. Market share is based on estimated subprime receivables of $918.5 billion. (Read More)

ARFI Expanding in Wholesale

Banker-broker American Residential Funding Inc. said it is expanding its presence in the wholesale marketplace implementing an organic growth strategy that has helped step up the transition from operating lower-margin brokered loans to higher-margin mortgage banking based on new products and new staff. (Read More)

Subprime Residential Lending Volume Leaders in Q4 2004

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Ameriquest Mortgage Corp. (E) Orange, CA 2 New Century Financial Corp. Irvine, CA 3 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 4 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 5 Option One Mortgage Corp. (1) Irvine, CA 6 First Franklin Financial San Jose, CA 7 CitiFinancial Baltimore, MD 8 WMC Mortgage Corp. (2) Woodland Hills, CA 9 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 10 HSBC Mortgage/Household (3) Prospect Heights, IL 11 Fremont Investment & Loan (E) Santa Monica, CA 12 Homecomings Minneapolis, MN 13 Decision One Mortgage (3) Charlotte, NC 14 Accredited Home Lenders San Diego, CA 15 BNC Mortgage, Inc. Irvine, CA 16 Encore Credit Corporation Irvine, CA 17 Finance America (4) Irvine, CA 18 NovaStar Mortgage, Inc. Kansas City, MO 19 Chase Home Finance Woodcliff Lake, NJ 20 Aegis Mortgage Corporation (E) Houston, TX (part 2 of 2) Subprime Volume Percent Market Rk Q4 04 Q4 03 Change Share 1 $18,000 $11,946 51% 10.59% 2 $11,500 $8,252 39% 6.76% 3 $11,041 $6,710 65% 6.49% 4 $9,362 $5,618 67% 5.51% 5 $7,633 $5,780 32% 4.49% 6 $6,914 $6,173 12% 4.07% 7 $6,428 $4,860 32% 3.78% 8 $6,360 $2,707 135% 3.74% 9 $5,845 $5,342 9% 3.44% 10 $5,706 $3,015 89% 3.36% 11 $5,400 na na 3.18% 12 $4,146 $4,580 -9% 2.44% 13 $3,628 $2,878 26% 2.13% 14 $3,466 $2,373 46% 2.04% 15 $3,113 $2,138 46% 1.83% 16 $2,570 $1,412 82% 1.51% 17 $2,452 $1,208 103% 1.44% 18 $2,230 $1,583 41% 1.31% 19 $2,183 $1,755 24% 1.28% 20 $2,000 $1,800 11% 1.18% Top 20 Totals: $119,978 $80,129 50% 66.22% Submitted Totals: $141,674 $95,279 49% 76.87% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not provide volumes. Market share based on estimated subprime production of $167.8 billion in Q4 04. (E) Estimate. (1) Option One is owned by H&R Block. (2) WMC is owned by GE. (3) HSBC and Decision One are affiliates reporting separately to us. (4) Owned by Lehman Bros. (Read More)

Subprime Production at Amnet Has Been a Learning Experience

It was a little over one year ago that Laura J. Swartz joined American Mortgage Network to help launch the company's subprime mortgage business. (Read More)

Wagner New Face Of Senior Network

Robert Wagner, the television and movie actor, has been named as the new official spokesman for Senior Lending Network here. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Newport Beach-Impac Funding Corp. has appointed Ken Urbanus as regional vice president of correspondent lending. (Read More)

LandAmerica Net Rose $6 Million

Only one of the nation's four largest publicly traded title insurers reported higher fourth-quarter earnings for 2004 than it had for 2003. The earnings statements were released before news that three of the four were named for allegedly starting reinsurance firms with homebuilders to steer business. (Read More)

Dugan May Be New Comptroller

President George Bush is planning to nominate John Dugan to be the new comptroller of the currency where he would be the chief supervisor of national banks. (Read More)

Bank Regulators Debate CRA Rule

Federal banking regulators have come up with a compromise that attempts to reduce the burden of Community Reinvestment Act compliance for intermediate-size banks but still promotes community development. (Read More)

IRS Got 89 Real Estate Convictions

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said it initiated nearly 200 real estate fraud investigations in fiscal year 2004 and secured 89 convictions for tax fraud and money laundering. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 151.4 Change: -8.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 10/11/01 10/18/01 Alltel (AT) 49.43 68.68 60.73 59.45 Countrywide Credit Industries 32.50 52.00 44.84 42.34 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) 32.37 58.37 43.70 43.70 Centex Corp. (CTX) 28.03 50.00 39.82 35.22 Dime Bank NY (DME) 21.12 43.00 37.81 33.90 Fiserv, Inc (FISV) 43.44 64.63 57.00 57.00 Fannie Mae (FNM) 69.50 89.37 78.05 81.09 Freddie Mac (FRE) 38.37 70.35 67.13 67.13 Golden West (GDW) 48.87 70.90 54.00 49.28 Household (HI) 43.56 69.98 65.38 65.38 LandAmerica Financial (LFG) 26.50 50.45 35.00 32.09 MGIC (MTG) 51.00 77.31 57.62 52.79 New Century (NCEN) 6.00 14.25 11.22 11.22 IndyMac Bancorp (NDE) 17.87 30.43 28.11 25.70 Wells Fargo (WFC) 38.25 56.37 41.77 39.08 PMI Mortgage Ins. (PMI) 48.37 74.93 58.55 54.87 Radian Group (RDN) 26.90 43.87 38.78 38.78 Resource Bancshares (RBMG) 9.50 23.25 8.50 8.63 Triad Guaranty (TGIC) 26.00 40.14 32.91 30.45 Washington Mutual (WM) 26.16 42.99 35.83 30.69 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. YTD P/E % Chg. Change Ratio Alltel (AT) -2% -4% 14.39 Countrywide Credit Industries (CCI) -6% -14% 10.99 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) 0% -7% 17.98 Centex Corp. (CTX) -12% -10% 6.96 Dime Bank NY (DME) -10% 13% 19.37 Fiserv, Inc (FISV) 0% 14% 37.74 Fannie Mae (FNM) 4% -7% 16.44 Freddie Mac (FRE) 0% -3% 13.47 Golden West (GDW) -9% -28% 11.76 Household (HI) 0% 24% 17.16 LandAmerica Financial (LFG) -8% -22% 9.01 MGIC (MTG) -8% -21% 9.34 New Century (NCEN) 0% 8% -9.04 IndyMac Bancorp (NDE) -9% -11% 16.58 Wells Fargo (WFC) -6% -30% 20.14 PMI Mortgage Ins. (PMI) -6% -20% 8.80 Radian Group (RDN) 0% -44% 11.37 Resource Bancshares (RBMG) 2% 32% -5.36 Triad Guaranty (TGIC) -7% -10% 10.91 Washington Mutual (WM) -14% -44% 10.69 Source: NMN/Mortgagestats.com Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

FTC, Subprime Co. Settle Allegations

The Federal Trade Commission has finally reached a settlement with a small subprime lender here after a seven-year legal stalemate over allegations of deceptive lending practices. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 141.8 Change: 0.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 10/18/01 Aames (AAM) 0.56 2.37 0.75 American Business Fin. (ABF) 4.38 19.73 22.03 Advanta 'A' (ADVNA) 5.88 19.10 10.20 Household (HI) 43.87 69.98 57.40 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 1.83 8.15 7.10 New Century (NCEN) 6.00 12.55 12.37 Novastar (NFI) 3.56 11.80 11.30 Ocwen (OCN)(*) 4.50 11.37 8.85 Provident Financial (PFGI) 22.69 38.44 23.12 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. YTD P/E % Chg. Change Ratio Aames (AAM) -6% 20% na American Business Fin. (ABF) 12% 292% 9.60 Advanta 'A' (ADVNA) -11% 13% na Household (HI) 1% 3% 15.10 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 0% 153% 8.90 New Century (NCEN) 0% 17% na Novastar (NFI) 2% 201% na Ocwen (OCN)(*) 1% 43% 8.50 Provident Financial (PFGI) -8% -39% 22.00 (*)Ocwen is a subprime subservicer. (Read More)

Second Homes Explode to 36%

Are the baby boomers doing to the second-home market what they did to technology stocks a few years ago? (Read More)

U.S. Second Home Sales In 2004/2003

Second Home Units Sold Units Sold Percentage Type in 2004 in 2003 Change Vacation homes 1,018,000 850,000 19.8% Investment homes 1,800,000 1,574,000 14.2% TOTAL: 2,818,000 2,424,000 16.3% Source: National Association of Realtors Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

$2.5 Trillion the New Norm

Countrywide Financial Corp. sees a rosy future for its home loan business, and if the company's projections prove correct, other mortgage lenders could also benefit for many years to come. (Read More)

Residential Jumbo Lenders in Q4 2004

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 3 Cendant/PHH Mortgage Mt. Laurel, NJ 4 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY 5 CitiMortgage, Inc. O'Fallon, MO 6 Bank of America Charlotte, NC 7 GMAC Residential Holdings Horsham, PA 8 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. Aurora, CO 9 GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Novato, CA 10 National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH 11 Downey Savings & Loan Assn. Newport Beach, CA 12 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX 13 Homecomings/GMAC-RFC Minneapolis, MN 14 AmSouth Mortgage Birmingham, AL 15 SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. Richmond, VA 16 American Home Mtg. Investment Melville, NY 17 Wachovia Charlotte, NC 18 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD 19 ABN Amro Mortgage Ann Arbor, MI 20 Union Bank of California San Diego, CA 21 Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. Sante Fe, NM 22 Flagstar Bank, FSB Troy, MI 23 E*Trade Financial Arlington, VA 24 Branch Banking & Trust Co. Wilson, NC 25 Charter One Bank Cleveland, OH (part 2 of 2) Jumbo # Loans Avg Size Rk Q4 2004 Q4 2004 of Jumbo 1 $20,357 33,998 $598,771 2 $16,380 32,909 $497,736 3 $15,510 33,570 $462,020 4 $11,507 22,461 $512,310 5 $6,921 15,077 $459,057 6 $5,899 10,404 $566,993 7 $5,481 14,338 $382,271 8 $4,961 9,412 $527,093 9 $3,784 11,591 $326,460 10 $3,244 6,472 $501,236 11 $2,418 5,259 $459,783 12 $2,156 4,119 $523,428 13 $1,930 4,668 $413,453 14 $1,857 2,661 $697,858 15 $1,816 3,587 $506,384 16 $1,732 3,459 $500,752 17 $1,369 2,402 $569,942 18 $1,046 1,623 $644,486 19 $991 1,894 $523,432 20 $974 1,281 $760,343 21 $892 1,095 $814,977 22 $759 1,778 $426,884 23 $734 1,525 $481,311 24 $569 1,149 $495,213 25 $462 879 $525,597 Top 25 Totals: $113,750 227,611 $499,758 Totals Submitted: $119,904 241,741 $496,002 Note: Results may be incomplete because some lenders, including Countrywide, would not provide jumbo volumes. Jumbo loans exceed the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit of $359,650. (Read More)

January Home Sales Fall Off

Single-family home sales got off to a slow start in January with new home sales tumbling 9%, while existing home sales fell only 0.5% from the previous month. (Read More)

Chi. Title Is Set To Pay $6.2 MM

The Chicago Title Insurance Co. subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has entered into an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Texas Department of Insurance to pay fines totaling $6.2 million. (Read More)

'Shorting' Fannie Good?

Short sellers reduced their bets against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in February, but late last week a top equities analyst suggested that shorting Fannie's stock might be a good way to make a quick killing. (Read More)

GSE Portfolios Face Limiting

Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., said his GSE bill will definitely place limits on the growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's huge mortgage portfolios. (Read More)

a La Mode Uses Twist To Recreate The AVM Space

Appraisal automation vendor a la mode here has plans to reinvent the automated valuation model by adding a new twist to an old model. Most in the industry are aware of hybrid AVMs like appraiser-assisted and insured AVMs, but what a la mode plans to introduce can be best described as an appraiser-initiated AVM. (Read More)

Rural Housing Service Considers Changes for $3 Billion Loan Program

The Rural Housing Service is working to update its single-family program, which guarantees over $3 billion in loans a year, to make it more user friendly and dependable. (Read More)

WaMu Confirms Executive Search

Washington Mutual, Seattle, the nation's third-largest home lender, has confirmed that it's looking for a new mortgage chief. (Read More)

WaMu Enters Alt-A Conduit Business

Washington Mutual has joined the hordes of banks and investment bankers entering the nonconforming conduit business. Launched late last year, WaMu Capital Corp. specializes in alternative-A loans. To date, the business has acquired more than $1 billion in fixed-rate loans and plans to broaden its product menu, said Todd Kaufman, WCC's national sales manager and managing director. (Read More)

Predatory Amendment Fails in Senate Vote

The Senate has voted to kill an amendment that would have prevented mortgage lenders from pursuing claims in Bankruptcy Court if they violated a federal anti-predatory lending law. (Read More)

By Any Other Name

If you glance down at the masthead directly below this editorial, you will notice something different. Our parent company has a new name. (Read More)

Staged Increases For GSEs

Mr. Weicher recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Excerpts of his statement are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Higher Rates Slow Refis, May Slow Home Price Appreciation

Higher long-term mortgage rates last week had slowed refinancing somewhat and were seen as having the potential to slow annual home price appreciation if they were to continue. But whether this upward trend in rates would be sustained was questionable at the time of this writing, pending a payroll report slated to be released last Friday after this publication went to press. (Read More)

GNMA Securitizing RHS Loans

Ginnie Mae, having completed its first securitization of an RHS Section 538 loan in February, expects to hit $100 million in securitization of this product for 2005. (Read More)

REMIC Modernization Back on Table

Legislation that would make the Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit structure more responsive to today's environment has been re-introduced by Reps. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., the MBA reports. (Read More)

Roundup: $419 MM Deal Hits Market

New York Mortgage Trust has completed its first mortgage securitization through New York Mortgage Trust 2005-1, a transaction collateralized by $419 million of high-credit quality, first-lien, adjustable-rate mortgages and hybrid ARMs. (Read More)

HomeBanc Does $1 Billion Deal

HomeBanc Corp. here has completed an offering of about $1.09 billion in notes backed by adjustable-rate, residential, first-lien mortgages through HomeBanc Mortgage Trust 2005-1. (Read More)

Hanover Private Placement

Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings Inc. here has agreed to issue and sell in a private placement $20 million of trust-preferred securities through a newly formed statutory trust, Hanover Statutory Trust I. (Read More)

BMA Advises Ginnie Mae

The Bond Market Association has formed a committee to advise Ginnie Mae on ways in which it can become more competitive in the mortgage marketplace while also improving the credit performance and investor interest in its mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

B&C Escrow Rate Called Low

Servicers of subprime mortgage loans face a perplexing conundrum. Only about a quarter of the loans include escrow accounts to ensure payment of insurance premiums and property taxes, yet subprime borrowers are the least likely to save money to pay semi-annual or annual bills for taxes and insurance. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Rewards Top Servicers

Freddie Mac said that 23 single-family mortgage servicers achieved Tier One performance rankings for superior investor reporting and default management during two or more quarters last year. (Read More)

Wells' Service Helps Customers Track Spending Habits

Wells Fargo & Co. has launched a new online service designed to provide an overview of all the spending activity of an account holder by tracking all financial venues they use: credit cards, debit cards, online bill payment, checking accounts, etc. (Read More)

PMI Sees Lower Risk of Price Drop

The PMI Risk Index for winter 2005 indicates there is a decrease in the probability of an overall house price decline when compared with the index for autumn 2004. (Read More)

Collections Software Wins Recognition

The firm eCredit, Dedham, Mass., a provider of online software for credit and collections professionals, has been selected as a finalist in the "Best Financial Product or Service" category for the 20th annual Codie Awards, produced by the Software & Information Industry Association. (Read More)

Countrywide Raises Earnings Guidance

Countrywide Financial Corp. has raised its earnings guidance for this year, citing continued strength in the home loan market. (Read More)

Roundup: Charge Affects FirstMerit

FirstMerit Corp. here has revised its fourth-quarter and annual 2004 earnings based on a $3.8 million impairment charge on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock. (Read More)

Fog Cutter Appeal Denied

Fog Cutter Capital Group said that it had received notification that its appeal of the delisting of the company's stock has been denied by Nasdaq. (Read More)

IBT Takes GSE Charge

IBT Bancorp here, the holding company for Irwin Bank & Trust, is among the banks taking an impairment charge related to its holdings of adjustable-rate preferred stock from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. (Read More)

Economists See No Big Bubbles

Economists who specialize in mortgage finance still see little evidence of a national "bubble" in home prices, but investor demand for housing may be pushing up prices in some markets. (Read More)

At a Glance: Historical Delinquency Rates

Period Delinquency Rate 1980-1989 5.29% 1990-1997 4.47% 2004 3rd Qtr 4.41% Source: MBA Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

New Arrivals Push Up Portland Prices

Newcomers are flocking into Portland in such numbers that they are causing a housing boom in the metropolitan area, which includes Vancouver, Wash., as they purchase new and existing homes at a record pace. (Read More)

Lennar Pays $650 Million for Marine Base

Homebuilder Lennar Corp. has placed the winning bid of $650 million to purchase Heritage Fields, a former Marine Corps base in Irvine, Calif., which includes approximately 3,400 homesites, commercial and retail properties on 1,300 acres of public land known as the Great Park. Partners in the venture are LNR Property Corp., Rockpoint Real Estate Fund I LLC, Blackacre Institutional Capital Management LLC and MSD Capital LP. (Read More)

Luxury Builder Is Acquired by WCI

As part of its strategy to expand beyond Florida and into new regions of the country, homebuilder WCI Communities Inc. has completed the acquisition of Renaissance Housing Corp., a luxury homebuilder and high-rise tower developer based in Reston, Va., which operates in the Washington metropolitan area. (Read More)

Accounting Problems, Overseas Challenges Dog Shurgard Storage

Moody's Investors Service here has downgraded the ratings of real estate investment trust Shurgard Storage, citing concerns that include lower-than-expected results in its operations outside the United States. (Read More)

RBC Sees Higher Income from U.S.

Improvements in the Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. mortgage unit helped boost its quarterly net income to about C$1.04 billion (about $844 million) in its fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 31 from approximately C$793 million (about $643.8 million) the same period a year ago. (Read More)

Kroll Buys U.K. Consulting Firm

Kroll Inc., New York, has acquired global risk consulting company Talbot Hughes McKillop, a provider of financial restructuring services operating in Europe and the United States. (Read More)

Fitch Sees Little Risk to GSEs' 'AAA'

Fitch Ratings, noting that its ratings for the senior debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac include an assumption of support from the U.S. government, said in a recent report that it sees little risk that the GSEs' relationship with the government will end in the near term. (Read More)

Freddie Adds ARM Options

Freddie Mac has expanded its Initial Interest mortgage products to include Constant Maturity Treasury and London interbank offered rate 3/1, 5/1 and 7/1 adjustable-rate mortgages with a 10-year interest-only period. (Read More)

Homestead to Affiliate

Homestead Funding Corp. here, a privately owned mortgage lender, has entered into an affiliation agreement with First Niagara Bank, Lockport, N.Y. (Read More)

Quicken Chairman's NBA Bid Approved

The National Basketball Association has approved the purchase of the Cleveland Cavaliers by an investor group headed up by Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert. (Read More)

Thrifts Load Up on Home Loans

Residential mortgage lending and investments at banks and thrifts accounted for 42% of all asset growth in 2004 and 70% in the fourth quarter as federally insured depositories continue to bulk up on mortgage assets. (Read More)

Mortgage Earnings Fall at H&R Block

Pretax earnings for the mortgage services division of H&R Block decreased by nearly 28% in the company's third fiscal quarter in spite of an approximately 57% increase in loan production. The quarter ended Jan. 1, 2005. (Read More)

Small Step Forward for CRA?

Affordable housing and community development entities cautiously applauded recent efforts of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to improve a controversial Community Reinvestment Act rule change initially proposed in 2004 by creating a new CRA test for midsized banks. (Read More)

Liberty Bonds Support NYC Housing

For the first time the Liberty Bond program will include financing for affordable housing units that are part of The William, a residential development project in lower Manhattan. (Read More)

HUD Promotes 'Sweat Equity' Grant Program

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program is offering nearly $27 million in "sweat equity" grants that will benefit over 1,700 first-time homebuyer families. (Read More)

NAHMA Offers Management Directory

The National Affordable Housing Management Association has launched an online directory of NAHMA certified and credentialed property management staff around the country. (Read More)

People

ARIZONA Tucson-First Magnus Financial Corp. said that Julie McCan has been appointed to the Utah Residential Mortgage Regulatory Commission. (Read More)

At a Glance: Mortgage Origination Volume

2001 $2.2 trillion 2002 $2.9 trillion 2003 $3.8 trillion 2004 $2.9 trillion 2005 $2 trillion-2.9 trillion* *2005 range is a CFC estimate. (Read More)

PHH Nixes Management Contracts

One month after going public, PHH Corp. here has adopted a policy of not entering into "employment agreements" with any of its executives or workers, including its CEO Terence W. Edwards. (Read More)

Florida Home Prices Increase 22% in '04

Demand for existing single-family homes in Florida continued to rise in December 2004, pushing the statewide median sales price 22% higher to $195,900. A year ago, it was $160,600, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. (Read More)

Rosenfeld Wants to Leave MBS to Congress

The new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board is unlikely to approve a mortgage-backed securities program for the Federal Home Loan Banks unless he has the consent of Congress. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 227.9 Change: -0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/3/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 9.30 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 82.51 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 17.15 27.91 19.22 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 40.04 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 51.94 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 35.06 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.26 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 17.62 30.75 17.93 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.68 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) 5% 354% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -3% 18% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 0% 12% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 0% 62% na New Century (NEW) 3% 35% na Novastar (NFI) 1% 22% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 3% 11% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -2% 2% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 10% 33% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 173.8 Change: -0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 2/24/2005 3/3/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Price Appreciation Continues to Rise

Home prices rose at a 10.7% annual rate in 2004, according to Freddie Mac's conventional mortgage home price index. (Read More)

At a Glance: Regional Home Price Growth in '04

Region '04 Price Growth Pacific 17.7% South Atlantic 14.1% Middle Atlantic 13.5% New England 12.6% Mountain 9.8% West North Central 6.2% East North Central 5.8% East South Central 5.6% West South Central 4.3% U.S. Total 10.7% Source: Freddie Mac Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Mozilo Fears B/C Debacle

On the heels of a new report that found one in four home loans originated in last year's fourth quarter were subprime comes a renewed warning that one misstep by a mono-line nonprime lender could cast a pall over the entire mortgage business. (Read More)

Fannie In Second Agreement

Fannie Mae has signed a supplemental supervisory agreement with its regulator, addressing a host of concerns on accounting systems and corporate governance issues. (Read More)

M&A: CapOne to Buy Hibernia

Credit card giant Capital One Financial here has agreed to buy Hibernia Corp., New Orleans, one of the largest lenders in Louisiana, for $5.3 billion in stock and cash. (Read More)

Top Alt-A Lenders in Q4 04

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. Aurora, CO 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. Pasadena, CA 3 Novelle Financial Services San Diego, CA 4 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BC) Woodland Hills, CA 5 GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Novato, CA 6 Chase Home Finance Edison, NJ 7 Homecomings Minneapolis, MN 8 Credit Suisse First Boston New York, NY 9 HSBC Mortgage/Household (BC) Prospect Heights, IL 10 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 11 Fieldstone Mortgage Columbia, MD 12 American Home Mtg. Investment Melville, NY 13 National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH 14 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage(BC) San Francisco, CA 15 Waterfield Mortgage Fort Wayne, IN 16 American Mortgage Network San Diego, CA 17 SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. Richmond, VA 18 NovaStar Mortgage, Inc. (BC) Kansas City, MO 19 Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY 20 PHH/Cendant Mortgage Mt. Laurel, NJ 21 First Magnus Financial Corp. Tucson, AZ 22 SCME Mortgage Bankers, Inc. San Diego, CA 23 Irwin Mortgage Corp. Fishers, IN 24 No Red Tape Mortgage Sherman Oaks, CA 25 Netbank Columbia, SC (part 2 of 2) Alt A' Volume % Market Rk Q4 04 Q4 03 change Share 1 $10,694 $6,594 62% 10.53% 2 $7,505 $3,893 93% 7.39% 3 $6,175 $2,957 109% 6.08% 4 $4,869 $1,941 151% 4.79% 5 $4,334 $2,699 61% 4.27% 6 $2,818 na na 2.77% 7 $2,417 $1,730 40% 2.38% 8 $2,364 na na 2.33% 9 $1,844 na na 1.82% 10 $1,839 na na 1.81% 11 $1,537 na na 1.51% 12 $1,193 $262 355% 1.17% 13 $1,124 na na 1.11% 14 $1,093 na na 1.08% 15 $907 $313 190% 0.89% 16 $846 $206 311% 0.83% 17 $775 na na 0.76% 18 $662 $399 66% 0.65% 19 $654 na na 0.64% 20 $598 $197 204% 0.59% 21 $572 na na 0.56% 22 $526 na na 0.52% 23 $369 $144 156% 0.36% 24 $366 na na 0.36% 25 $361 $388 -7% 0.36% Top 25 Totals: $56,442 $21,722 160% 55.56% Submitted Totals: $59,086 $22,858 158% 55.56% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose this data point. In general 'Alt A' loans are neither conventional nor subprime but have certain characteristics that make them harder to fund/underwrite. (Read More)

'Flat' G-Fee Gains Steam

A legislative proposal that would mandate all lenders pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the same flat guarantee fee is gathering serious traction on Capitol Hill, according to industry officials. (Read More)

Duncan: Industry Should Focus on Customers

The mortgage industry "really is out of touch with the customer," Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist and senior vice president of research and business development, Doug Duncan, told NMN. (Read More)

Broker Jobs Slow

Month: Brokers employed January '05 (p) 123,100 December '04 124,800 November 123,900 October 124,300 September 121,300 August 124,600 July 122,900 June 123,800 May 125,000 April (*) 125,200 Notes: The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not breakout the difference between mortgage and non-mortgage brokers. (Read More)

Broker Positions May Be Slipping

Employment in the overall mortgage industry hit a record 489,400 full-time positions in January but broker jobs appear to be slipping. (Read More)

'Flips' Are Half Of Fraud Cases

Almost half of all mortgage fraud cases currently under investigation by the government involve land flips while just 6% involve "double-sold loans," a senior FBI official said last week. (Read More)

Countrywide's Plans For UK Are 'On' Again

Countrywide Financial, which has coveted the British origination market for several years, plans to launch a production and servicing operation there some time next year. (Read More)

Finance Board Weighing Appropriate Levels for Mortgage Purchases

The decision by the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank to exit the mortgage purchase business is raising concerns that other FHLBanks could get into regulatory trouble if they pursue that line of business too aggressively. (Read More)

Second Chances

If recent reports are any indication, it is a pair of seconds - second liens and second homes - that is sustaining mortgage volume currently. (Read More)

Closing the Homeownership Gap

Secretary Jackson recently testified on HUD's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget before the House Financial Services Committee. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Mortgage Market Benchmarks Reach Consequential Highs

Long-term rates, bond yields and purchase applications have made notable moves upward in the past week. (Read More)

Aggressive Enforcement Welcome

To the editor: You'd better be careful in Colorado if your mortgage business practices are illegal. That's the message our state's law enforcement officials, regulators and governor have made in the past 10 days. (Read More)

Questions on HUD Collections

To the editor: HUD is now employing the use of a collection agency with questionable tactics to collect outstanding indemnifications on homes that have gone into foreclosure. The collection agency is called DCS Inc. and this is how they operate: Several years ago, I was an executive at a retail mortgage company and on behalf of that corporation, signed several of the infamous HUD indemnification letters on loans that HUD felt not all "i's" were dotted or "t's" crossed. Years have passed but on a recent Tuesday I got a call late at night at my home. The caller identified herself as Jessica Roberts and she said that she worked for the Department of Treasury. She told me that she was calling me because I personally owed the federal government $21,000 for an indemnification that I had signed. I tried to explain to her that I signed the indemnification as an officer of the corporation that I worked for and that I did not believe I was personally liable. (Read More)

Roundup: Freddie Mac Goes 'Quiet' as Earnings Release Looms

Freddie Mac, which is likely to release its 2004 earnings by the end of this month, has voluntarily entered into a "quiet period" to avoid selective release of financial information. (Read More)

Freddie Ups Dividend 17%

Freddie Mac has raised the dividend on its common stock 17% to $0.35 per share. (Read More)

GE to Sell Genworth Stock

General Electric here said it will sell 82 million of Class A shares of the common stock of Genworth Financial, Richmond, Va. In addition, Genworth will purchase between $400 million and $500 million of Class B common stock directly from GE. (Read More)

Unizan Sees Impairment

Unizan Financial Corp. here earned $3.3 million for the fourth quarter, up from $2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2003, despite taking an impairment charge against its preferred stock in the government-sponsored enterprises. (Read More)

Mills to Restate Earnings

The Mills Corp. is restating its audited financial results for the years ended Dec. 31, 2002 and 2003, as well as its unaudited quarterly results for 2004, to reflect some accounting changes. (Read More)

Speeds Rise Slightly in February

Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities rose modestly in February, according to Bear Stearns & Co. (Read More)

Bond Group Backs FICC Proposed Rule

The Bond Market Association has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to support a recent Fixed Income Clearing Corp. rule proposal that would expand FICC's trade submission requirements, arguing that its potential to reduce risk outweighs concerns the trade group has about the additional requirements. (Read More)

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments

(For February Period) Cpn Year WAC Fctr Feb '05 Jan '05 Fannie Mae 6.00 2004 6.43 .863 22.4 20.4 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.48 .536 27.7 27.5 Fannie Mae 6.00 2002 6.50 .303 24.5 24.5 Fannie Mae 6.00 2001 6.57 .197 24.5 23.5 Source: Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary Copyright 2005 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

GSEs Urged to Sell Their Underwriting Engines

Mortgage Bankers Association vice chairman John Robbins last week called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to jettison their automated underwriting systems. (Read More)

Pace of Home Building Expected to Cool in 2005

Most housing prognosticators have been saying for several years that housing production is about to slow, only to be proven wrong by record numbers of starts in 2003 and again in 2004. (Read More)

MBA Leader Says FHA Needs to Change

An official of the Mortgage Bankers Association suggested here last week that the Federal Housing Administration could eventually be forced out of the mortgage insurance business if it doesn't modernize and keep up with the competition. (Read More)

Realty Outlook Called Rosy

Improvements are in store for all the property types this year, on account of continued improvement in the national economy and a sustained inflow of capital into real estate, according to PNC Real Estate Finance. (Read More)

Commercial Transactions

* UrbanAmerica has formed a $300 million real estate private equity fund in partnership with Fisher Urban Associates and is looking to acquire, with the use of debt funding, a $1 billion commercial real estate portfolio. (Read More)

No Talk of Compromise on Servicing

Mortgage companies that favor slashing the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac minimum servicing fee will look to "alternative" measures to help manage their housing receivables if the two GSEs don't make a change, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More)

Default Management: Avoiding the Courthouse

The economy continues to strengthen by most measures. Job gains, while modest by historical standards, are starting to add up. Interest rates remain low and few economists believe there is a "bubble" in home prices. (Read More)

Inside

New Workouts 18 Lenders are offering greater flexibility to borrowers who fall behind. (Read More)

New Options Slow the Rush to Foreclosure

The mortgage industry has come a long way since the savings and loan meltdown of the mid-1980s to early 1990s, according to Ronald Kahn, an attorney whose core practice is real estate law. Back then, there was only one workout procedure and borrowers were forced to catch up on their payments in six months. (Read More)

Servicers Turning Attention to Defaults

Default management may remain a labor-intensive aspect of loan servicing, but that doesn't mean it has to be as resource-intensive as it was in the past. (Read More)

B&C Mortgage Risk Edges Up

The risk that newly originated, nonprime credit-quality mortgage loans will end up in default is pretty much steady for the winter of 2005, according to a risk index published by University Financial Associates here. (Read More)

CMBS Deals Healthy in Long Run

In the commercial mortgage-backed securities world, only 4.6% of the cumulative issuance of securities since 1993 has defaulted, according to a study by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA San Francisco-The board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco has promoted Patricia M. Remch to senior vice president, mortgage finance sales and product development; Amy Stewart to vice president, corporate communications; Tom C. Wilson to vice president, mortgage finance; and Julia L. Young to vice president, assistant general counsel. (Read More)

ACORN: Wells Targets Certain Neighborhoods

A community activist group released a study last week that claims Wells Fargo conducts most of its subprime mortgage lending in minority and low-income neighborhoods. (Read More)

Extra Underwriting Steps Harmful

The inclusion of too many letters in a loan file could do more harm than good for lenders, according to panelists at a recent regulatory compliance seminar here, hosted by the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association and the Massachusetts Mortgage Association. (Read More)

Entrust Agrees To Sell Shares

Entrust Financial Services has entered into an agreement to sell all of its outstanding shares in a deal that will hand control of Entrust Mortgage to BBSB, a private-equity firm that had provided financing to Entrust late in 2002. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 220.1 Change: -7.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/10/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 9.15 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 81.97 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 18.28 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 37.28 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 49.28 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 33.16 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 7.93 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 17.62 29.60 17.89 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.64 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -2% 346% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -1% 17% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -5% 7% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) -7% 51% na New Century (NEW) -5% 28% na Novastar (NFI) -5% 15% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -4% 6% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 0% 2% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) -6% 25% na (1) IMPAC is mostly an Alt-A lender and servicer. (Read More)

Baker: Expand Examination of GSE

Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., wants a federal regulator to expand an examination into Fannie Mae's failure to report fraudulent mortgage activity by a North Carolina lender until someone in the company is held accountable. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 171.0 Change: -2.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 3/3/2005 3/10/2000 Wkly. (Read More)

Countrywide Dominated Industry

Countrywide Financial, Calabasas, Calif., climbed to the top of the residential origination heap in 2004 by dominating in third-party lending. (Read More)

Top Residential Originators in 2004

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 3) Rk Organization Name 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (Read More)

CFC Sets a Goal of 30% Market Share

Countrywide Financial Corp. CEO Angelo Mozilo has a long history of setting ambitious goals - and usually meeting them. (Read More)

Big Anti-Fraud Merger

Fraud automation leaders Sysdome here and AppIntelligence will combine to form one company, ISO Mortgage Analytics. (Read More)

Lender Talks To 25 States

Ameriquest Mortgage, Orange, Calif., the nation's largest subprime funder, said it is negotiating with 25 states regarding concerns over some of its retail lending practices. (Read More)

PMI Cuts Multiple Loan Exposure

Mortgage insurer The PMI Group here has adopted changes to its underwriting policies, cutting its potential exposure on consumers who have multiple loans. (Read More)

Ney/Kanjorski Would Establish National High-Cost Standards

Two House Financial Services Committee members introduced a predatory lending bill last week that would establish nationwide lending and servicing standards for high-cost subprime loans. (Read More)

Fed Smooths Over B&C HMDA Data

The Federal Reserve Board is warning policymakers, consumer groups and the press not to jump to conclusions when new HMDA data are released that for the first time ever identify "high-cost" subprime loans. (Read More)

Delinquencies Fall Across the Board in 4th Quarter

Loan performance improved widely in the fourth quarter of 2004, with the Federal Housing Administration suffering the only real blemish in a quarterly survey of delinquency and foreclosure trends. (Read More)

Delinquency Rates Decline in '04

Delinquency Rate Delinquency Rate Loan Type Dec. 31 '03 Dec. 31 '04 Prime 2.37% 2.22% Subprime 11.53% 9.88% FHA 12.23% 12.21% VA 7.99% 6.96% Overall 4.49% 4.23% Source: MBA. Delinquency = 30 or more days past due. (Read More)

FHA Commissioner Is Leaving Soon

Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Alphonso Jackson is cleaning house and it appears that John Weicher, the federal housing commissioner, is being forced out. (Read More)

Taking It Seriously

The subprime market is booming this year, taking up the slack (as it did last year as well) for the big drop-off in prime lending, keeping a record number of people employed in the mortgage business, and expanding the market to the previously underserved. (Read More)

The Economic Outlook

Gov. Bernanke recently addressed a finance committee luncheon of the Executives' Club of Chicago. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Looking at the Market After Shift to New Trading Range

The long-term rate indicative 10-year Treasury yield last week had fluctuated somewhat, but at press time it remained in the higher level near 4.50% that it has been in since it broke out of its trading range, according to Yahoo! Finance. (Read More)

Hanover Estimates Earnings But Delays Official Report to SEC

Hanover Capital Mortgage earned $2.7 million, or $0.33 per share, in the fourth quarter and $8.1 million, or $0.97 per share, for the full year. But the company has delayed filing its official "10-K" with the SEC because of an accounting snafu. (Read More)

Ex-Pol, Mortgage Banker Speaks Out on G-Fees

A former legislator from Colorado who owns a top 100 ranked lender says he has met with at least six U.S. senators to promote the idea of a flat, one-price guarantee fee for all Fannie Mae/Freddie seller-servicers. (Read More)

Balboa Offers Risk-Based Pricing on Insurance

The Balboa Insurance Group, a subsidiary of Countrywide Financial Corp. here, has developed a new risk-based pricing program for lender-placed property hazard insurance. (Read More)

Consumer Debt Load Keeps Rising

Although outstanding consumer credit debt is higher than it has been in years, economists believe it is due to a rising population and an increase of homebuyers. (Read More)

Corrections:

Due to a data entry error, GMAC's 2004 loan production volume was stated incorrectly in a table appearing on the front page of the Feb. 21 issue of National Mortgage News. In the fourth quarter, GMAC funded $25.4 billion in loans (not $12.2 billion as reported). For the full year, GMAC funded $87.3 billion. The mistake did not affect GMAC's overall ranking (7th) or the thrust of the story. (Read More)

Condo Conversion Loans a Growing Market for CMBS Issuers

Condominium conversion loans are likely to become a larger part of the collateral underlying commercial mortgage-backed securities, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Criimi Mae's Net Doubles in 4th Qtr

Criimi Mae has reported fourth-quarter net income of $5.4 million ($0.34 per share), a 108% increase from net income of $2.6 million ($0.17 per share) for the fourth quarter of 2003. (Read More)

Final Tally for WaMu Layoffs Comes to 8,000

Washington Mutual has made no secret about its effort to "right size" its mortgage operations, but the extent of the downsizing may come as a surprise. (Read More)

At a Glance: WaMu's Changing Channel Mix

Channel 2003 2004 Retail 38% 45% Wholesale 23% 29% Correspondent 39% 26% Source: Washington Mutual Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Golden West Pursues Risk-Averse Strategy On Its Credit Decisions

While a number of other adjustable-rate mortgage originators have been taking on more credit risk in order to grow, Oakland, Calif.-based Golden West Financial Corp. refuses to. (Read More)

At a Glance: Golden West Financial

(parent of World Savings Bank) Assets $110 billion Branches 279 in ten states Lending Territory 38 states Ticker Symbol GDW Market Cap $18 billion Stock Price 3/16 $58.80 Sources: Golden West and Yahoo Finance. (Read More)

FNF in Talks with CA, CO

An executive of Fidelity National Financial told attendees at a Piper Jaffray Financial Services Conference here the company is negotiating with regulators in both Colorado and California to reach a settlement regarding those state's investigations into captive reinsurance arrangements. (Read More)

Rising Prices Wash Away Potential Losses in Securities

Residential mortgage-backed securities issued recently may have seen some of their performance concerns masked by home price appreciation, according to Bear Stearns here, which now is producing an index for investors that is designed to set the record straight. (Read More)

Moody's Revises Model for Hybrids

Moody's Investors Service is refining its loss coverage methodology for subprime hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages The rating agency said it would apply this revised methodology to subprime securitization deals closing on or after April 15. (Read More)

Roundup: Fed Rule Lets Banks Use Trust Preferred toward Tier One

The Federal Reserve Board here has adopted a final rule that allows the continued limited inclusion of trust-preferred securities in the Tier 1 capital of bank holding companies but subjects them to stricter quantitative limits. (Read More)

BOA Deal Downgraded

Two classes of Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Inc. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2002-PB2, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

MH Deal Sees Losses

Classes A-1 to A-5 of Bombardier Capital Mortgage Securitization Corp.'s manufactured housing series 2000-A have been downgraded from B-minus to CCC by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

InterFirst Rewards Leading Salesmen

InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending, a division of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc., recently honored its top sales employees with awards at its annual sales meeting. (Read More)

Fitch Affirms First American

Fitch Ratings, Chicago, has affirmed its ratings of First American Corp. here following the announcement of the title insurer acquiring another underwriter, United General Title Insurance Co., Denver. (Read More)

OTS Approves New CRA Flexibility Rule

Large thrifts will have more flexibility in meeting their Community Reinvestment Act tests under a final rule approved by the Office of Thrift Supervision recently. (Read More)

Broker Cites Regulatory Cost as Reason to Close

A small mortgage brokerage shop is closing its door because the owner said he couldn't afford the cost of complying with Federal Trade Commission requirements for protecting customer's personal and financial information. (Read More)

Lower Gain on Sales Causes Fourth Quarter Loss for Aames

Aames Investment Corp. here has reported a net loss of $31.5 million, or $0.51 per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2004. (Read More)

National City Thanks Home Equity Leaders

National City Home Equity, a unit of National City Corp., has awarded 10 account executives National City's 2004 "Sales Champion" award. The award winners were ahead in each of the 18 criteria National City Home Equity considers in naming sales champions, including sales production, sales management, account and territory management, and support of overall business objectives, according to National City. (Read More)

AmNet Mortgage Turns Corner toward Profitability in 4th Quarter

AmNet Mortgage earned $123,000, or $0.01 per share, in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to a loss in the year prior period. (Read More)

Sunset's Earnings Hit by Two Charges

Sunset Financial Resources Inc. earned $583,000 during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2004, compared to net income of $1.43 million for the period ended Sept. 30, 2004. Net income for the year ended Dec. 31, 2004 was $644,000. (Read More)

Creativity Key in New York's Affordable Market

Creativity, financial and otherwise, is key to providing affordable housing in New York, one of the country's most expensive and complex real estate markets, said Housing Partnership Development Corp. president and CEO, Daniel E. Martin. (Read More)

Sears Unit Boosts Latino Housing

Sears, Roebuck and Co. subsidiary Community Revitalization Fund Inc. said it is investing $1.5 million in the "From House to Home: Strengthening Families and Maintaining Homes" - a new program launched by National Council of La Raza to assist Latino families. (Read More)

Housing Effort Called Bipartisan

Contributors to the creation of a bipartisan national housing agenda that focuses on affordable housing and other commonly neglected housing issues have received the 2005 Award for Bipartisan Cooperation presented by Search for Common Ground. (Read More)

REIT Idea Scores Well in U.K. Survey

About half of the United Kingdom's larger, publicly listed property firms might convert to property investment funds if the U.K. were to introduce them, the Council of Mortgage Lenders here has reported. (Read More)

CSC Expands MBS Unit in Japan

Countrywide is opening a Countrywide Securities Corp. office in Tokyo to expand its distribution of mortgage- and asset-backed securities product and has plans to build a new unit based on its joint venture in the United Kingdom, Countrywide chairman and chief executive Angelo Mozilo told attendees at a fixed-income conference here. (Read More)

Radian in Partnership With Hong Kong Bank

Mortgage insurer Radian Group Inc., Philadelphia, has formed a partnership with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. here. "Through this partnership, Radian will become the exclusive provider of mortgage insurance for Standard Chartered," the MI company said. (Read More)

Raising the LOS Bar

Denver-based 3t Systems will be sending a strong message to attendees at this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo, having signed two lenders that chose Mortgage Cadence in order to grow their operations and become national players. In addition, the company itself has split in two, 3t Systems and Mortgage Cadence, to launch a new alliance program designed to offer a true end-to-end solution. (Read More)

Canton Calls Technology a Must Have

Customers are demanding change and mortgage bankers have to make a choice whether or not they want to lead clients into the future or play catch-up a few years from now, according to James Canton, chairman and chief executive officer of the Institute for Global Futures in San Francisco. (Read More)

DocuTech to Tackle Emerging Markets

DocuTech has chosen MBA's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo to launch an initiative to provide lender customers with compliant mortgage documents in Spanish. (Read More)

GHR Systems Unveils Automated Workflow Application

GHR Systems, Wayne, Pa., plans to launch its workflow application at the MBA Tech Show. GHR is calling this tool the result of "true automation." (Read More)

Mortgage Builder Updates LOS Tool

Mortgage Builders Software Inc., has launched a completely upgraded version of its loan origination software which, at no additional cost to current users, offers free imaging, document management capabilities, a loan construction package, loan tracking, a enhanced Loan Prospector interface and documents in Spanish. (Read More)

QuestSoft Launches Compliance Tool

QuestSoft, Laguna Hills, Calif., which provides Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and Community Reinvestment Act compliance technology to lenders, is introducing their new product, Compliance EAGLE, at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla. (Read More)

GMAC-RFC Introduces AU Advancements

Mortgage bankers frustrated by the way disparities in ever-changing state laws and their interpretations bog down secondary loan sales to buyers like GMAC-RFC are among those who may be interested in some of the automation the Minneapolis-based company has developed. (Read More)

Online Banking Ranks High in Customer Satisfaction

As they shape their Internet lending strategies on the retail side, banks and mortgage companies will want to ask themselves, "Which are we more like, Amazon.com or EverBank?" (Read More)

Remend Takes New Approach

When it comes to managing defaults, many lenders are still using multiple systems to track foreclosures, manage vendor relationships and process workflow. In the end, this could prove costly, especially in the world of subprime mortgage servicing, according to one software provider. And Remend Default Solutions here believes the industry may be poised to see an increase in defaults. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Pasadena-IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said it is adding new members to the Wholesale Lending, Correspondent Services and NonPrime Lending Divisions. (Read More)

Mortgage Firm Appeals DNC Fine

Dynasty Mortgage plans to appeal a proposed notice of forfeiture by the Federal Communications Commission for violating the commission's national do-not-call rule. The company has 30 days to pay a $770,000 fine or show why the proposed forfeiture should be waived or reduced. (Read More)

Radian, MGIC Not Worried

Executives at two of the nation's largest mortgage insurers said their captive reinsurance arrangements are different than those made by the title companies and thus they are less worried about any possible investigation. (Read More)

Fannie Reduces Bonus Pay

Fannie Mae, with the blessing of its regulator, has adopted new compensation policies that will change and reduce how it pays bonus money to its top executives for 2005. (Read More)

Irwin Will Sell Retail, Net Branch Locations

Irwin Mortgage Corp. here has agreed to sell part of its traditional retail and all of its net branching and credit union lending operations to two separate acquirers. The price was not disclosed. (Read More)

Sen. Sarbanes to Retire in 2007

Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., said he will not run for re-election and he will leave the Senate in January 2007 after completing his fifth term. (Read More)

Publicly traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 217.6 Change: -2.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/17/05 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 8.90 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 80.62 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17.15 27.91 17.96 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND 24.71 50.75 35.96 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 46.30 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 70.32 36.87 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.26 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 17.02 29.60 17.01 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.63 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -3% 334% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -2% 15% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -2% 5% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND -4% 46% na New Century (NEW) -6% 20% na Novastar (NFI) 11% 28% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 4% 11% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) -5% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) -2% 24% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 165.5 Change: -5.5 (part 1 of 2) Company 3/10/2005 3/17/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Big Decisions Coming on GMACCM

General Motors is talking to two finalists about buying part of the automaker's commercial mortgage business, but it's possible the entire unit eventually might be sold, sources familiar with the matter told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

PMI Firms Ranked by Policies in Force

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Policies in Force Rk Organization Name 12/31/2004 12/31/2003 1 Mortgage Guaranty Inc. $177,091 $189,632 2 PMI Group $135,810 $129,885 3 Radian Guaranty Inc. $115,315 $119,887 4 Genworth Mortgage Inc. $97,929 $110,497 5 United Guaranty $97,672 $98,301 6 Republic Mortgage Inc. $74,812 $75,710 7 Triad Guaranty Ins. $36,827 $31,748 Industry Total: $735,455 $755,659 (part 2 of 2) Market Mkt Shr Rk % change Share % pt. +/- 1 -7% 24.08% -1.02% 2 5% 18.47% 1.28% 3 -4% 15.68% -0.19% 4 -11% 13.32% -1.31% 5 -1% 13.28% 0.27% 6 -1% 10.17% 0.15% 7 16% 5.01% 0.81% Industry Total: -3% 100% - Source: NMN/Quarterly Data Report. Questions? Email: Paul.MuoloSourceMedia.com. (Read More)

First American to Test Fraud Smarts

First American RES has chosen the 2005 MBA technology conference in Orlando to issue a challenge: Try to get its new LoanIQ tool to miss detecting a fraudulent loan. (Read More)

Fannie Hits 4-Year Low

Under pressure from its regulator to raise capital, Fannie Mae saw its loan purchases fall to a four-year low in February as the company continued to shrink its portfolio. (Read More)

MISMO Compliance Ready

After much hard work and a lot of debate, the first stage of the MISMO compliance program will be launched at the MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo here. (Read More)

Welfare to Work, to Home

Just five years ago, Kyle Bell's future looked dim. He was receiving state financial assistance, caring for his four children alone, and his home had just burned down. But now he has gotten a job in telecommunications and a friend has referred him to an agency that helped him clean up his credit and buy a home with a backyard for his four children. (Read More)

JPM Latest Street Firm to Launch Conduit?

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is jumping on the never-ending bandwagon of investment banking houses that are forming nonconforming mortgage conduits, industry officials have told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Fannie and Freddie Appeal to Industry

Representatives of embattled agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae separately told attendees at the Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations here that they are reaffirming their partnerships with the lending community. (Read More)

Morgan Stanley Sees Technology as Key to 'Strong Credit Culture'

Morgan Stanley here has been positioning its mortgage conduit for the long term by making technology-driven improvements to its underwriting process that its executives expect will come to fruition this year. (Read More)

Technolution

"Technolution" is the term the Mortgage Bankers Association has come up with to describe its annual technology conference, to be held this week in Orlando, Fla. (Read More)

TRIA Helps Beat Terror Threat

Excerpts of Mr. Zerzan's remarks before the recent Networks Financial Institute's Regulatory Reform Summit in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Inflationary Pressures Boost Average 30-Year Rate Above 6%

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate as tracked by Freddie Mac had risen up above the psychologically important 6% mark at press time following a succession of reports indicative of inflationary pressures in the market. (Read More)

OFHEO: Fannie Employees Falsified Signatures

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has found evidence that Fannie Mae employees falsified signatures on accounting documents and made changes to company data bases that affected earnings, a regulatory official familiar with the matter said. (Read More)

Market Is Weak In Detroit Area

The Metro Detroit area may have more locked doors in the first quarter, as mortgage originations remain flat. (Read More)

Redwood Trust Sees Higher Earnings in 2004

Redwood Trust, a mortgage REIT, earned $233 million, or $10.47 per share, in 2004, the company reported. That compares to GAAP earnings of $132 million in 2003. (Read More)

At a Glance: Redwood Trust

Ticker symbol RWT 52-week low $42.73 52-week high $66.68 3/18 close $51.21 Market Cap. $1.21 billion Source: Yahoo Finance Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

GreenPoint Embraces Electronic Doc Delivery

GreenPoint Mortgage has come one step closer to a complete electronic mortgage by aligning with Cincinnati-based electronic document management company, eLynx Ltd. (Read More)

New Software Focuses on Origination Workflow Improvement

A new software suite known as PushMX has entered onto the mortgage scene. In conjunction with Calyx Point, the software helps brokers and originators manage their business more efficiently, according to Dean Haritos, chief executive officer of PushMX. (Read More)

End-to-End LOS Implementation in 60 Days

Last year NMN profiled a six-month, end-to-end loan origination system implementation of Mortgage Cadence here at Global Home Loans as a particularly fast cycle. Now Mortgage Cadence has come back with an even faster, 60-day to be exact, implementation at retail conventional lender RateStar Inc. (Read More)

WellFound Helps Countrywide Embrace E-Commerce

Countrywide has set up a proprietary EDI standard for how it prefers to receive loans electronically in order to embrace electronic document delivery with limited success. (Read More)

TransUnion Releases New Models

TransUnion has released four new collection recovery models to help collection agencies identify which customers are most likely to repay their debts and to prioritize work efforts. The models also will assist organizations in identifying the most cost-effective treatment strategy based on the likelihood of repayment. (Read More)

Foreclosure Rate High in PA

A report released by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking says there is a high foreclosure rate in the state, a majority of which is represented by subprime loans. (Read More)

Marriott to Use Fiserv Product

Marriott Vacation Club International is now using the MortgageServ loan servicing platform to manage its vacation ownership loans, the company said. (Read More)

Experts See No Slackening of Housing Demand

Despite some talk from economists about a housing bubble - not unlike the dot-com bubble - getting ready to burst, private homebuyers aren't listening and perhaps don't need to. (Read More)

Lenders First Choice Expands CA Facility

Lenders First Choice, a national provider of settlement services and title insurance, has expanded its operations here with the addition of 44,000 square feet of space across the street from its existing office. (Read More)

Roundup: Law Could Boost Bankruptcy Filings in Short Term

Fitch Ratings and other credit analysts say the recently passed bankruptcy reform bill, which strengthens the hands of creditors in personal bankruptcy cases, could cause a sharp increase in personal bankruptcies in the short term. (Read More)

Moody's Affirms PNC's HE Rating

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the SQ2 rating of PNC Bank as a primary servicer of home-equity residential mortgage loans. (Read More)

Bowden to Head HomeSteps

Freddie Mac has promoted Chris Bowden to vice president of HomeSteps, the Freddie Mac unit that is responsible for the management and sale of single-family real estate-owned that has been acquired by Freddie Mac. (Read More)

CreditXpert Helps Lift Scores

CreditXpert, a Towson, Md.-based provider of credit analysis and management tools, has launched a software product designed to help lenders find inaccuracies in credit files. (Read More)

Moody's Offers Tool for Spanish MBS

Moody's Investors Service has introduced a new analytical tool for residential mortgage-backed securities portfolios in Spain based on analysis of the Spanish market, as well as a detailed assessment and comparison of major European residential mortgage markets. Moody's Individual Loan Analysis (MILAN) "is a benchmarking tool to be used in conjunction with Moody's Analyser of Residential Cash Flows" (MARCO). (Read More)

International Markets Heat Up

International real estate markets have become more competitive, but they are still not as competitive as those in the United States, speakers at an annual New York University real estate symposium here indicated. (Read More)

U.K. Hotel Deal Is Downgraded

Moody's Investors Service's office here has downgraded the class C and D notes of HOTELoC PLC, a transaction secured by properties operated by Thistle Hotels in the United Kingdom. (Read More)

Bank of America Buys T-E Bonds to Finance MA, Chicago Projects

Bank of America has purchased $31.3 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance affordable housing renovation efforts in Worcester, Mass., and Chicago in times when the preservation of many AH units is threatened by expiring housing subsidies. Both projects are part of BoA's $750 billion goal for community development programs nationwide. (Read More)

Is Industry Veteran William Starkey Selling Ampro Mortgage?

Ampro Mortgage Corp. here, which is owned by industry veteran William Starkey Sr., is apparently fielding offers. (Read More)

CA Expanding Captive Probe

California insurance commissioner John Garamendi is now going after the other players regarding his investigation into title captive reinsurance arrangements. (Read More)

Alternative Compensation Drives New Hiring

The growth of alternative compensation branch programs has led to a number of players in the industry adding key personnel in recent weeks. (Read More)

Brokers to Aid Education Effort

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers said 36 companies will participate as 2005 Industry Partners. NAMB's IP program helps the organization bring greater professionalism to the mortgage brokerage industry through education, certification and advocacy programs. (Read More)

NovaStar Earnings Rise Sharply

Investors reacted positively to news from NovaStar Financial Inc. here that its estimated taxable income for 2004 available to common shareholders was $250.5 million, or approximately $9.04 per share. (Read More)

InterFirst, Genworth Get Backing

The National Bankers Association, a trade group for minority- and women-owned banks, has recommended its members use products and services from the Financial Institutions Group of InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending, a division of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc. here. (Read More)

Paragon Signs Up Jacksonville Office

An office in this city that had been operating as a branch here of CFIC Home Mortgage, formerly known as Challenge Mortgage, has joined Paragon Homefunding Inc., Orlando, Fla., a subsidiary of Paragon Financial Corp., Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Read More)

NIM Deal Volume Remains Strong, But Challenges Lie Ahead

Net interest margin deal issuance has remained fairly strong but may be waning somewhat due to issuer conversion into real estate investment trusts and decreasing origination volume, Fitch Ratings has reported. (Read More)

Compliance Good On High-Cost Loans

Based on results of the transaction loan sampling over the past 22 months, Fitch has determined that there has been excellent compliance with Fitch's high-cost loan criteria. Effective immediately, Fitch will no longer require third-party reports for rated transactions at the time of closing for loans originated in New Jersey, New Mexico, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Indiana. (Read More)

Roundup: Mortgage REIT Issues $25 Million in Trust Preferreds

New York Mortgage Trust has closed an offering of $25 million of trust-preferred securities Taberna Preferred Funding, a pooled investment vehicle. (Read More)

Amresco Deal Downgraded

Three subordinate certificates from Amresco Residential Securities Corp. Mortgage Loan Trust series 1997-3 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

CSFB Deal on Review

Two certificates from CS First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. series 1997-1R have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

CSFB Deal Downgraded

Eight classes from four Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. issues of mortgage-backed pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Another Deal on Review

Two subordinated tranches from Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. series 2002-10 have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

CSFB Deal 'Evolving'

Six classes of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2002-TFL1, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Freddie Prices Notes

Freddie Mac has priced $1 billion of a new 4.375% syndicated transaction due on March 1, 2010. (Read More)

MESA Deal on Review

Three certificates issued by MESA 2002-1 Global Issuance Co. have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Citi Told to Wait on Mergers

The Federal Reserve Board has directed Citigroup to stop all "significant" acquisitions while the international banking giant addresses serious compliance problems at home and abroad. (Read More)

World Savings Bank Sees Lower Spread

Golden West Financial Corp., parent of World Savings Bank, has released 13-month statistical information that shows the bank's net interest rate spread has been declining. In February, the net interest rate spread was 2.45% on the big adjustable-rate lender's portfolio, down from 2.91% one year earlier. The bank's spread has been steadily declining for the past year in what may be a sign of more competitive market conditions for portfolio lenders. (Read More)

Investors Are Still Hungry to Acquire Apartment Properties

The multifamily sector continues to recover, after some years of flat rent growth and increasing vacancy rates, according to the National Multi Housing Council's January 2005 quarterly survey. (Read More)

Roundup: CRE Action Continues to be Strong

Several commercial mortgage deals have taken place recently. (Read More)

GMAC Unit Provides Financing for MH Parks

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. has formed a division to originate manufactured home community loans. (Read More)

Archstone-Smith Buys Apartments

Archstone-Smith is acquiring a portfolio of 30 multifamily communities from some affiliates of Oakwood Worldwide, Los Angeles, for a total consideration of about $1.4 billion. (Read More)

REIT Forms Venture With Cal. Teachers

First Industrial Realty Trust has formed a joint venture with the California State Teachers' Retirement System to invest up to $950 million in industrial properties nationwide. (Read More)

Hotels Start Bouncing Back

The hotel sector is in comeback mode with both revenue and profits rising, as business travel bounces back from its post-9/11 trough, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Sunset Taps TPS To Finance CRE

Sunset Financial Resources has closed a private placement of $20 million of trust-preferred securities through a newly formed statutory trust, Sunset Financial Statutory Trust I, the company said. (Read More)

Multifamily Transactions

* AvalonBay Communities has formed a multifamily investment fund to which it and eight institutional investors have committed $330 million, and expects to acquire up to about $940 million in multifamily properties through this venture, with the use of additional debt funding. (Read More)

Nationalmortgagenews.com Roundup: HUD Settles 'Sham' Cases

Investigations of "sham" business arrangements in Tulsa, Okla., by the Department of Housing and Urban Development have resulted in two settlements totaling $450,000 for alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. (Read More)

New York Mortgage Trust Sees Record Volume

New York Mortgage Trust, a residential mortgage finance REIT, continues to grow its business, capitalizing on the acquisition of loan production capacity from Guaranty Residential Lending. (Read More)

At a Glance: New York Mortgage Trust Issued an IPO in 2004

Ticker Symbol NTR Total Assets $1.6 billion 2004 Cons. Net Income $4.9 million 2004 EPS $0.28 Source: New York Mortgage Trust Inc. (Read More)

Texas May Allow Reverse Mortgage Lending

The Texas Senate recently passed a joint resolution to amend the Texas Constitution in order to authorize reverse mortgage lines of credit. According to Scott Norman, president of the Texas Association of Reverse Mortgage Lenders here, senior homeowners are one step closer to an equity preserving option currently offered in every other state. (Read More)

Former FHFB Chair Cops a Plea

John Korsmo, a former chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, has agreed to plead guilty to making false statements to a U.S. Senate committee and an agency inspector general who was investigating his role in a congressional fund-raiser held three years ago. (Read More)

First Republic Sells Preferred Securities

First Republic Bank here has agreed to sell $50 million of depositary shares representing interests in its 6.25% Non-cumulative Perpetual Series B Preferred Shares, subject to regulatory approval. The bank expected to complete this offering on or about March 18. (Read More)

Rising Rates a Threat to REITs

Rising interest rates could cause a lot more volatility in the mortgage Real Estate Investment Trust segment, Martin J. Cicco, managing director, Merrill Lynch & Co., believes. (Read More)

People

ALABAMA Birmingham-AmSouth Bank has named two former SouthTrust executives - Larry Hamilton and Wade King - to lead its Mortgage Banking Division. (Read More)

Former Fannie Honcho Buys Thrift

A group headed by former Fannie Mae executive Stuart McFarland is buying a small Indiana thrift headed by Chuck Chamness, a former Federal Housing Finance Board official. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Holdings/Purchases 2004-2005

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 3) Year/ Mort. Port Portfolio Month Holdings Growth Rate Jan. '04 $886,665 -14.60% Feb $882,108 -6.00% Mar $880,911 -1.60% Apr $880,481 -0.60% May $878,386 -2.80% June $891,210 19.00% July $892,724 2.10% Aug $895,428 3.70% Sept $904,766 12.90% Oct $913,246 12.20% Nov $912,608 -0.80% Dec $904,555 -10.10% Total '04 na 0.70% Jan. '05 $890,834 -16.80% Feb $875,245 -19.10% YTD $875,245 -18.00% (part 2 of 3) Total Year/ Multi- MBS Portfolio Month Family(1) Purchases Purchases (2) Jan. '04 $577 $268 $8,573 Feb $337 $181 $12,170 Mar $854 $6,507 $20,260 Apr $1,451 $10,198 $27,448 May $1,226 $10,670 $26,686 June $2,389 $13,330 $37,164 July $950 $5,676 $21,618 Aug $1,040 $4,676 $21,787 Sept $3,468 $5,074 $27,661 Oct $4,034 $3,665 $27,142 Nov $2,486 $2,717 $19,121 Dec $2,036 $1,642 $13,016 Total '04 $12,292 $56,580 $203,367 Jan. '05 $3,312 $451 $11,095 Feb $2,452 $538 $9,446 YTD $5,764 $989 $20,541 (part 3 of 3) Year/ MBS MBS Accq'd Total Pur./ Month Issued(3) by Others Bus. Vol.(4) Jan. '04 $44,794 $44,527 $53,100 Feb $38,804 $38,624 $50,794 Mar $45,365 $38,858 $59,118 Apr $56,541 $46,344 $73,792 May $58,559 $47,889 $74,575 June $53,692 $40,362 $77,526 July $39,636 $33,960 $55,578 Aug $34,961 $30,285 $52,072 Sept $40,870 $35,796 $63,457 Oct $38,289 $34,623 $61,766 Nov $36,259 $33,542 $52,662 Dec $39,375 $37,732 $50,748 Total '04 $413,222 $356,645 $560,012 Jan. '05 $37,457 $37,006 $48,101 Feb $31,259 $30,721 $40,167 YTD $68,716 $67,727 $88,268 Notes: (1) Multifamily volume listed above represents portfolio purchases only. (Read More)

Georgia May Revise High-Cost Definition

The Georgia Legislature is considering a new law that would create categories for home loans and high-cost home loans. According to the Washington law firm Lotstein Buckman LLP, the Georgia Predatory Lending Act would set limitations on loan terms and lending practices for both types of loans. (Read More)

GE Selling More Stock In Its Insurance Spinoff

GE has priced a secondary offering of stock in Genworth Financial, the spinoff that includes GE's mortgage insurance business. (Read More)

Flagstar Considering a Spinoff

Flagstar Bancorp here, a top 20 ranked residential lender, is toying with the idea of spinning off its mortgage business into a publicly traded REIT. (Read More)

Ameriquest Hearing Delayed in CT

The state banking commissioner has approved Ameriquest Mortgage's request for a continuance in a hearing that will determine whether the subprime lender should be allowed to fund loans here. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 210.5 Change: -7.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/24/05 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 8.05 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 79.11 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 16.00 27.91 16.43 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND 24.71 50.75 35.20 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 44.50 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 66.59 34.79 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.27 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 16.98 16.98 16.98 Transnational Finl Network I 0.51 1.45 0.63 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -10% 293% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -2% 13% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -9% 3% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND -2% 42% na New Century (NEW) -4% 16% na Novastar (NFI) -6% 21% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 0% 11% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 0% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I 0% 24% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 162.0 Change: -3.5 (part 1 of 2) Company 3/17/2005 3/24/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Freddie Earnings Fell to $2.8 Billion in '04

Freddie Mac's 2004 net income fell 41% from 2003 to $2.8 billion, reflecting a decline in the value of derivative instruments, company executives said in a conference call with investors and analysts. (Read More)

Fiserv Purchases Del Mar

In an aggressive move to more closely target the small- to medium-size lender segment, Fiserv has acquired Del Mar Database here. (Read More)

'Bright Line' Concern Seen

Opposition to a "bright line" test in a Senate GSE bill appears to be growing among small and midsize mortgage lenders because of fears it could cut off their access to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's automated underwriting systems. (Read More)

GNMA Issuers (annual issuance volume)

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk GNMA Issuer Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Des Moines, IA 2 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 3 Countrywide/LandSafe Servicing Calabasas, CA 4 National City Mortgage Co. Miamisburg, OH 5 Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. Columbus, OH 6 GMAC Mortgage Corp. Elkins Park, PA 7 CitiMortgage St. Louis, MO 8 U.S. Bank/Firstar Bank Dallas, TX 9 Principal Residential Mortgage Des Moines, IA 10 Irwin Mortgage Indianapolis, IN 11 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX 12 SunTrust Mortgage Richmond, VA 13 Union Federal Savings Bank of Indianapolis Fort Wayne, IN 14 Mortgage Investors Corp. St. Petersburg, FL 15 Wachovia Raleigh, NC 16 Bishops Gate Residential Mortgage Wilmington, DE 17 GMAC Commercial Mortgage Elkins Park, PA 18 Reilly Mortgage Group, Inc. McLean, VA 19 Union Planters National Bank Memphis, TN 20 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Ocala, FL (part 2 of 2) 2004 2003 Rk Volume Volume Change 1 $33,537 $49,028 -32% 2 $10,855 $28,315 -62% 3 $10,829 $22,802 -53% 4 $10,113 $13,090 -23% 5 $9,751 $19,155 -49% 6 $4,772 $5,713 -16% 7 $4,540 $6,806 -33% 8 $3,400 $4,585 -26% 9 $3,394 $10,991 -69% 10 $3,342 $4,627 -28% 11 $2,486 $5,639 -56% 12 $2,222 $3,460 -36% 13 $1,520 $2,644 -43% 14 $1,341 $1,108 21% 15 $1,045 $1,884 -45% 16 $909 $1,696 -46% 17 $892 $858 4% 18 $887 $918 -3% 19 $758 $1,321 -43% 20 $716 $165 334% Top 20 Totals: $107,309 $184,805 -41.9% Top 50 Totals: $118,490 $205,915 -42.5% Notes: GNMA securities consist of FHA and VA insured residential loans. (Read More)

Centralizing Loan Control

Dorado Corp. chose an exclusive opening-day dinner at the 2005 Mortgage Bankers Association technology conference to unveil its new Enterprise Lending System, which offers centralized viewing and control for any loan in all channels through a single point-of-sale. The ELS on-demand POS capabilities are scheduled to launch in Q2 2005. (Read More)

Merrill Lynch Adds Six to Correspondent Lending Group Sales

Merrill Lynch Credit Corp., New York, has expanded the Merrill Lynch Correspondent Group here with the hiring of six industry veterans to handle sales. (Read More)

NovaStar Entering Warehouse Business

NovaStar Financial Inc. here is entering the warehouse lending business, as it sees a need in the marketplace for warehouse credit for subprime originators while at the same time it's creating a tie that will boost its own third-party origination business. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Updates Condominium Guidelines

Fannie Mae said that the update of its condominium guidelines, designed to speed up and facilitate project approval for lenders serving homebuyers purchasing condos including first-time homebuyers seeking affordable financing, will take place in the second quarter of 2005. (Read More)

Freddie Adding Reference REMIC

Freddie Mac is launching a new REMIC program that features innovations such as a guaranteed maturity to minimize extension risk in a rising rate environment and electronic trading capability to reduce the disparity between bid and offer prices. (Read More)

U.S. Office's Objection to ABFS Restructuring Officer Withdrawn

The Office of the United States Trustee has withdrawn its objection for American Business Financial Services Inc. here to retain David Coles of restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal LLC as the chief restructuring officer of the bankrupt mortgage lender. (Read More)

The Reverse Course

As the baby boomer cohort starts to retire in ever-escalating waves, there is no way the reverse mortgage is not going to become a popular financing. (Read More)

Empowering Communities

Excerpts of Mr. Greenspan's remarks at the recent 2005 National Community Reinvestment Coalition Conference in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Decline in Treasury Yield May Signal Ease in Inflation Concerns

The market's perception of inflationary pressures appeared to shift downward slightly at press time last Thursday morning, based on the long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield's fall to about 4.50% from approximately 4.60% the previous week. (Read More)

Modification of 5/1 Regs Puts FHA 'in the Game'

Federal Housing Administration lenders have a chance to become real players in the hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage market now that HUD has finally modified its 5/1 hybrid regulation. (Read More)

At a Glance: Fannie Mae's Price Target

High $100 Low $63 Median $78 Source: Thomson/First Call. Compiled by Yahoo! Finance. (Read More)

FNM: Rebound After Tough Mon.

Last Monday looked to be an ominous day for Fannie Mae's stock. (Read More)

Fannie Releases Series of New and Revised Appraisal Forms

Fannie Mae has issued a series of 11 new or revised appraisal and appraisal review forms. These forms were initially unveiled last November as part of a test period and subject to a comment period that ended on Dec. 15. (Read More)

Home Coverage Addresses ID Theft

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. here will provide identity theft restoration services as part of Prestige Home Premier with Added Measure homeowners insurance coverage. There is no additional cost and no deductible associated with the program. (Read More)

Crescent and MRG Use Tech to Create New ARM

Crescent Mortgage here and MRG Document Technologies, Dallas, have come together to provide customized loan closing documents for closed-end, second-lien, adjustable-rate mortgages. (Read More)

ALTA: Last Year Was 2nd Best

The title insurance business is extremely dependent upon the mortgage originations market in terms of how successful financially it is for a given year. (Read More)

Lightbody Leaves Morgan Stanley

Co-head of correspondent conduit sales at Morgan Stanley, Randy Lightbody, has left the Wall Street firm, according to an e-mail message from an address that his voicemail at the company referred callers to. (Read More)

SL Green to Buy One Mad. Ave.

SL Green Realty Corp. is acquiring One Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan for $918 million from Metropolitan Life Insurance. (Read More)

Dividends: Hanover Affirms Policy

Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings has affirmed its dividend policy with respect to common stock for 2005. (Read More)

Redwood Raises Dividend

Redwood Trust, a real estate investment trust, has raised its common stock dividend from $0.67 per share to $0.70 per share. The dividend is payable April 21 to shareholders of record on March 31. (Read More)

Farm Debt Exceeds $200 Billion

Last year, agricultural debt outstanding surpassed $200 billion, with banks accounting for 40% of the total. (Read More)

'E.T., Get Loan,' Company Says

According to economists, new Americans are supposed to be the drivers of new loan production for the rest of this decade. However, there is one mortgage company looking to reward someone for helping it originate the first-ever loan to a different type of new American. (Read More)

Executive Urges Reform of National Flood Insurance Program

Dan Freudenthal, president of Flood Zone Correction here, is calling for changes to the National Flood Insurance Program. (Read More)

Interface Helps CUNA Service Loans

A custom interface developed by Loan Protector Insurance Services here, an outsource provider of insurance tracking and verification programs, with the Fidelity Mortgage Servicing Package is helping CUNA Mutual Mortgage Corp. more effectively service its loan portfolio. (Read More)

LSB Earnings Rose Due to Measures that Offset Dwindling Refis

LSB Financial Corp., the parent company of Lafayette Savings Bank, reported net income for the year ended Dec. 31, 2004 of $3.3 million, up $315,000, or 10.7% over net income, for 2003. (Read More)

New Order Value Rises at Builder

Comstock Homebuilding Companies Inc., which builds and markets a variety of new homes and condos in the Greater Washington, D.C., market, reported its contract value of new orders for the year ended Dec. 31, 2004 was $241 million on 665 new orders, compared to $81.3 million on 258 new orders for the year ended Dec. 31, 2003. (Read More)

An Automation Efficiency Promise Fulfilled?

While many long for the day when technology will put an end to the need for staffing up for a refinance boom and massive firings when the market turns back to purchases, Boeing Employees' Credit Union here has actually achieved this goal today. (Read More)

Hovnanian Buys Builders to Bolster Orlando, Chicago Stakes

Builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. here has acquired the assets of two privately held companies, Cambridge Homes and Town & Country Homes, in order to better position itself in the Orlando, Fla., and Chicago markets. (Read More)

NAR: Vacancies in Main Real Estate Sectors Likely to Decline

Vacancy rates in all the four major commercial property types are likely to decline this year as the commercial real estate market improves, according to the National Association of Realtors. (Read More)

Wells Opening Irvine, CA Office

Wells Fargo is opening a commercial mortgage finance office here, with a view to expanding its commercial real estate lending and investment business in Southern California. (Read More)

DelliBovi Sounds Warning on Securitization

Legislative efforts to get the Federal Home Loan Banks involved in mortgage securitization has the potential to "destroy" the FHLBanks, according to a FHLBank president. (Read More)

Roundup: S&P Downgrades Some Manufactured Housing MBS

The ratings on 19 classes in five manufactured housing transactions from four issuers have been lowered by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. (Read More)

Moody's Lowers Some MH Ratings

Three subordinate certificates from two Access Financial manufactured housing securitizations have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Services. (Read More)

COMM DEAL Class downgraded

Class M-PS of COMM 2001-FL4 commercial mortgage pass-through certificates has been downgraded from B3 to Caa1 by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Three MS CMBS class ratings slip

Three classes of Morgan Stanley Capital 1 Inc. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-FNV1, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Fitch Lowers CWMBS Class Rating

Class B3 of CWMBS (Countrywide Home Loans Inc.) mortgage pass-through certificates series 2001-3 (Alt 2001-2) has been downgraded from B to CCC by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

AmeriDream Founds Group for Homeowners

AmeriDream Inc. said the foundation of the Association for Homeowners Across America, a "first-of-its-kind nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization," will provide homeowners and homebuyers with a one-stop resource for homeownership-related education, services, exclusive offers and advocacy. (Read More)

Survey Tallies Views on Obstacles

When deciding to buy a house, today's customers face a variety of obstacles both real and perceived. And finding the right affordable house, financial security, the ability to save for a downpayment and financial education appear to be the leading obstacles in attaining homeownership, at least for the 1,000 GMAC Mortgage customers nationwide polled by the bank. (Read More)

Higher Costs for CA Minorities Seen

Mortgage loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers in Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and Fresno cost "more than 2.5 times as much as most other bank customers," according to a California Reinvestment Coalition study. (Read More)

Alabama Gets Housing Funds

To help increase the supply of affordable rental housing in rural Alabama, especially in the Black Belt region, the Alabama Council for Affordable and Rural Housing has secured a $40 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit fund in partnership with Raymond James Tax Credit Funds Inc. and Fannie Mae. (Read More)

UAE Goes USA One Better When It Comes to Real Estate

With the war in Iraq and nuclear issues with Iran, it's easy to think the entire Middle East is in turmoil. But that's far from the case, at least when it comes to real estate. (Read More)

Poste from the Palais: Snapshots from MIPIM

CANNES, France-Real estate has a language all its own. But they speak a different tongue entirely across the pond. (Read More)

Japan Quake Effect On CMBS 'Limited'

The earthquake that recently struck the northern Kyushu region of Japan has had only a limited direct impact on Japanese commercial mortgage-backed security transactions and real estate investment trusts, Moody's Investors Service office here has reported" (Read More)

Linsure Eyes Bulgaria Opportunity

Linsure Holdings Inc. here has made plans to apply for a primary banking license in Bulgaria, a country it said has a growing economy conducive to a business focused on providing homeowner mortgages. (Read More)

French Government Prices 50-Year Bond

France's Treasury here has priced a first-ever 50-year bond offering. (Read More)

Taiwan's 1st REIT makes Debut

The first-ever real estate investment trust in Taiwan is making its debut, according to a recent report by Moody's Investors Service's office here. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Option One Mortgage Corp. has named Fred Grant as Western regional sales manager for bulk acquisitions. (Read More)

Freddie Intent on Growing Portfolio

Freddie Mac is moving ahead with plans to grow its $664.5 billion mortgage portfolio even thought the Bush administration and a key congressman want to limit its growth. (Read More)

Montgomery Tapped For FHA Position?

The Bush administration has discussed with White House staffer Brian Montgomery the post of Federal Housing Administration commissioner, according to sources. However, it appears that Mr. Montgomery, who works in the office of cabinet affairs at the White House, is still mulling the offer and has not made a decision. (Read More)

ABA Farm Debt Over $200 Billion in 2004

Last year, agricultural debt outstanding surpassed $200 billion, with banks accounting for 40% of the total. (Read More)

Accounting Jobs Grow Among FIRE Businesses

A corporate survey of chief financial officers finds that the job market looks bright in the finance, insurance and real estate industry. (Read More)

Appraisal Pressure Issues Raised

The issue of appraisers being pressured by other origination process participants has been brought to the forefront through a section of the proposed Ney-Kanjorski bill after the issue had been boiling under the surface for a number of years. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 216.9 Change: 6.4 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/31/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 8.26 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 79.48 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 16.00 27.91 19.28 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 36.10 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 46.91 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 66.59 36.10 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 7.99 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 16.98 16.98 16.98 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.56 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) 3% 303% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 0% 14% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 17% 21% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 3% 46% na New Century (NEW) 5% 22% na Novastar (NFI) 4% 26% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -3% 7% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 0% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) -11% 10% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Anti-Appraisal Fraud Available

There are some products in the marketplace that their backers say can help to cut down on the instances of appraisal fraud. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 161.6 Change: -0.4 (part 1 of 2) Company 3/24/2005 3/31/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

E-Disclosures Represent Progress

While the days of an investor accepting a SMART Doc and a full electronic closing environment are not quite there yet, electronic disclosures are paving the way. (Read More)

'Limit GSE Mortgage Portfolios'

The Bush administration expects a new GSE regulator to reduce Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios to a level that still provides enough support for their secondary market activities and housing mission. (Read More)

Subprime Retail Vol. Leaders in 2004

(Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Ameriquest Mortgage Corp. (E) Orange, CA 2 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 3 CitiFinancial Baltimore, MD 4 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 5 Household Financial Services Prospect Heights, IL 6 New Century Financial Corp. Irvine, CA 7 Chase Home Finance Woodcliff Lake, NJ 8 H&R Block Mortgage (E) Irvine, CA 9 Centex Home Equity Company Dallas, TX 10 Aegis Mortgage Corporation Houston, TX 11 Aames Financial Corporation Los Angeles, CA 12 First Franklin Financial San Jose, CA 13 Accredited Home Lenders San Diego, CA 14 E-Loan Dublin, CA 15 Delta Funding Corp. Woodbury, NY 16 Equity One, Inc. Marlton, NJ 17 Saxon Mortgage Glen Allen, VA 18 Finance America Corporation Irvine, CA 19 Option One Mortgage Corp. Irvine, CA 20 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. Pasadena, CA (part 2 of 2) Retail Volume Percent Market Rk 2004 2003 Change Share 1 $34,900 $24,449 43% 22.98% 2 $15,742 $13,052 21% 10.37% 3 $12,259 $13,935 -12% 8.07% 4 $12,209 $6,409 90% 8.04% 5 $5,933 $8,677 -32% 3.91% 6 $4,041 $2,758 47% 2.66% 7 $3,520 $3,355 5% 2.32% 8 $2,646 $1,568 69% 1.74% 9 $2,473 $1,757 41% 1.63% 10 $2,449 $2,755 -11% 1.61% 11 $2,422 $1,996 21% 1.59% 12 $1,964 $894 120% 1.29% 13 $1,204 $840 43% 0.79% 14 $1,123 $904 24% 0.74% 15 $1,110 $703 58% 0.73% 16 $1,085 $957 13% 0.71% 17 $965 $763 27% 0.64% 18 $963 $597 61% 0.63% 19 $784 $482 62% 0.52% 20 $678 $545 24% 0.45% Top 20 Totals: $108,470 $87,396 24% 69.24% Submittted Totals: $112,862 $90,065 25% 68.91% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose production breakdowns. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

FHLB Has Big Mismatch

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, at year-end, had a $260 million "unrealized loss" on its balance sheet, according to company records. (Read More)

Falcon Leaving in May

Armando Falcon Jr., the regulator who cracked down on accounting shenanigans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said that he will step down as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight on May 20. (Read More)

Ranieri, Partners Circle GMACCM

Lewis S. Ranieri, the "father" of the mortgage-backed security, and partners that include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs, have been granted exclusive negotiating rights to buy a majority stake in GMAC Commercial Mortgage, industry sources told National Mortgage News last week. (Read More)

GMAC Commercial at a Glance

($ in Millions) PRODUCTION: '04 Quarter Com. Fundings Rank Q4 $7,149 1 Q3 $4,997 1 Q2 $6,622 1 Q1 $3,758 1 Totals $22,526 1 SERVICING: Comm. serv for self & others: $51,468 Comm. subserv for others: $54,449 Comm. master servicing: $141,537 Totals: $247,454 Commercial servicing rank: 1 Notes: GMACCM's ultimate parent is General Motors. (Read More)

ABFS Shutting Down Business

American Business Financial Services Inc. here is closing its doors, its chief restructuring officer said. (Read More)

MI Firms See Drop In Default Volume

For the first time in almost a year, mortgage insurance cures outpaced new defaults in February, a signal that residential credit quality may be improving. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Stuart D. Marvin

Mr. Marvin has been hired by Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., San Diego, as its executive vice president. He will be in charge of finance, capital markets and corporate communications. Most recently, Mr. Marvin was president-corporate operations and chief financial officer of Aegis Mortgage Corp., Houston. He is also a former CFO at CitiFinancial Mortgage, Baltimore. (Read More)

Groups Make Hay of HMDA Data

Consumer advocates are already finding the new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act pricing data useful in pointing out that mortgage lenders are more likely to make high-cost subprime loans to minorities than whites. (Read More)

Freddie Mac to Finally Publish E-Mortgage Specs

Freddie Mac has been criticized for not being a leader in the effort to move the industry toward a complete electronic mortgage. Fannie Mae said last year that they were up and ready to accept e-notes through the MERS eRegistry, but Freddie failed, until now, to specify how it would accept e-notes and an eventual e-mortgage. (Read More)

Commercial Federal Sells Servicing, TPO

Commercial Federal Corp. here has agreed to sell $10 billion in servicing rights and its correspondent lending division to Wells Fargo Bank for an undisclosed sum. (Read More)

Crawl, Walk, Run

The adoption of the e-mortgage will look something like the adoption of electronic ticketing for airline flights. Think it up, roll it out, then offer incentives for using it. (Read More)

Low Docs, No Docs and IO Loans

Ms. Williams recently addressed the BAI National Loan Review Conference in New Orleans. Excerpts of her remarks are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Eyeing Rates, Prepayments and Loan Product Diversification

The average 30-year mortgage rate as tracked by Freddie Mac was back below 6% and the rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield at press time last Thursday morning was about back where it was before hints of inflationary concern seen in the Fed's last rate hike statement boosted it higher. (Read More)

RESPA Enforcement 'Misguided'?

With more than 60 investigations into alleged illegal kickbacks in the works, assistant secretary John Weicher of the Department of Housing and Urban Development said last week that enforcement of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act will continue to be a "high priority." (Read More)

March Prepay Surge Called a Warning

Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities rose sharply in March, sending "a warning shot to mortgage investors," according to Bear Stearns & Co. (Read More)

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments

(For March Period) Cpn Year WAC Fctr Mar '05 Feb '05 Fannie Mae 6.00 2004 6.43 .836 30.8 22.4 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.48 .516 35.1 27.7 Fannie Mae 6.00 2002 6.50 .293 32.9 24.5 Fannie Mae 6.00 2001 6.57 .190 31.9 24.5 Fannie Mae 6.00 1999 6.62 .150 29.5 22.2 Fannie Mae 6.00 1998 6.63 .127 30.1 21.3 Fannie Mae 6.00 1993 6.67 .127 22.8 20.0 Source: Bear Stearns Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Fleetwood Looking to Exit MH Sales and Financing

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. here, a producer of manufactured homes and recreational vehicles, is selling its manufactured housing financial services business, HomeOne Credit Corp. It is also looking to exit the retail manufactured home sales business. (Read More)

Study: APR Lower On Brokers' Loans

In a paper presented at a Federal Reserve Bank conference, Gregory Elliehausen of the Georgetown University Credit Research Center said consumers pay a lower annual percentage rate on average when using a mortgage broker instead of a mortgage lender. (Read More)

First American Buys LoanPerformance

Financial services data giant First American Corp. here has agreed to buy LoanPerformance for an undisclosed amount. (Read More)

Capital Still Flowing for CRE

As investors continued to zero in on real estate opportunities, record levels of capital flowed into the commercial and multifamily mortgage markets for 2004. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Daryl J. Carter

CharterMac said that Mr. Carter has been named chief executive officer of CharterMac Mortgage Capital Co., New York, the commercial mortgage banking subsidiary of CharterMac. Mr. Carter joined CharterMac Mortgage Capital from Capri Capital. While at Capri, he served as CEO of the company's mortgage banking business, Capri Capital Finance, based in Irvine, Calif. (Read More)

MetLife Sells Manhattan Office for $1.7B

MetLife is selling its 200 Park Ave. property in Midtown Manhattan, also known as the MetLife Building, to Tishman Speyer for $1.72 billion. (Read More)

Fannie Helps Recruit Hispanic Mortgage Bankers

Fannie Mae is collaborating with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and the Hispanic College Fund to jump-start the "American Dream Team" program created to help place 50 minority college students in summer internships at mortgage lending companies, which is part of a long-term effort to increase the number of Hispanic and African-American mortgage professionals who serve their community. (Read More)

Group Takes Aim At 'Steering' Issue

The National Fair Housing Alliance is focusing its attention on mortgage lenders to see if they are steering women and minorities into high-cost subprime and Federal Housing Administration mortgages. (Read More)

NRC Develops Software For Second Lien Loans

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. and its secondary market arm have developed an automated underwriting system so that community-based NeighborWorks organizations can originate second mortgages and sell them to Fannie Mae. (Read More)

Citibank Unit Apologizes for Trizec Remarks

Citigroup Global Markets has apologized for some comments made by one of its analysts about Trizec Properties management and reached a settlement with the real estate investment trust on a related defamation action started by Peter Munk of Trizec Properties, the real estate investment trust reports. (Read More)

GMAC-RFC Champions Agile Development Strategy

To avoid imitating notorious mortgage technology project debacles, mortgage executives and technologists may want to adopt Agile development methodologies, as GMAC-RFC has done. That was the message GMAC-RFC's e-commerce director Kyle Korzenowski and executive information officer Tor Stenstad delivered in a session of the recent MBA technology conference held here. (Read More)

CA Developer Sees Higher Net

California Coastal Communities Inc., a residential homebuilder and land developer here, reported net income of $3 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2004. (Read More)

Home Builder Says Backlog Is Growing

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. here reported net income of $81.5 million for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared to $57.7 million for the same period the prior year. (Read More)

Steel Mountain to Buy Performing and Nonperforming Mortgages

Four veteran mortgage acquisition specialists have teamed up to create Steel Mountain Capital, a firm that will purchase performing and nonperforming mortgage loans and other assets. (Read More)

Prieston Named NHEMA's Fraud Spokesman

Arthur Prieston, chairman of The Prieston Group here, will serve as the National Home Equity Mortgage Association's spokesman on issues of mortgage fraud. (Read More)

Making Collateral Analysis Easier

Residential Funding Corp., a market participant active in both the prime and nonprime mortgage business, has introduced enhancements to its website, www.gmacrfc.com/investors. (Read More)

Roundup: FCM's Earnings Rise

Franklin Credit Management Corp., a specialty consumer finance company that buys, originates, services and resolves performing, subperforming and nonperforming residential mortgage loans, reported earnings that were 63% higher in 2004 than in 2003. (Read More)

ECC 4Q '04 Income Up Year-to-Year

ECC Capital Corp., an originator of nonconforming mortgage loans based here, reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2004 of $1.1 million, or $0.03 per share, compared with income of $478,000, or $0.01 per share, for the same period of 2003. (Read More)

Two Origen ABS Classes Downgraded

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded two mezzanine certificates from Origen Manufactured Housing Contract senior/subordinate asset-backed certificates, series 2001-A. (Read More)

Origen Reduces Interest Income

Origen Financial Inc. here, a real estate investment trust that originates manufactured housing loans, said it is reducing its reported interest income and earnings recognized by $1.7 million for the 14-month period ended Dec. 31, 2004. (Read More)

Bear Stearns Buys Stake in a U.K. Subprime Mortgage Firm

The Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. here has acquired an ownership stake in United Kingdom-based Essex & Capital Mortgage Corp. Ltd., subject to approval by the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority. (Read More)

Moody's Roundup: Aames Class Slips

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded one certificate issued in one transaction by Aames Mortgage Trust in 2001. (Read More)

ARM Analysis release date set

The ratings of subprime mortgage securitizations starting in June may see a change due to a pending analysis of mortgage teaser rates/interest rate reset caps, according to Moody's Investors Service here. (Read More)

People

COLORADO Denver-IMA and Bob Dowell, formerly of Phoenix Analytic Services Inc., have joined together to form the new entity Interactive Mortgage Analytics LLC. (Read More)

MPF Originations Drop By 75%

Single-family mortgage originations under the mortgage partnership finance program dropped by almost 75% in 2004 from the previous year, according to the Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank. (Read More)

HUD Reviewing Fannie Foundation

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has clamped down on Fannie Mae's activities and it is conducting a review of the government-sponsored enterprise's affordable housing foundation. (Read More)

New RE Solutions Focusing On Risk

American International Group has formed AIG Real Estate Solutions, a unit that will solely focus on the insurance and risk management needs of the real estate sector, the insurer reports. (Read More)

Revenue Growing For Home Builders

Despite rising interest rates and inflation in home prices, homebuilders who performed well in 2004 are likely to continue to do so in 2005, said Fitch senior director and primary homebuilding analyst Robert Curran. (Read More)

Urban League Wants Gap Closed

The National Urban League is urging Congress and the mortgage industry to help close the homeownership gap between whites and minorities by lowering downpayment requirements, making mortgages more available and affordable to all, and by strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act as a guide to minority lending. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 217.5 Change: 0.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 4/7/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 8.17 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 79.05 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 16.00 27.91 17.96 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 36.60 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 47.60 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 58.04 37.31 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 8.19 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 16.98 16.98 16.98 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.45 0.53 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -1% 299% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) -1% 13% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) -7% 12% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND 1% 48% na New Century (NEW) 1% 24% na Novastar (NFI) 3% 30% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) 3% 10% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 0% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I -5% 4% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

OFHEO Chief Details 'Cherry Picking'

For 21 years ending in 2004 Fannie Mae misclassified mortgages it acquired and then later took losses or gains on the assets, the GSE's chief regulator told Congress last week. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 162.7 Change: 1.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 3/31/2005 4/7/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

FHLB Seattle Is Probing Stock Sale 'Inside Info'

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is investigating whether three of its member institutions had inside information about the condition of the GSE when they requested stock redemptions from the bank last fall. (Read More)

Countrywide Backs RLA

In a move that is seen as a key to passage of national lending standards, one of the country's largest financial institutions has thrown its considerable weight behind the Responsible Lending Act introduced recently by Reps. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. (Read More)

U.S. Mortgage-Backed Securities

(UBS Tops MBS Managers in 1Q) (part 1 of 2) 1/1/05-3/31/05 Proceeds Market # of Managers ($Mil) Share Issues UBS 23,332.2 12.5 27 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 21,806.6 11.6 28 Lehman Brothers 19,179.2 10.2 25 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 17,904.1 9.6 19 Banc of America Securities 16,868.8 9.0 28 Credit Suisse First Boston 16,036.5 8.6 23 Morgan Stanley 11,711.0 6.3 18 Citigroup 10,587.6 5.7 19 Goldman Sachs & Co 10,351.7 5.5 18 Countrywide Securities Corp 6,688.8 3.6 13 Deutsche Bank AG 6,523.2 3.5 11 Nomura 5,412.5 2.9 11 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 5,325.0 2.8 12 Washington Mutual Inc 5,049.4 2.7 5 Barclays Capital 4,131.7 2.2 6 JP Morgan 3,819.9 2.0 5 Wachovia Corp 1,586.0 0.9 2 CIBC World Markets Inc 717.8 0.4 1 Amherst Securities 200.0 0.1 1 General Motors Corp 129.8 0.1 1 Securities, Sales & Trading - - - First Tennessee Bank - - - US Bancorp - - - Edward D Jones & Co - - - Industry Total 187,412.7 100 241 (part 2 of 2) 1/1/04-3/31/04 Proceeds Market # of Managers ($Mil) Share Issues UBS 26,466.9 14.1 34 Bear Stearns & Co Inc 22,840.9 12.2 43 Lehman Brothers 20,613.3 11.0 24 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 11,701.3 6.2 23 Banc of America Securities 16,155.9 8.6 21 Credit Suisse First Boston 10,346.2 5.5 22 Morgan Stanley 14,611.4 7.8 19 Citigroup 16,359.7 8.7 19 Goldman Sachs & Co 10,667.5 5.7 20 Countrywide Securities Corp. 5,190.9 2.8 25 Deutsche Bank AG 7,574.5 4.0 13 Nomura 1,326.6 0.7 6 Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 7,707.9 4.1 12 Washington Mutual Inc 288.0 0.2 5 Barclays Capital - - - JP Morgan 9,718.6 5.2 16 Wachovia Corp 2,264.4 1.2 3 CIBC World Markets Inc - - - Amherst Securities 1,688.7 0.9 6 General Motors Corp - - - Securities, Sales & Trading -1,567.4 0.8 3 First Tennessee Bank 485.9 0.3 2 US Bancorp 85.0 0.1 1 Edward D Jones & Co 3.2 0.0 1 Industry Total 187,664.1 100.0 286 *Full to Book Runner (Equal if Joint) Source: Thomson Financial Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Shelby to Support FHLB MBS?

Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., appears to support the idea of increasing competition in the mortgage-backed securities market by allowing the Federal Home Loan Banks to securitize mortgages. (Read More)

2nd Lien Lenders Ranked by Average Loan Size

(part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Option One Mortgage Corp. (BC) 2 Perl Mortgage 3 People's Bank 4 Cendant/PHH Mortgage 5 Washington Mutual 6 Bank of America 7 No Red Tape Mortgage 8 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA 9 Astoria FS & LA 10 PFF Bank & Trust (part 2 of 2) Avg Ln Size In % Rk 4Q '04 4Q '03 Change 1 $165,314 $37,959 336% 2 $129,825 na na 3 $118,292 na na 4 $102,613 $95,485 7% 5 $99,335 $90,022 10% 6 $99,103 $69,888 42% 7 $98,529 na na 8 $97,090 $43,848 121% 9 $96,183 $88,280 9% 10 $85,973 $68,239 26% Notes: Results may be incomplete because several firms would not disclose second lien information. (BC) Firm is a subprime specialist. (Read More)

Card Giant Buys Nexstar

MBNA Corp. here, the nation's largest credit-card company, has agreed to purchase private-label residential funder, Nexstar Financial, St. Charles, Mo., another sign that card companies see gold in home finance. (Read More)

Doral Falls after Downgrade

The share price of Doral Financial Corp., Puerto Rico's largest mortgage lender, fell by as much as 16% last Thursday after Merrill Lynch downgraded the company to "sell" from "neutral." (Read More)

Bear Stearns Opens Wholesale Unit

In order to round out its mortgage platform, Bear Stearns has started a wholesale division called Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage Corp. and on April 18 plans to roll out a technology interface called BearDirect.net that will provide an online underwriting decision engine for mortgage brokers. (Read More)

Montgomery Slated for FHA Post

President George Bush intends to nominate Brian D. Montgomery to be the next Federal Housing Administration commissioner, according to the White House. (Read More)

Congress Passes Bankruptcy Reform

The House voted 302-126 for final passage of a bankruptcy reform bill that will make it harder for consumers with average incomes to use the Bankruptcy Courts to avoid paying their debts. (Read More)

MBA: 'Bright Line' Will Not Force GSEs to Drop AU Systems

The Mortgage Bankers Association is assuring its members that it will not jeopardize their access to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's automated underwriting systems as it seeks legislation to strengthen regulation of the two government-sponsored enterprises. (Read More)

Freddie to Buy Tainted Pools

Freddie Mac said it will buy back, at market prices, any of 48 mortgage pools totaling $178 million that contain loans where "unacceptable refinance" practices occurred involving a loan broker doing business with one of its seller/servicers. (Read More)

Nice Job

We'd like to take a moment and tip the hat to a couple of men about to leave public service after a job well done: Armando Falcon, who has headed the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and done a hard job well and fairly, and Michael Liu, the capable Department of Housing and Urban Development assistant secretary for Public and Indian Housing. (Read More)

Examining Fannie Mae

Mr. Falcon recently testified before a House Financial Services Subcommittee on OFHEO's supplemental agreement with Fannie Mae. His statement is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Bond Yield Decline Muting Pressure on Volumes, Home Values?

The rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield - which had been flagging from time-to-time - had definitively dropped at press time last Thursday, possibly muting market pressures on originations and home values. (Read More)

MBS Issuance Is Flat, But ABS Market Booms 20%

The volume of mortgage-backed security deals in the first quarter was little changed from the nearly $188 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2004, according to Thomson Financial, but asset-backed volumes increased. (Read More)

ICNB's Income Up 40% From One Year Earlier

ICNB Financial Corp., the holding company for Ionia County National Bank and Austin Mortgage Co., posted a 44% jump in first-quarter net income for 2005. (Read More)

Midland Title Takes First American Name

First American Title Insurance Co. here has rebranded The Midland Title Group of Companies, headquartered in Cleveland, to the FATIC name. (Read More)

At a Glance: Countrywide's Stock

Symbol CFC 4/11 Opening Price $32.85 52-Week Range $27.20-39.93 Target $50.00 Source: Raymond James & Associates Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Countrywide Still A 'Growth' Stock

Industrywide, home loan origination volume may be tapering off. But at least one analyst says that the nation's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial Corp., still has the ability to be a growth stock in this cyclical business. (Read More)

First American Does One-Rate

First American Title Insurance Co. here has created "First American One Rate," a new program specifically for California mortgage refinance transactions. (Read More)

IndyMac's Production Still Rising

Mortgage production volume at IndyMac Bancorp Inc. rose 68% to a new record of $11.6 billion last month from the first quarter of 2004, according to the company. (Read More)

Capital Alliance Sees Higher Net

Capital Alliance Income Trust Ltd. here had fourth-quarter net income of $96,214, or $0.02 per share, compared with net income of $200,745, or $0.24 per share, for the same period in 2003. (Read More)

Accredited on Nasdaq Financial 100

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (Nasdaq: LEND), a nonprime mortgage lender based here, has been added to the Nasdaq Financial 100 index. (Read More)

Detroit Home Values 10th Most Likely to Fall

The value of Detroit homes could drop over the next two years. In fact, the bad news is the Motor City took the No. 10 spot on the PMI Mortgage Insurance 2005 winter risk index. (Read More)

PMI Risk Index by MSA

MSA Index Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 533 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 530 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 479 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 433 Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA 397 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA 369 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 363 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 359 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 316 Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI 274 Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Lenders Seek Bankruptcy Relief

The new bankruptcy legislation President Bush is slated to sign could aid lenders in their efforts to collect from nonpaying and slow-paying customers, and Metro Detroit lenders need the help more than most areas of the country. The area's unusually high unemployment rate (7%) has caused an avalanche of foreclosures and a higher-than-the-sky pile of bankruptcy filings. (Read More)

Alt-A Market May Buck Trend toward Lower Volume in '05

While issuance in other sectors of the securitized mortgage may wane in 2005, the growth in the alternative-A credit sector seen in 2004 is expected to continue to some extent, according to a recently released report from rating agency Standard & Poor's here. (Read More)

Despite Rough First Quarter, Analysts Tout REITs for Long Term

The first quarter of 2005 has been rough on real estate investment trusts (the sector turned in a negative 7.6% return for this period on the NAREIT composite index) and David Fick, managing director, real estate securities research, Legg Mason, is not expecting 2005 overall to be "all that robust" for the sector. (Read More)

Home Builder Sees Weak Markets, Price Competition

Beazer Homes and its board of directors have concluded that substantially all of the goodwill allocated to underperforming operations in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Charlotte, N.C., is likely to be impaired due to weak local economies and severe price competition at entry-level price points. (Read More)

LandAmerica CEO Defends Captive Reinsurance

The president and chief executive of LandAmerica Financial Group, Richmond, Va., took the offensive at California insurance commissioner John Garamendi's hearing on title insurers captive title reinsurance arrangements held here. (Read More)

Cross Street Turns to Real Estate

Cross Street Distribution, a firm whose stock trades over the counter, has merged with Global Real Estate Equity in a deal slated to close by May 30. (Read More)

At a Glance: GSE Price Targets With and Without Cap

Without portfolio cap $70 to $75 With $200 billion cap $60 to $65 Source: Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. (Read More)

Analyst: Stocks Still Look Good

A bill introduced last week that would tighten regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not restrain portfolio growth. And even if portfolio growth restrictions are put in place - as proposed by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan - the fair value of the companies' share prices would significantly exceed current levels, according to a report last week by Jonathan Gray of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., a subsidiary of Alliance Capital Management. (Read More)

Mobile Home Deal Gets Downgrade

The rating on class B-1 of Manufactured Housing Contract Sr/Sub Pass-Thru Trust 1999-2 has been lowered from CC to D by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. (Read More)

Moody's Lowers GMAC Debt Rating

Moody's Investors Service here has downgraded the long-term ratings of parent General Motors Acceptance Corp. to Baa2 from Baa1. The outlook is negative. Moody's affirmed GMAC's short-term rating at Prime-2. (Read More)

RBC Centura's Grade Lowered

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the bank financial strength rating of RBC Centura Bank to C- from C. (Read More)

Lenders Dispute Evidence that Minorities Pay More for Home Loans

Some of the country's largest lenders contest a California Reinvestment Coalition study finding that mortgage loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers in Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego and Fresno cost "more than 2.5 times as much as most other bank customers." (Read More)

Freddie and Churches Help Bay Area Buyers

To help boost homeownership in the San Francisco Bay Area, Freddie Mac joined the city of Oakland in establishing a cross-denominational faith-based alliance with local minority churches in an area where homeownership rates within the minority community are low, at 48%, compared to 63% for non-minorities. (Read More)

Tech Leaders: User Voice Does Matter

One of the key factors in determining a technology leader is taking a hard look at its client list because if it doesn't have clients, its financial future is uncertain. So the voice of the user is important in determining which vendors are cutting edge and which are merely vaporware. (Read More)

Inside

What Makes an LOS Leader? 28 LOS vendors speak out about what they feel gives them a competitive edge over other players. (Read More)

What Characteristics Make a LOS Leader?

At present, 25% of lenders are said to be in the market for a loan origination software system, according to NMN's sister publication Mortgage Technology. In this very competitive space, how then do LOS solutions differentiate themselves? (Read More)

Custom Docs Hamper LOS Implementations

Obsolete docs can hamper and delay the implementation of a new loan origination system, attendees of the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual technology conference in Orlando, Fla., heard. (Read More)

Tech's Leading Role in Warehouse Lending

Technology has moved into a leading role when it comes to mortgage market participants' business relationships with warehouse line providers, according to Bill Beschel and Elsa Martinez, who are principals at a consulting company headquartered in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. (Read More)

Users Automate Title and Escrow to Get Edge

In a market with interest rates on the rise and volume expected to recede this year, lenders are looking for that competitive edge. For one, Simi Valley, Calif.-based Lenders First Choice believes it can help with its automated solution that targets the title and escrow part of the mortgage cycle. (Read More)

True Business-Centric Tech Vendors Do Exist

Many implementations fail because the technology chosen is either an out-of-the-box solution that requires the user to change the way they do business based on how the technology operates or the technology is so toolkit-oriented that so much customization is required to get the application up and ready. Nonetheless, there is a solution: find technology that is business-centric. (Read More)

Mortgage Builder Adds New Functionality to LOS System

Mortgage Builder Software Inc. has upgraded its loan origination software offering to include more interfaces, tracking features and imaging functionality to meet the needs of the current competitive LOS market. (Read More)

Guardian Set to Offer Lenders Spanish Docs

Technology vendors like Lakewood, Colo.-based Guardian Mortgage Documents and its subsidiary Guardian Mortgage Services are tapping the emerging markets that lenders are now aggressively moving into by offering documents in Spanish and an array of automated outsourcing opportunities. (Read More)

Partnership Paves the Way for SMART Doc Acceptance

WellFound Decade and PaperClip Software have partnered to provide what the companies are calling the industry's first solution for simultaneous loan data and document delivery. The technology is expected to be one step toward SMART Doc acceptance. (Read More)

LSI to Do Appraiser Checks

LSI has formed LSI APPTrack, a fee panel management solution. This new program will enable lenders to outsource the management and maintenance of independent fee appraisers, including ongoing monitoring of compliance adherence and performance information about each appraiser within their appraisal networks. (Read More)

SF Introduces New HELOC Website

Secured Funding, a full-service retail and wholesale lender specializing in second mortgages, has released SelectQual, a home-equity website, to further educate brokers and deliver pre-qualification results on loan applications. (Read More)

Largest Residential Servicers And Their Bureaus

($ in Millions) Servicer Serv. at Serv. Mkt Serv. Bureau/ Name 12/31/2004 Share Software Used Countrywide $838,322 10.94% Inhouse system Wells Fargo $782,378 10.21% Fidelity Washington Mutual $727,571 9.49% Fidelity Chase Home $562,708 7.34% Fidelity; London Bridge CitiMortgage $364,268 4.75% Fiserv Bank of America $332,467 4.34% Fidelity GMAC Mortgage $231,766 3.02% Fiserv ABN Amro $201,154 2.62% Fidelity National City $165,060 2.15% Fidelity PHH Mortgage $145,716 1.90% Fidelity Notes: Servicing rights represent receivables on mortgages backed by residential housing. Fidelity is owned by Fidelity National Financial, Jacksonville, Fla. Fiserv Inc. is based in Brookfield, Wis. (Read More)

AnchorBank Uses Fiserv to Grow

AnchorBank here has implemented a thin-client version of Fiserv's easyLENDER Mortgage and easyLENDER Consumer/Commercial loan origination software systems in an effort to expand its operation. (Read More)

FHLB Taps HanoverTrade System

HanoverTrade, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings here, has won a contract to provide technology to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. (Read More)

DSI Offers E-SIGN Compliant E-Disclosures

Carson, Calif.-based Document Systems Inc., a leading developer of mortgage technology for compliant loan document preparation and customer contact management, has released DocMagic eDisclosure, a new service that will allow any lender to deliver upfront loan disclosures to borrowers electronically. (Read More)

National Tax Search Improves Tax Management System

National Tax Search, a provider of property tax management services, has formed a sister company, National Tax Technologies, to develop and manage new software initiatives. (Read More)

People

ALABAMA Birmingham-Collateral Mortgage Capital LLC has promoted Milwaukee-based James M. Cope to executive managing director. (Read More)

District Banks May Miss Opportunity

The Federal Home Loan Bank System and its members will be missing an "incredible opportunity," according to one FHLBank president, if Congress passes a GSE regulatory reform bill that does not allow the banks to securitize mortgages. (Read More)

In Unexpected Move, FBR Chief Will Retire

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, a major player in the mortgage REIT market, said its founder and chief executive Emanuel J. Friedman will retire in June. (Read More)

CA Court Rules Against Radian's Alternative to Title

In an anti-climactic gesture, a California State Appellate Court here has upheld a ruling by the state's insurance commissioner that the Radian Lien Protection product is title insurance. (Read More)

Clayton, Murrayhill to Combine

Clayton Services and the Murrayhill Co. have united under a newly formed holding company, Clayton Holdings, to combine their front-end and back-end mortgage analytic businesses. (Read More)

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

B&C Stock Price Index: 209.7 Change: -7.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 4/14/05 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 8.02 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0.41 5.75 0.65 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 6.00 11.20 9.03 HSBC Holding (HBC) 69.85 88.37 79.35 IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) 15.60 27.91 17.02 Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) 24.71 50.75 35.01 New Century (NEW) 38.50 66.95 42.87 Novastar (NFI) 28.75 58.04 35.21 Ocwen (OCN)(2) 7.46 12.60 7.97 Saxon Capital (SAXN) 16.98 16.98 16.98 Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 0.51 1.16 0.58 (part 2 of 2) Company Wkly. % Chg. P/E % Chg. From Ratio Aames (AIC) -2% 291% na American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) 0% 59% na Delta Financial Corp (DFC) 0% 51% na HSBC Holding (HBC) 0% 14% na IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) (1) -5% 9% na Accredited Home Lenders (LEND) -4% 42% na New Century (NEW) -10% 11% na Novastar (NFI) -6% 22% na Ocwen (OCN)(2) -3% 7% na Saxon Capital (SAXN) 0% 0% na Transnational Finl Network I (TFN) 9% 14% na Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 158.7 Change: -4.0 (part 1 of 2) Company 4/7/2005 4/14/2005 Wkly. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Randall L. Raup

Mr. Raup has been appointed president of HSBC Mortgage Corp. (USA) and executive vice president, HSBC Bank USA NA. After 20 years at Household, Mr. Raup joined HSBC Mortgage Corp., New York, as senior vice president and chief financial officer in August 2004. In November 2004, he was named a member of the executive committee responsible for the mortgage corporation's day-to-day operations. (Read More)

HUD Wants GSE Loan Limitations

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is advocating that a new GSE regulator have the authority to set conforming loan limits in different regions to address the issue of high housing costs. (Read More)

Seattle FHLB May Oust Directors

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is weighing whether it should ask two of its member directors to resign as it continues to investigate "inside information" charges regarding FHLB stock sales, industry officials told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

FHLB Seattle Stock Redemptions

Sales of B(1) Stock Sales of B(2) Stock Quarter by Members by Members Q4 2004 1,092,496 2,294,711 Q3 2004 800,343 1,180 Q2 2004 340,311 8,670 Q1 2004 123,196 3,710 Note: These sales represent stock repurchases by the FHLB of Seattle. B(1) stock is "activity" stock and is needed for a member to get advances. B(2) stock is excess stock owned by a member. (Read More)

GSEs Looking To Cherrypick

In their first public testimony regarding GSE reform, the chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac voiced their dislike for a "bright-line test," portfolio limits and public disclosure of their guarantee fees. (Read More)

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Debbie L. Rosen

The National Home Equity Mortgage Association has elected Ms. Rosen as the association's 2005-2006 chairman. Ms. Rosen is managing director, Specialty Lending Group for the Wholesale Lending Division of Countrywide Home Loans. She has more than 20 years of experience in consumer financial services from the branch level to executive management. (Read More)

WaMu Ready to Grow Again?

Washington Mutual dramatically downsized its mortgage banking unit last year as it struggled to reduce costs and contain fallout from integration issues related to its many acquisitions. (Read More)

Charges Don't Derail Wells

Wells Fargo increased its earnings by 5% in the first quarter despite taking $410 million in charges mostly related to its mortgage and consumer loan portfolios. (Read More)

Goals for FHA, RESPA

HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson said he wants the new Federal Housing Administration commissioner to develop a plan to increase the FHA's market share, which has declined dramatically over the past few years to 3.5%. And, he has set a deadline for RESPA reform-next spring. (Read More)

Creditors Hail Enactment of Bankruptcy Law

President George Bush has signed a bill to stop abuses in the bankruptcy system and make it harder for consumers with median incomes to avoid repaying at least a portion of their debts. (Read More)

Top OTS Official Is Stepping Down

Office of Thrift Supervision director James Gilleran said he will be stepping down effective April 29, after leading the agency for nearly four years. (Read More)

National City's Earnings Drop

National City Corp. here has reported earnings of $484 million in the first quarter, or $0.74 per diluted share, down from $710 million, or $1.16 per share, for the first quarter of 2004, as lower mortgage banking income pared the company's earnings. (Read More)

Doral May Have to Restate Value of IO Strips

Doral Financial Corp. may restate its earnings for 2000 through 2004 to decrease the fair value of its portfolio of floating-rate interest-only strips by $400 million to $600 million. (Read More)

Top Lawyer Resigns From Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae's chief legal officer, Thomas E. Donilon, is leaving the troubled mortgage giant to rejoin his former law firm. (Read More)

The Real Estate Boom

According to a new book by the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, if you haven't gotten into the real estate boom yet, now is still a good time to do so, and so is the foreseeable future. (Read More)

QSPEs Distort Fannie's Books

Mr. Falcon recently testified before a House Financial Services Subcommittee on OFHEO's supplemental agreement with Fannie Mae. His statement is presented as our Open Forum. (Second of two parts). (Read More)

Long-Term Rates/Yields Continue Decline, But It May Not Be a Trend

The rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield and the average weekly 30-year fixed mortgage rate - as tracked by Yahoo! Finance and Freddie Mac - both had fallen from the previous week's levels at press time last Thursday by about 0.10%, leaving the latter trading at about 4.25% and the former at 5.80%. (Read More)

Dynatek Links up with Freddie Mac's Online Underwriting System

Dynatek Inc. here has completed a system-to-system plug-in for Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector automated underwriting system within its MORvision offering. (Read More)

American Home Net Up 154%

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. here has reported adjusted net earnings of $54 million, or $1.24 per share, for the fiscal first quarter, up 154.6% from $21.2 million, or $0.70 per share, a year earlier. The adjusted net earnings do not include the effects of the company's previously announced restatement of its 2004 earnings and thus do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles. (Read More)

Analysts Still Keen on Some Mortgage Stocks

The government-sponsored enterprises might be operating under a cloud of regulatory doubt and interest rates may be weighing down multiples for home lenders, but analysts at A.G. Edwards still see a largely positive outlook for mortgage-related stocks. (Read More)

MGIC Earns $182 Million, Up from $130 Million Year Earlier

MGIC Investment Corp. earned $182 million in the first quarter, up from $130.1 million in the first quarter of last year, despite a decline in insurance-in-force. (Read More)

Bank United Sees Higher Net

BankUnited Financial Corp.'s net income increased 13% from a year earlier to $13.6 million in the quarter ending March 31. (Read More)

Early Results are Good

The first big banks to report first-quarter earnings posted solid results, suggesting the industry at large may have enjoyed another strong quarter. (Read More)

125% LTV Loans Burden For City

City Holding Co. here, parent of City National Bank of West Virginia, reported net income of $11.7 million in the first quarter, a 6.2% increase from the year earlier period. (Read More)

Centex Gets High Marks from Zacks

Zacks.com, which compiles and distributes investment research to both institutional and individual investors, recently named the single-family homebuilder, Centex Corp., as one of three companies that meets its PEG ratio profit track. The program provides six different screens to help investors with stock-picking strategy. (Read More)

Freddie Sets Stockholder Meeting Date

The board of directors of Freddie Mac has set July 15 as the date for Freddie Mac's next annual stockholder's meeting. (Read More)

Mortgage Mutuals Results Are Down

Mutual funds invested primarily in adjustable-rate mortgages led the rankings among mortgage mutual funds in a poor first quarter that saw the other two classes of mortgage funds post losses overall, according to data from Lipper Inc., New York. (Read More)

Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Funds

(part 1 of 3) 1 Quarter 12/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny Y 0.60 1 Tr Credit Un:Ult-Sh Govt 0.57 2 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; A 0.54 3 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny A 0.51 4 SB Adj Rate;Salomon A 0.49 5 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; C 0.44 6 AMF:Adj Rate Mortgage 0.42 7 Federated Adj Rt;Inst 0.42 7 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny C 0.40 9 SB Adj Rate;Salomon C 0.39 10 Evergreen Adj Rt;I 0.27 14 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 0.21 15 Evergreen Adj Rt;A 0.20 16 Evergreen Adj Rt;B 0.03 17 Evergreen Adj Rt;C 0.03 17 Average/Total 0.36 18 (part 2 of 3) 1 Year 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny Y 1.61 1 Tr Credit Un:Ult-Sh Govt 1.42 4 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; A 1.42 4 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny A 1.27 7 SB Adj Rate;Salomon A 1.15 9 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; C 1.12 10 AMF:Adj Rate Mortgag 1.55 2 Federated Adj Rt;Inst 1.10 11 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny C 0.80 13 SB Adj Rate;Salomon C 0.66 16 Evergreen Adj Rt;I 1.55 2 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 1.30 6 Evergreen Adj Rt;A 1.25 8 Evergreen Adj Rt;B 0.54 17 Evergreen Adj Rt;C 0.54 17 Average/Total 1.09 18 (part 3 of 3) 5 Years 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny Y N/A N/A Tr Credit Un:Ult-Sh Govt 20.95 3 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; A 20.06 4 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny A 19.45 6 SB Adj Rate;Salomon A N/A N/A Franklin Inv:Adj Gv; C N/A N/A AMF:Adj Rate Mortgage 19.63 5 Federated Adj Rt;Inst 19.23 7 SB Adj Rate;Sm Brny C 16.48 9 SB Adj Rate;Salomon C N/A N/A Evergreen Adj Rt;I 24.25 1 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 22.72 2 Evergreen Adj Rt;A N/A N/A Evergreen Adj Rt;B N/A N/A Evergreen Adj Rt;C N/A N/A Average/Total 19.64 10 Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Ginnie Mae Funds

(part 1 of 3) 1 Quarter 12/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Basic US Mtg Sec 0.65 1 Putnam US Govt Inc;Y 0.23 2 PIMCO:GNMA;Inst 0.19 3 Putnam US Govt Inc;R 0.18 4 Putnam US Govt Inc;M 0.17 5 Putnam US Govt Inc;A 0.17 5 SEI Daily:GNMA;A 0.11 7 Vanguard GNMA;Adm 0.11 7 Dreyfus Prem GNMA;A 0.10 9 Vanguard GNMA;Inv 0.09 10 PIMCO:GNMA;A 0.09 10 PIMCO:GNMA;D 0.09 10 Principal Gvt Sc Inc;A -0.55 61 Victory:Fd for Inc;R -0.56 62 Victory:Fd for Inc;C -0.74 63 Principal Gvt Sc Inc;B -0.75 64 Average/Total -0.12 64 (part 2 of 3) 1 Year 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Basic US Mtg Sec 1.53 39 Putnam US Govt Inc;Y 2.28 15 PIMCO:GNMA;Inst 2.72 1 Putnam US Govt Inc;R 1.80 29 Putnam US Govt Inc;M 1.80 29 Putnam US Govt Inc;A 2.00 23 SEI Daily:GNMA;A 2.06 21 Vanguard GNMA;Adm 2.67 2 Dreyfus Prem GNMA;A 1.35 41 Vanguard GNMA;Inv 2.60 3 PIMCO:GNMA;A 2.31 13 PIMCO:GNMA;D 2.31 13 Principal Gvt Sc Inc;A 0.85 51 Victory:Fd for Inc;R 0.34 59 Victory:Fd for Inc;C -0.18 64 Principal Gvt Sc Inc;B -0.01 61 Average/Total 1.57 64 (part 3 of 3) 5 Years 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Basic US Mtg Sec 37.03 8 Putnam US Govt Inc;Y 33.04 22 PIMCO:GNMA;Inst 42.33 1 Putnam US Govt Inc;R N/A N/A Putnam US Govt Inc;M 29.80 36 Putnam US Govt Inc;A 31.31 30 SEI Daily:GNMA;A 34.35 15 Vanguard GNMA;Adm N/A N/A Dreyfus Prem GNMA;A 31.13 31 Vanguard GNMA;Inv 37.70 6 PIMCO:GNMA;A N/A N/A PIMCO:GNMA;D N/A N/A Principal Gvt Sc Inc;A 30.80 33 Victory:Fd for Inc;R 28.66 38 Victory:Fd for Inc;C N/A N/A Principal Gvt Sc Inc;B 25.77 46 Average/Total 32.76 46 Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

U.S. Mortgage Funds

(part 1 of 3) 1 Quarter 12/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Mortgage Shrs 1.34 1 TCW Galileo:Sh Trm Bd; 0.25 2 Goldman:US Mtge;Ins -0.02 3 Target:Mtge Backed Secs -0.02 3 Tr Credit Un:Sh Dur -0.03 5 Van Kampen US Mtge;A -0.03 5 PIMCO:Tot Rtn Mtg;Inst -0.05 7 Sm Barney:US Govt;Y -0.05 7 Franklin Strat Mtge -0.09 9 Marshall:Govt Inc;Inv -0.09 9 AmSouth:Govt Income;B -0.92 82 Huntington:Mtge;Tr -1.20 83 Huntington:Mtge;Inv A -1.37 84 Huntington:Mtge;Inv B -1.38 85 Average/Total -0.35 85 (part 2 of 3) 1 Year 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Mortgage Shrs 5.03 1 TCW Galileo:Sh Trm Bd; 1.15 57 Goldman:US Mtge;Ins 2.74 4 Target:Mtge Backed Secs 1.82 31 Tr Credit Un:Sh Dur 0.98 64 Van Kampen US Mtge;A 2.54 7 PIMCO:Tot Rtn Mtg;Inst 3.06 2 Sm Barney:US Govt;Y 2.02 22 Franklin Strat Mtge 2.51 9 Marshall:Govt Inc;Inv 2.54 7 AmSouth:Govt Income;B -0.83 85 Huntington:Mtge;Tr 0.92 67 Huntington:Mtge;Inv A 0.53 79 Huntington:Mtge;Inv B 0.08 82 Average/Total 1.53 85 (part 3 of 3) 5 Years 3/31/04-3/31/05 Cumulative Fund Name Tot Return(%) Rank Dreyfus Mortgage Shrs N/A N/A TCW Galileo:Sh Trm Bd; 19.81 60 Goldman:US Mtge;Ins N/A N/A Target:Mtge Backed Secs 33.73 28 Tr Credit Un:Sh Dur 28.95 49 Van Kampen US Mtge;A 33.98 27 PIMCO:Tot Rtn Mtg;Inst 44.45 2 Sm Barney:US Govt;Y 34.33 23 Franklin Strat Mtge 39.98 7 Marshall:Govt Inc;Inv 34.16 26 AmSouth:Govt Income;B 25.25 59 Huntington:Mtge;Tr 41.43 6 Huntington:Mtge;Inv A 39.60 8 Huntington:Mtge;Inv B N/A N/A Average/Total 33.37 60 Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Adds Features to NIM Surveillance Program

Fitch Ratings recently made refinements to what it termed the market's first-ever platform entirely devoted to net interest margin securitization surveillance. (Read More)

CSFB CMBS Downgraded

Two classes of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp.'s commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-C1, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

FAS Deal Downgraded

Class B4 of Financial Asset Securitization Inc.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1997-NAMC2, has been downgraded from CCC to CC by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

GE CMBS Lowered

Two classes of GE Capital Commercial Mortgage Corp. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2000-1, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

GGP Gets Lower Rating

The ratings of General Growth Properties Inc., a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, and its subsidiary Price Development Co. LP, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings and removed from Rating Watch Negative. (Read More)

GMAC Deal Downgraded

Class E of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Securities Inc. variable-rate mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2000-FL-A, has been downgraded from Aaa to Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service and placed on review for further possible downgrade. (Read More)

European Property Developer Is First to Use PACEO Structure

SG Corporate & Investment Banking plans to arrange a Programme d'Augmentation de Capital par Exercices d'Options for Orco Property Group that Orco said would make it the first property company to use a PACEO. (Read More)

1st Credit Bureau Is Set for Russia

Experian and Interfax Information Services Group have agreed to form a joint venture to create the first credit bureau in Russia. (Read More)

Canada Helps Egypt Monitor Housing Stock

Canada plans to work with Egypt to establish a center that will be used to monitor and report housing conditions, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. here. (Read More)

BoA Volume Dips, Earnings Rise

Benefiting from its acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp., Bank of America reported record quarterly earnings of $4.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, despite a sharp decline in mortgage lending volume. (Read More)

At a Glance: Bank of America's 1st Q Home Loan Originations

1Q 2004 1Q 2005 Retail $14B $11.9B Wholesale $9.8B $5.6B Total $23.8B $17.5B Source: Bank of America Source: BoA. Note: excludes second-lien home equity lending. (Read More)

PVFS Earnings Flat for Quarter

Capital Corp., the parent company of Park View Federal Savings Bank, reported earnings of $1.31 million for the quarter ended March 31 as compared to earnings of $1.18 million for the prior year comparable period. (Read More)

Wholesalers Save RHS from Funding Shortage

Thanks to wholesalers, when the Rural Housing Service runs out of funding it will not stop the origination of federally guaranteed single-family loans to low-income rural residents. (Read More)

Strategy: Grab a Broom, Make a Mortgage Loan

Fresh paint on benches, new signs and a cleaner place for children to play was a project Comerica Bank began at a community park in southwest Detroit. Three years later the Clark Park project not only has given Hispanic people a cleaner park in one of their neighborhoods, but it has opened the lines of communication between the people, the bank and other mortgage lenders in the area. (Read More)

Servicing, Loan Sales Aid Downey

Downey Financial Corp. here earned a record $51.7 million, or $1.86 per share, in the first quarter, up sharply from $8.9 million, or $0.32 per share, a year earlier. (Read More)

GMAC Sees Big Jump in Subservicing

GMAC Mortgage Corp.'s subservicing business has increased more than 50% in the past year, and the company attributed the growth to growing customer recognition of the benefits of using a subservicer and to the company's investment in a single-platform servicing model. (Read More)

Financial Education, Gaining Steam, Now Has Its Own Month

Financial education is receiving growing attention from banks, nonprofits, and federal and state entities nationwide, along with many colleges and high schools. It appears that mortgage industry players are promoting homeownership and personal finance training services that benefit customers and help generate new business at lower risk. (Read More)

FHLB Seattle's 10 'Member' Directors

Director Name Title FHLB Seattle Member Craig Dahl pres./CEO Alaska Pacific Bank (AK) Allan Landon chr./pres. Bank of Hawaii (HI) Michael Mooney pres./COO Farmers & Merchants State Bank (ID) James Strosahl EVP/CFO Glacier Bank (MT) Robert Fenstermacher chr./pres Liberty Bank (OR) David Hemingway EVP Zions National (UT) Harold Gilkey chr./CEO Sterling Savings (WA) William Longbrake vice chr. Washington Mutual (WA) Roy Whitehead pres./CEO Washington Federal (WA) Michael Daly (*) chr./CEO First State Bank (WY) Notes: The FHLB also has five public interest directors. The five are part of a special review committee investigating stock sales last fall by three member institutions. (*) Acting chairman of the board. Source: FHLB Seattle Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Subcommittee Chairman Voices Caution on GSE Bill

Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee chairman Bob Ney, R-Ohio, is voicing caution about pending GSE legislation, saying that any bill must be "well thought out" and cannot be damaged by "emotion." (Read More)

Enjoy Doing Business

We're not sure how much time conference attendees will have to see the sights of San Francisco given how hot and competitive the secondary market for loans has been of late. But we hope that there will be some opportunity to enjoy the city's beauty and as well as to get a lot of business done. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive and both the Mortgage Bankers Association and a number of attendees have scheduled events designed to be entertaining as well as productive during the event. These range from the MBA's opening "Taste of San Francisco" reception to a rock concert, a visit to the ballpark and wine tasting at an art gallery. (Read More)

Going from Football to Finance

If you think about great quarterbacks associated with this city's football team, the first name that comes to mind is Joe Montana. (Read More)

Helping Lenders Keep Up with New Loans

In the increasingly competitive market, new products are continually being rolled out to allow the lender to tap emerging markets or enter new business channels. However, with the increased emphasis on product diversity, it is very difficult to manage the myriad of forms that have to be customized as well. Enter Desert Document Services of Tempe, Ariz. (Read More)

Stressing Alt-A, Customers and Technology

A combination of market interest in the alternative-A credit product IndyMac specializes in and the company's strengths when it comes to technology and meeting customer needs have helped its correspondent services division grow recently, according to Len Israel, president of the unit. (Read More)

Taking a Look At Show Highlights

Among the highlights when it comes to speakers and topics on the schedule for the MBA National Secondary Marketing Conference are the following: * Regina M. Lowrie, chairwoman-elect, Mortgage Bankers Association and president and chief executive officer, Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services. (Read More)

A Company Circles Back to Warehouse Lending

IndyMac Bank has gotten back into the warehouse lending business that it left in 2000 and one of the executives involved in its past effort in this area will be running the new unit from the company's office here. (Read More)

Learning How to Tap the Emerging Markets

Attendees of the MBA's National Secondary Market Conference who want to understand different homeownership programs and be successful in a purchase money market may want to attend the "Housing Finance Agencies: A Resource for Tapping Emerging Markets" panel. (Read More)

Attending to Stay in Touch and Also to Stay Informed

The chance to catch up with old acquaintances and keep up with what's going on in the industry is what's most important to Jack Ahlert, about being at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference. (Read More)

Companies Sign Up for Exhibit Hall

Companies that have signed up for exhibit hall booths include: 1st National Bank of Arizona; ADFITECH, ADVECTIS, AllRegs, AmeriDream, AppIntelligence, ARC Systems, Associated Software Consultants, Astera Software, Avista Solutions, Bankers Insurance Service; Bayview Financial LP, Branch Banking & Trust, C & S Marketing; C-BASS, California Software Applications, CampusMBA, CBC, Cenlar, Central Mortgage; Chicago Board of Trade, Clear Capital, Collateral Risk Solutions, Del Mar Database, Deutsche Bank, Docu Prep, DocuTech, Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Dynatek, E*TRADE, eKomas, EMC/Bear Stearns, Empire Mortgage, Fair Isaac, FHLB's Mortgage Partnership Finance Program, First Collateral Services, Fitch, Franklin Bank, FTN Financial, Gallagher Financial Systems, Gateway Bank, GHR Systems, Ginnie Mae, Global Realty Outsourcing, GMAC Mortgage, GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Guardian Mortgage Documents, Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings, Harland Financial Solutions; Hyland Software, ILOG, Impac Mortgage, Integra Software Systems, International Document Services, Inuva Info Management., Irwin, Kroll Factual Data, Lender E-Source, Lender Lead Solutions, Lenders One, LION, Lowenstein Sandler, Mavent, MBMS, Merrill Lynch Credit, MindBox; MORPAC, Mortgage Asset Research Institute, MBA, Mortgage Banking Magazine, Mortgage Builder Software, Mortgage Cadence, Mortgage Dynamics, MGIC, MIAC, Mortgage Insurance Agency, Mortgagebot, MortgageHub, National Mortgage Specialists, Navigant Consulting, Netupdate, NovaStar Mortgage, Old Republic National Title Insurance, Opteum Group, Optimal Asset, Orisyn Research, PeirsonPatterson LLC/Compliance Source, Portellus, Pro-Teck Services, Quantitative Risk Management, Rapid Reporting Verification, Regions Financial/Regions Funding, Regions Mortgage - Correspondent Lending, Rekon Technologies, REOTECH/Corporate Asset Management, RPI Professional Alternatives, Saxon Mortgage,Sollen Technologies, Source Media, S& P, Street Resource Group, SwiftView, TenA Companies, The Bohan Group, The Richmond-Monroe Group, The StoneHill Group, Treasury Bank, a Division of Countrywide Bank; TruApp, Unifund, VirPack, Wachovia, Williams & Williams Auctioneers, WMC, XL Dynamics and Zackin Publications. (Read More)

MBA Offers Travel Advice and Discounts

The Mortgage Bankers Association offers the following advice as far as travel to its secondary market conference on its website, www.mbaa.org. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Pasadena-IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said it is adding new members to the Wholesale Lending, Correspondent Services and Subprime Lending Divisions. (Read More)

Defeasance Gains Market Acceptance

Defeasance activity has taken off since 1997, when it became the prepayment standard for commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions, touching $9.3 billion on 1,115 commercial mortgage loans outstanding as of year-end 2004, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Shelby Faces Portfolio Challenges

Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., faces a tough challenge in drafting a GSE bill that will empower a new regulator to limit the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios, an issue that most Democrats vehemently oppose. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC Index: 156.3 Change: -2.5 (part 1 of 2) Company 4/14/05 4/21/05 Wkly. (Read More)

Freddie, Chase Reach Out in LA

Freddie Mac has partnered with Chase Home Finance and several grassroots organizations in Los Angeles to introduce the "Homeownership: Let the Truth Move You" or "Tu Propia Casa: Atrevete" outreach campaign designed to educate borrowers who due to misconceptions about homeownership often do not even consider purchasing a house. (Read More)

Originations Were Strong in 1Q

Mortgage bankers had a strong first quarter with production volumes topping $700 billion, according to preliminary survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Residential Lenders in Q1 2005 (A Sample)

($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Organization Name Location 1 Alaska USA FCU Anchorage, AK 2 America First CU Riverdale, UT 3 American Home Mtg. Investment Melville, NY 4 Amerifund Lending Group West Lake Village, CA 5 Carteret Mortgage Corp. Centerville, VA 6 Cherry Creek Mortgage Greenwood Village, CO 7 Cimarron Mortgage Jackson, MS 8 Colonial Savings, F.A. Fort Worth, TX 9 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 10 Downey Savings & Loan Assn. Newport Beach, CA 11 First Savings Mortgage Corp. Vienna, VA 12 Navy FCU Merrifield, VA 13 People`s Bank Bridgeport, CT 14 Platinum Direct Funding Rolling Meadows, IL 15 Quicken Loans, Inc. Livonia, MI 16 RBC Mortgage Chicago, IL 17 Republic Bancorp Inc. Owosso, MI 18 Ridgewood Savings Bank Ridgewood, NY 19 State Employees CU Raleigh, NC 20 U.S. Bank Home Motgage Bloomington, MN (part 2 of 2) Origination Volume % Q1 '05 Q1 '04 change 1 $147 $154 -5% 2 $43 $45 -4% 3 $7,255 $4,413 64% 4 $76 $47 62% 5 $615 $683 -10% 6 $352 $291 21% 7 $40 $48 -17% 8 $530 $601 -12% 9 $91,460 $76,204 20% 10 $3,938 $2,662 48% 11 $643 $581 11% 12 $1,066 $1,331 -20% 13 $281 $312 -10% 14 $92 $93 -1% 15 $3,292 $2,339 41% 16 $2,970 $3,940 -25% 17 $345 $425 -19% 18 $86 $57 50% 19 $331 $471 -30% 20 $4,505 $3,733 21% Total: $118,067 $98,431 20% Notes: This is a sample origination table only. Volumes include loans produced in all three channels: retail, wholesale and correspondent. Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. NMN is still compiling 1Q production results. (Read More)

Wachovia Launches LOS

Confounding the notion that major LOS implementations never come in on time, Wachovia Mortgage and Palisades Technology Partners said that Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia has concluded testing of Palisades' Impact Mortgage Services Suite and is now launching the system in production within a year of the project's start date to replace its old Fitech system. (Read More)

$1.2 Bil Bond At Ameriquest?

Ameriquest Capital Corp., the nation's largest subprime lender, is contemplating a $1.2 billion debt offering, investment banking sources told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Industry Spotlight: S.A. Ibrahim

Radian Group Inc., has appointed Mr. Ibrahim, a 27-year veteran of the banking and mortgage industries, as chief executive officer, effective May 5. Mr. Ibrahim succeeds Frank Filipps, who is retiring from Radian. Mr. Ibrahim joins Radian from GreenPoint Mortgage, where he has served as president and CEO since 1999. Steven M. Abreu succeeds Mr. Ibrahim at GreenPoint. (See page 2.) Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Mapping Out GSE Bill's Path

Common sense dictates that when two congressionally chartered companies make $16 billion worth of accounting mistakes - and their top officers are shown the door - that they wouldn't have much of a bargaining position when it comes to dealing with Congress. (Read More)

Mozilo One of Top Paid CEOs

Angelo Mozilo was the ninth-highest-paid CEO among the 500 largest American public companies last year, according to a list compiled by Forbes. (Read More)

Housing Market Stays Red Hot

In March, sales of new single-family homes set yet another record, rising 12% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.43 million units, according to figures released by the Commerce Department. (Read More)

WaMu Takeover Rumors Make the Rounds Again

Is Washington Mutual, Seattle, the nation's largest thrift - and third-largest mortgage banker - on the auction block? (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Steven M. Aberu

North Fork Bancorporation Inc., Melville, N.Y., has appointed Mr. Abreu as president and chief executive officer of its wholly owned subsidiary, GreenPoint Mortgage. Mr. Abreu succeeds S.A. Ibrahim who will be joining Radian Group Inc. as its CEO. (See related item on page 1.) Mr. Abreu previously was executive vice president responsible for production, sales, secondary marketing, investor relations and new business. (Read More)

NY AG Investigates Mortgage Lenders

The New York Attorney General's office last week was in the early stages of a probe to determine if discriminatory practices have been used in the interest rates and fees charged on mortgage loans, a spokeswoman said last week. (Read More)

Doral Faces Class Action Suit Filed on Behalf of Investors

A class-action lawsuit has been filed by Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling LLP in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of investors who say Doral Financial Corp. violated a section of the Securities Exchange Act. (Read More)

GMAC Offers New Program

Catering to sophisticated customers interested in using their mortgage as a cash-flow management tool, GMAC Residential Funding executives say the new Payment Option Loan program allows borrowers to choose between up to four payment options every month, maximizing their buying power. (Read More)

The Bright Line

Forget it. It's not going to happen. Those of you who think that the struggling secondary agencies are going to be stripped of their proprietary automated underwriting technology in their hour of trouble, we think this one is a nonstarter. (Read More)

The Federal Home Loan Banks

Mr. Pollock's recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Favorable Developments for Originators Seen in the Market

It looked like a good week for those on the origination side of the business up through press time. (Read More)

HUD Ups Fines In Servicing Area

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is increasing its fines on residential servicers that fail to engage in loss mitigation on federally insured mortgages. (Read More)

S&P: GSE Ratings Continue to Depend on Capitalization Levels

Standard & Poor's is waiting to see if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can maintain capital levels above minimum standards than both have previously reported as Fannie finishes its accounting restatements and Freddie returns to its current reporting. (Read More)

LaSalle: CMOs Are Not Necessarily Just for Institutional Investors

Institutional investors generally are targeted when it comes to sales of collateralized mortgage obligations. (Read More)

U.S. Bancorp Sees Record Net

U.S. Bancorp here reported record net income of $1.07 billion for the first quarter of 2005, compared with $1.01 billion a year earlier. (Read More)

Hibernia Earns $85.8 Million

Hibernia Corp. earned $85.8 million in the first quarter, up 30% from one year earlier. (Read More)

Investors Challenge Astoria Stock Plan