Print Archive - 2008

DB Reviewing Its Mortgage Unit

Deutsche Bank, a top-ranked issuer of subprime MBS, in the first quarter will conduct a top-to-bottom review of its entire mortgage business, according to officials at the company. (Read More)

Washington Focusing on Industry

A presidential election year does not make the best crucible for legislating, but mixing in a credit crunch with rising mortgage defaults and foreclosures could produce bitter medicine for the mortgage industry. (Read More)

RESIDENTIAL JUMBO LENDERS IN Q3 2007

Jumbo % Market Rk Organization Name Q3 07 Q3 06 Change Share 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage $14,967 $20,143 -26% 13.34% 2 Washington Mutual $11,365 $12,359 -8% 10.13% 3 Countrywide Financial Corp. (E) $11,356 $18,000 -37% 10.12% 4 CitiMortgage Inc. $9,149 $6,783 35% 8.16% 5 Bank of America $7,878 $6,761 17% 7.02% 6 Chase Home Finance $6,005 $4,652 29% 5.35% 7 EMC Mortgage (1) $2,920 $10,125 -71% 2.60% 8 ING Bank FSB $2,701 na na 2.41% 9 PHH Mortgage $2,501 na na 2.23% 10 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) (E) $2,025 $4,057 -50% 1.81% 11 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $1,853 $4,514 -59% 1.65% 12 Aurora Loan Services Inc. (2) $1,749 $2,291 -24% 1.56% 13 National City Mortgage $1,607 $1,478 9% 1.43% 14 Wachovia $1,293 $1,679 -23% 1.15% 15 Thornburg Mortgage Inc. $1,189 $1,246 -5% 1.06% 16 First Horizon Home Loans $1,066 $1,430 -25% 0.95% 17 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank $950 $939 1% 0.85% 18 Astoria FS & LA $742 na na 0.66% 19 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $698 $531 31% 0.62% 20 Amtrust Bank $533 na na 0.48% 21 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $442 $116 281% 0.39% 22 MortgageIT (3) $418 $342 22% 0.37% 23 Downey Savings & Loan Assn. $348 $1,050 -67% 0.31% 24 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $344 $306 12% 0.31% 25 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker $326 $119 174% 0.29% Totals: $84,424 $98,922 -15% 63.34% Note: Results may be incomplete because some lenders would not provide jumbo volumes. Jumbo loans exceed the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit $417,000. (Read More)

NatCity Exits Wholesale

Stung by the meltdown in the residential loan market, National City Corp. here said it will exit all "broker-based" mortgage lending and shut down its wholesale unit, resulting in layoffs of 900 workers there. (Read More)

PHH Calls Off GE Deal

PHH Corp. -- the parent of the nation's 11th largest residential servicer -- last week cancelled its sale to General Electric, which had planned to flip the company's mortgage and fleet divisions to The Blackstone Group. (Read More)

Registry Goes Live

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators launched a Web-based mortgage licensing system on Jan. 2, as promised, with the initial participation of seven states. (Read More)

Centerline Makes Strategic Moves

Centerline Holding Co., a New York multifamily lender, has securitized a $2.8 billion affordable housing bond portfolio with Freddie Mac. As well, the company reports a $131 million equity investment commitment from an affiliate of Related Cos. (Read More)

Massachusetts AG Finalizes Revision of Broker/Lender Regs

Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley filed a final, revised version of the mortgage broker and lender regulations and issued official guidance to the broker and lender community. (Read More)

Bank Data Show Home-Equity Loans Hit Hard by Delinquencies

The delinquency rate on home-equity loan products held by banks rose sharply in the third quarter, and the chief economist of the American Bankers Association believes the trend line may worsen in the fourth quarter. (Read More)

BSRM President Leaves Company

Shabi Asghar, the president of Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage here, has been let go by the company, according to industry officials and one insider at the firm. (Read More)

Editorial: Long Overdue

Nearly 20% of all subprime adjustable-rate mortgages in the country were overdue as of the end of the third quarter. That's some 600,000 out of three million loans serviced as tallied by the Mortgage Bankers Association. More than 10% of all subprime ARMs, meaning 300,000 mortgages, are already in foreclosure. And in the past two years, the percentages have zoomed by some 700 basis points. (Read More)

Open Forum: Modifications and Borrower Aid

In recent years, the subprime market has grown dramatically, enabling more and more borrowers to obtain credit who traditionally would have been unable to access it. Increasing numbers of lenders entered this market, with underwriting standards, industry practices and risk-based pricing evolving along with the subprime market. (Read More)

New Year Gets Underway with 'Mixed Signals'

The year 2008 got underway with market developments that at press time last Thursday I think were best summarized by Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist, who called them - somewhat optimistically - "mixed signals on the direction of the economy and the mortgage market." (Read More)

Fitch Lowers B&C Ratings

About 280 classes of mortgage-backed securities from more than 20 issuers were recently downgraded by Fitch Ratings as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Prepay Speeds Decline in November

Prepayment rates for 30-year mortgage loans in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities declined in November by 6% and 8%, respectively, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. (Read More)

Commercial and Multifamily Debt Exceeds $3 Trillion Threshold

Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding was up 2.8% in the third quarter, or $87.7 billion from the previous three month period, reaching $3.22 trillion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More)

WKFS Creates Loan-Mod Program

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is offering to help mortgage servicers modify the loans of distressed subprime borrowers who face onerous rate resets. (Read More)

Online Finance Guidance Is Offered in Spanish

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling here has launched TermineConSuDeuda.org, a Spanish-language version of its DebtAdvice.org website. (Read More)

Evest Launches New Fund for Distressed Debt

Evest Capital here, an acquisition and advisory company specializing in the structured finance industry, is raising funds to invest in subperforming mortgage assets. (Read More)

Builders Don't Expect to See Gains in Home Prices before 2009

The downturn in home values will likely persist through next year, though signs of stabilization are emerging, according to the chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. (Read More)

Economist: Damage Mostly Done, But Recovery Is Uncertain

Although the chief economist at Standard & Poor's doesn't see the housing sector reaching bottom for 12 more months or so, he still gave a surprisingly upbeat forecast while keynoting SourceMedia's Mortgage Outlook 2008 Conference here late last month. (Read More)

Analysts Turn Bearish on Prospects for Title Insurance Industry

A pair of analyst reports paint a dark picture for the title insurance industry in 2008. (Read More)

CRE ConditionsMay Deteriorate

Fitch Ratings expects that 2008 will be an inflection point for U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities, with loan defaults increasing over 50% even though real estate fundamentals continue strong. (Read More)

Outlook for Financial Services: It's 'Not as Bad as You Think'

A report from a Jefferies & Co. Inc. office here acknowledges that credit and liquidity issues are likely to continue to weigh on financial stocks next year, but they believe many types of loans "will perform better than sentiment suggests." (Read More)

Stretching Every Dollar

According to Credit Suisse, residential loan volume will fall to $1.8 trillion this year. To put this into perspective, that would equal a 25% decline from 2007, provided total volume comes in at $2.4 trillion as expected. Compared to 2006, $1.8 trillion represents a whopping 44% nosedive. (Read More)

2008 to Be the Year of the Easy Mortgage

Steve Mase, president of origination vendor Dexma, told our sister publication Mortgage Technology that the industry will adopt the electronic mortgage when people stop calling it the electronic mortgage. What every lender is essentially looking for is a way to make the process truly easy, and the way to get to the easy mortgage is surely to automate. (Read More)

Adapting to New Product Sets Easily

Like several of their customers, origination technology providers have had to put aside most of their past efforts in the snake-bit nonconforming sector and accommodate different product sets. (Read More)

Using the Internet to Sell REO

As the foreclosure rate increases, lenders will be looking to get rid of these properties as quickly as possible. As a result, several new Web players have entered the market looking to turn REO auctions into something similar to eBay. (Read More)

Making the Loan Origination System Work for the Lender

As lenders look to be more agile and respond quickly to the market, old loan origination systems may not cut it. New LOS strategies will become important in 2008 as some look for an all-in-one application and others look to integrate applications to extend the life of their current LOS. (Read More)

Tech M&As to Be Hot and Heavy in 2008

As the market corrects, several vendors will be hurt. Usually six to 12 months after lenders starting falling away impacted vendors followed as evidenced by Portellus and ARC Systems closing. However, others like NetUpdate will find a buyer to help them weather the storm. (Read More)

Tech to Rescue Wholesale

Many lenders have shed their wholesale channel in favor of retail. Of late, lenders like SCME Mortgage Bankers, HSBC Holdings, Nationstar Mortgage, ResMAE and others are focusing more on retail. So, what will revitalize wholesale? Several point to technology. (Read More)

The Benefits of Embracing Data Over Forms

In total, 85% of 20 respondents to our sister publication, the electronic Mortgage Technology Newsletter, believe embracing data over forms is very important. As the industry looks to cut cost and gain efficiency, embracing clean data from trusted sources vs. relying on static forms eliminates FTEs, human error, rekeying, turn-time and increases compliance. (Read More)

Conditions Demand Pricing Automation

Who has the time to manually price a loan? Even though the industry has moved back to a more conforming product mix, there are still hundreds upon thousands of different products on the market. Not to mention the fact that they're constantly changing. (Read More)

Tackling the Problem of Mortgage Fraud With Technology

Desperate times sometimes make individuals do desperate things. As the industry corrects, instances of fraud are expected to increase as more companies get squeezed. So, making fraud detection easier through technology is expected to be a big priority in 2008. (Read More)

DC Policymakers Eyeing Solutions

The creation of a three-year government program to purchase defaulted mortgages could help stabilize falling house prices and prevent foreclosures according to a resident scholar at a conservative think tank here. Alex Pollock of the American Enterprise Institute is trying to get Washington policymakers interested in a Depression-era agency that refinanced more than one million default mortgages from 1933 and 1937. The Home Owners' Loan Corp. was later liquidated at a small profit to the government. (Read More)

Freddie Mac Forecasts $2.3 Trillion

Even though the mortgage business is in the tank - especially the subprime sector - Freddie Mac believes lenders will produce close to $2.3 trillion in new loans this year, the most optimistic forecast made to date. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC INDEX: 55.3 Change: -2.5 Company 1/3/2008 12/27/2007 Wkly. 52 52 % Chg. P/E % Chg. wk/lo wk/hi Ratio Astoria Federal (AF) 22.70 24.02 -5% 22.47 30.56 1.02% 15.07 Countrywide Financial 8.77 9.04 -3% 8.21 45.26 6.82% n/a Corp. (CFC) Doral Financial (DRL) 19.37 19.65 -1% 10.80 58.00 79.35% n/a Fiserv, Inc (FISV) 54.90 55.00 -0% 44.16 59.85 24.32% 21.07 Fannie Mae (FNM) 35.92 39.64 -9% 26.38 70.57 36.16% 22.66 Fidelity National (FNF) 14.11 14.90 -5% 13.10 28.62 7.71% 12.75 Franklin Bank (FBTX) 4.16 4.25 -2% 3.88 20.95 7.22% 5.91 Freddie Mac (FRE) 32.21 33.78 -5% 22.90 68.55 40.66% n/a Kaufman & Broad (KBH) 20.05 21.91 -8% 18.44 56.08 8.73% n/a LandAmerica Financial (LFG) 32.03 33.36 -4% 23.23 108.92 37.88% 21.26 IndyMac Bancorp (IMB) 6.90 6.22 11% 5.75 45.82 20.00% n/a PMI Mortgage Ins. (PMI) 11.96 13.89 -14% 9.82 51.46 21.79% 5.46 Radian Group (RDN) 10.83 11.85 -9% 8.15 67.35 32.88% n/a Triad Guaranty (TGIC) 9.97 10.06 -1% 5.50 58.62 81.27% 26.71 Washington Mutual (WM) 13.70 13.54 1% 12.81 46.02 6.95% 4.40 Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of the 52-week low. (Read More)

Mortgage Debt Relief Passes

In a flurry of legislative activity, Congress completed action on a mortgage debt tax relief bill and an extension of the federal government's terrorism insurance program before adjourning for the year. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Calabasas-Countrywide has named Tom Fiddler and John Manglardi as executive vice presidents of sales growth and development. (Read More)

REITs Trail Other Equity Indices

The U.S. real estate investment trust sector turned in a negative total return of 17.83 for 2007, trailing other major equity indices, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts reports. (Read More)

Giving Loan Originators an MLS

Many experts in the mortgage business agree that in this day and age loan officers need to market to Realtors to help source business. (Read More)

An Industry in Crisis

* CFC sale rumors after NPLs soar * FBNA auctioning huge NPL pool * Hope Now loan mods for 'A' paper? (Read More)

30% Drop for ABS

Asset-backed securities dropped 30% during 2007, while mortgage-backed securities underwriting volume in the United States totaled $922.11 billion in 2007, down about 12% from the $1.05 trillion recorded in 2006, according to Thomson Financial. (Read More)

U.S. Asset-Backed Securities

Citi Retains No. 1 ABS Ranking 1/1/2007-12/31/2007 1/1/2006-12/31/2006 Proceeds* Market Proceeds* Market Book Runners (US$Mil) Rank Share (US$Mil) Rank Share Citi 107,114.5 1 12.4 121,572.5 1 9.7 JPMorgan 76,333.7 2 8.8 76,632.3 7 6.1 Merrill Lynch 66,103.6 3 7.7 100,316.4 2 8.0 Lehman Brothers 62,174.5 4 7.2 90,156.6 4 7.2 Banc of America Securities LLC 61,835.9 5 7.2 72,379.6 8 5.8 Royal Bank of Scotland Group 58,018.4 6 6.7 83,874.1 5 6.7 Deutsche Bank AG 55,680.1 7 6.5 98,349.0 3 7.9 Morgan Stanley 46,915.8 8 5.4 71,807.0 9 5.8 Wachovia Corp 42,103.5 9 4.9 44,845.6 15 3.6 Barclays Capital 38,887.0 10 4.5 58,855.6 13 4.7 Credit Suisse 35,187.0 11 4.1 76,858.4 6 6.2 Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. 31,297.5 12 3.6 64,819.3 11 5.2 UBS 30,079.8 13 3.5 48,450.2 14 3.9 Countrywide Securities Corp 25,554.0 14 3.0 67,015.1 10 5.4 Goldman Sachs & Co. 21,187.4 15 2.5 59,812.1 12 4.8 HSBC Holdings PLC 15,444.3 16 1.8 28,821.1 16 2.3 Natixis 7,477.6 17 .9 13,828.1 17 1.1 ABN Amro 7,065.4 18 .8 10,213.3 19 .8 Calyon 3,649.3 19 .4 7,925.9 20 .6 Fortis 3,611.3 20 .4 2,084.1 28 .2 Washington Mutual Inc. 3,338.4 21 .4 12,950.2 18 1.0 General Motors Corp. 3,097.5 22 .4 5,883.3 21 .5 Societe Generale 3,074.0 23 .4 5,300.3 22 .4 BNP Paribas SA 2,272.3 24 .3 2,251.3 26 .2 Dresdner Kleinwort 2,114.0 25 .2 485.0 38 .0 Nomura - - - 4,068.5 23 .3 Lloyds TSB Group PLC - - - 3,088.7 24 .3 SunTrust Banks 500.0 31 .1 2,406.2 25 .2 Industry Total 863,616.2 -- 100.0 1,249,679.6 -- 100.0 *Full to book runner (equal if joint) (c) 2008 National Mortgage News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Read More)

Bear's Cayne Exits Top Job

Bear Stearns, stung by an array of bad moves it made in subprime mortgages, said James Cayne, its long-time chairman and chief executive, would relinquish the CEO title but remain with the firm. (Read More)

Fed Will Bolster Housing

Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said he is prepared to cut interest rates some more to cushion the economy and offset continuing problems in the housing and credit markets. (Read More)

Change of Control for CFC?

Bank of America is reportedly talking to Countrywide Financial Corp. about a business combination of some type, including what one investment banking source described as a "nontraditional change of control," National Mortgage News has learned. (Read More)

Weakness Extends to CRE Sector

Five of seven commercial property types tracked by Moody's Investors Service had lower scores in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to the third quarter, showing some signs of softening in commercial real estate markets. (Read More)

30-Year FRM Now Under 6%

Long-term mortgage rates dropped below the psychologically important 6% mark last week, according to Freddie Mac. (Read More)

Countrywide & BoA's Mortgage OPS

($ in Millions) Originations: Company 3Q Residential Production Market Name Originations Rank Share Countrywide $94,631 1 15.65% Bank of America $48,659 4 8.05% Combined $143,290 1 23.70% Servicing: Company Servicing Servicing Market Name Portfolio at 9/30/07 Rank Share Countrywide $1,459,136 1 16.01% Bank of America $483,462 6 5.30% Combined $1,942,598 1 21.31% Notes: Based on 3Q 2007 figures only. CFC funds loans through three different production channels: retail wholesale and correspondent. In 3Q, BoA used two channels: retail and wholesale and recently decided to close its wholesale division. (Read More)

Citi Revamps Mortgage Business

Citigroup here is conducting a reorganization of its mortgage lending business that will bring CitiMortgage and Citi Residential Lending under one umbrella. Citi Residential Lending is the new name of the businesses Citigroup acquired from ACC Capital Holdings, Orange, Calif. (Read More)

IMA Brokers $621 Million of MSRs

Interactive Mortgage Advisors here is selling a $621 million package of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bulk servicing rights for an undisclosed client. (Read More)

They'll Take Manhattan

Home prices may be plummeting in much of the country, but not in the heart of New York, according to local real estate firms. (Read More)

Relief Needed on Prime ARMs?

Treasury secretary Henry Paulson hinted last week that the "teaser-freezer" program for subprime borrowers may need to be expanded to prime borrowers who are facing problems making payments on their adjustable-rate mortgages. (Read More)

WKFS Acquires Stewart's Flood Determination Unit

As larger vendors look for good acquisition targets to either expand their technology offering or absorb a competitor to increase their market share, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Stewart Lender Services' flood determination business. (Read More)

Administration Eyes GSEs for Housing Boost

The Bush administration is exhibiting a new interest in passing GSE regulatory reform legislation along with a temporary increase in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan limit as they look for ways to stabilize the housing market. (Read More)

Editorial: New Low for New Homes

The numbers are awful. One big firm just posted a $647 million loss for the year, while another national company lost nearly $800 million for the third quarter alone. (Read More)

Open Formum: Hope for Borrowers in Trouble

After years of unsustainable home price appreciation and an abundant supply of easy credit, the U.S. housing market is experiencing an inevitable downturn. Here in Orlando, house prices increased by an average of over 15% a year from 2001 to mid-2006. Now, that trend has reversed and house prices declined 7% in the last year. Your city has been particularly hard-hit by foreclosures. (Read More)

Rates, Yields Hit Multiyear Lows as the 'R' Word Comes Up

Long-term mortgage rates and a benchmark bond yield plummeted to multiyear lows and refinancing hit a four-week high last week following market developments that some on Wall Street said show the U.S. is entering a recession. (Read More)

B&C Woes Fueling Litigation

The subprime mortgage lending crisis is one of the drivers of the increase in securities fraud class action litigation filings in 2007, a report from Stanford Law School here and Cornerstone Research, Boston, shows. (Read More)

NFCC Warns Consumers on Scams

If there were ever an example of kicking a guy when he's down, preying upon a homeowner who fears foreclosure rises to the top of the list. (Read More)

Study: Prices Fall in 21 States

Yet another index of housing price trends finds that home values are deteriorating across much of the country. (Read More)

Foreclosure Fallout Is Threat

The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently unveiled an economic impact report on the foreclosure crisis that forecasts sharp losses in the growth of gross domestic product and projects economic output losses for 361 metro areas, referred to as gross metropolitan product. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades Securities after Revising Model

Thirty-eight classes of mortgage-backed securities from two issuers were downgraded by Fitch Ratings on Dec. 28 as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Rating Agency Expects More CMBS Defaults

Fitch Ratings is raising subordination levels on commercial mortgage-backed securities, based on the credit rating agency's view that commercial mortgage loan defaults are likely to rise. (Read More)

Industrial REIT Forms Venture with CA Teachers Pension Fund

First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. here and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, Sacramento, Calif., have formed FirstCal Industrial Europe LLC, a real estate investment joint venture. (Read More)

Cato: Zoning Makes Housing Unaffordable

As the nationwide debate focuses on how to tackle the subprime adversity, mortgage industry insiders are also talking about the need to address lack of affordable housing, which underlies the current crisis representing another crisis within the crisis. (Read More)

Growing Potential

It seems everyone wants something more from the Federal Housing Administration these days. Mortgage market participants and consumers on the origination side of the business want it to fill the void left by the subprime market's self-destruction. In addition, legislators are seeking to "modernize" the government agency. (Read More)

AllRegs Offers FHA Class

AllRegs, an information provider for the mortgage lending industry based in Eagan, Minn., is offering a new comprehensive online course to provide lenders with the underwriting knowledge necessary to originate Federal Housing Administration loans. (Read More)

Determining FHA Secure Eligibility

Determining eligibility for the Federal Housing Administration's new FHA Secure program can be challenging given the "extensive criteria" set by the FHA, according to Andrew Housser, co-chief executive officer of Bills.com here, a division of Freedom Financial Network LLC. The company's Secure Check program seeks to help by allowing homeowners to complete a form and receive an assessment of their likely eligibility, along with refinancing quotes from the more than 100 mortgage lenders, banks and brokers in Bills.com's lender network. (Read More)

Broadcasting FHA Programs

Lend America, Melville, New York, is known for its 30-minute television spots focused on Federal Housing Administration programs, its latest being a series entitled "Mortgage Rescue." The company primarily has been a direct-to-consumer residential mortgage lender and its main retail unit originates using an advice-driven marketing campaign that highlights the benefits of government loans using relatively low-cost media. It avoids brick-and-mortar branch costs by operating in 30 states nationwide from one central 41,000-square-foot facility. (Read More)

Subprime's End Bodes Well for FHA

The subprime market implosion and the resultant credit crunch have led to a "flight to quality" and more traditional product sources such as the FHA after years of loose underwriting and creative innovation in mortgage financing products, speakers at the Product Evolution session at the Mortgage Outlook 2008 Conference here all agreed. Julie St. James, senior manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers, moderated the session that looked at the recent history of the mortgage lending arena, what products are no longer available and what new loan products are on the horizon.The panel of speakers included Kim Kurkowski, general manager, Wachovia Mortgage Corp.; David Peskin, CEO, World Alliance Financial Corp. (formerly Vertical Lend Inc.); William G. Roehrenbeck, president and CEO, Arvest & Central Mortgage Cos.; and Nina Simon, senior attorney, AARP Foundation Litigation. (Read More)

Baltimore Sues Wells Fargo

The city of Baltimore has filed a fair lending lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank NA, claiming its "irresponsible" subprime lending practices have led to high foreclose rates in minority neighborhoods and cost the city millions of dollars in expenses and lost revenue. (Read More)

Webster to Take $40MM Provision

Webster Financial Corp. here will take a $40 million special provision in the fourth quarter for its discontinued indirect residential construction and home-equity loan portfolios and an additional $3.5 million charge to cover the costs of closing its wholesale lending business. (Read More)

Countrywide's Delinquencies and Foreclosures Hit New Highs

($ in Millions) Data Point 4Q 2007 4Q 2006 % Change Res. Loans serviced $ 1,476,203 $1,298,394 14% Units serviced 9,034,763 8,198,873 11% Delinquency ratio (UPB) 7.20% 4.60% 57% Foreclosure rate (UPB) 1.44% 0.70% 106% Foreclosure rate (NUS) 1.04% 0.65% 60% Notes: No breakouts were available on subprime. UPB = unpaid principal balance in dollars. NUS = number of units serviced. (Read More)

Franklin Credit Management Faces Possible Stock Delisting

Franklin Credit Management has been notified by the Nasdaq composite index that its common shares have fallen below the minimum market capitalization level of $5 million required for listing. (Read More)

E*Trade Sells $3B More Bonds

E*Trade Financial - which is undergoing a wrenching restructuring - said it has sold an additional $3 billion worth of bonds, including MBS and municipals. (Read More)

FNBA May Auction $650 Million

First National Bank of Arizona - once a top-ranked alt-A wholesaler - is contemplating selling $650 million worth of subperforming and nonperforming residential loans, according to executives who play in that market. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC INDEX: 50.8 Change:-4.5 Company 1/10/2008 1/3/2008 Wkly. 52 52 % Chg. P/E % Chg. wk/lo wk/hi Ratio Astoria Federal (AF) 21.89 22.73 -4% 20.96 30.56 4.44% 14.28 Countrywide Financial 7.75 8.79 -12% 4.43 45.26 74.94% n/a Corp. (CFC) Doral Financial (DRL) 19.82 19.35 2% 10.80 57.00 83.52% n/a Fiserv, Inc (FISV) 53.68 54.90 -2% 44.16 59.85 21.56% 20.43 Fannie Mae (FNM) 34.67 36.26 -4% 26.38 70.57 31.43% 19.79 Fidelity National (FNF) 13.47 14.10 -4% 12.75 28.62 5.65% 11.65 Franklin Bank (FBTX) 3.75 4.19 -11% 3.43 19.94 9.33% 5.04 Freddie Mac (FRE) 27.94 32.17 -13% 22.90 68.12 22.01% n/a Kaufman & Broad (KBH) 17.88 20.03 -11% 15.76 56.08 13.45% n/a LandAmerica Financial (LFG) 27.65 31.92 -13% 23.23 108.92 19.03% 17.49 IndyMac Bancorp (IMB) 5.77 6.89 -16% 3.95 43.95 46.08% n/a PMI Mortgage Ins. (PMI) 8.85 11.97 -26% 9.82 51.46 -9.88% 3.64 Radian Group (RDN) 8.75 10.83 -19% 7.43 67.35 17.77% n/a Triad Guaranty (TGIC) 7.50 9.95 -25% 5.50 58.62 36.36% 18.33 Washington Mutual (WM) 14.13 13.76 3% 10.73 45.81 31.69% 3.96 Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of the 52-week low. (Read More)

Publicly Traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms

MIEC INDEX: 80.6 Change: -1.8 Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/10/2008 Wkly.% Chg. % Chg. P/E Ratio HSBC Holding (HBC) 79.55 99.52 80.81 -2% 1.58% n/a IMPAC Mortgage Holdings (IMH) 0.20 9.11 0.84 34% 320.00% n/a Novastar (NFI) 1.12 97.64 3.25 12% 190.18% n/a Ocwen (OCN) 4.06 16.95 4.17 -18% 2.71% 5.08 Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of the 52-week low. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-Colony Capital LLC said that Richard D. Nanula has joined the firm as a principal. (Read More)

Lehman: MIs Need Reserves

A trio of reports from Lehman Brothers on the three largest publicly traded mortgage insurers all had a common theme: an expectation that those firms will need to build reserves. (Read More)

Wall Street Losses Widen

Merrill Lynch last week took a $9.8 billion loss for the fourth quarter and a $7.8 billion net loss for all of 2007 due primarily to an $11.5 billion U.S. mortgage-related writedown in the last three months of the year that produced close to three times the loss some analysts had estimated. (Read More)

Will BoA Keep Wholesale?

The deal for Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C., to acquire Countrywide Financial Corp. here may have taken a good deal of uncertainty out of the marketplace. But for those who participate in the third-party originations channels, mortgage brokers and loan correspondents, there remains a wide range of questions. (Read More)

Citi Takes Huge Hit

Citigroup last week wrote down the value of its CDOs - including subprime-related assets - by $17.4 billion. (Read More)

MORTECH Sees Major Tech Spending Cuts

The mortgage industry is suffering an unprecedented technology recession, says MORTECH publisher Jeff Lebowitz. Based on projections from data collected for the 2007 MORTECH study, he estimates that $300 million in anticipated revenue for mortgage technology vendors has "disappeared" in the ongoing credit crisis. Mortgage tech vendors will especially feel the pinch, he said, because the mortgage industry's tech spending had been growing at a rate one-third higher than spending on IT across all other U.S. industries. (Read More)

News on Ambac May Hurt Many

Bond insurer Ambac Financial - whose guarantee is behind billions of dollars in asset-backed bonds collateralized by subprime loans - saw its stock plunge last week after Moody's Investor Service said it is reviewing the company for a possible downgrade. (Read More)

WaMu Talking To JPMorgan?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is talking to Washington Mutual here about possibly buying the nation's largest thrift, according to industry officials. (Read More)

Top Residential Reverse Lenders In 3Q 2007

Reverse # of Loans Avg Ln Rk Organization Name Location in 3Q 2007 in 3Q 2007 Size Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA $1,217 5,426 $22,429 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. Pasadena, CA $1,080 na na First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX $694 3,984 $17,420 Bank of America Charlotte, NC $427 3,951 $10,795 MortgageIT New York, NY $11 29 $37,931 Amerifund Lending Group West Lake Village, CA $4 na na America First CU Riverdale, UT $2 16 $12,500 Perl Mortgage Chicago, IL $1 2 $25,000 Franklin American Mortgage Franklin, TN $0 1 $30,000 Totals: $3,435 13,409 $25,620 Notes: This is the first time the ALT QDR has published this information. Results may be incomplete because some reverse lenders would not provide figures. Want to participate in this survey? (Read More)

NovaStar Collapses as Rescue Plan Unravels in Weak Market

NovaStar Financial Inc., already having shed many of its business lines, is closing its remaining mortgage originations operations. The company had been acting as a mortgage broker. (Read More)

Lehman Shutters Aurora's TPO Arm

Lehman Brothers said it is closing the wholesale and correspondent origination arms of Aurora Loan Services, its nonprime mortgage banking subsidiary. The move reduces staffing at the company by 50%, with approximately 1,300 employees fired. (Read More)

IndyMac Lays Off another 2,400

In October, after nearly 1,600 people left IndyMac Bancorp here in a voluntary resignation and severance program, chief executive Michael Perry told the remaining staffers in an e-mail there would be no further layoffs unless "the mortgage market takes another turn for the worse." Now, another 2,400 jobs are being lost. (Read More)

Wells Navigates Crisis with Fewer Scars than Most Rivals

Wells Fargo, nominally the nation's largest mortgage lender pending Bank of America's acquisition of Countrywide, saw its fourth-quarter profit fall on the weight of credit costs but still fared better than just about any other firm in the industry. (Read More)

WaMu Posts $1.87B Loss

Washington Mutual lost $1.87 billion in the fourth quarter, driving the company's full-year performance into the red as well. (Read More)

Editorial: End of an Era

Though it hit a bad patch in the past couple of years and its end was probably inevitable, the history of Countrywide Financial Corp. has held more highs than lows. Its co-founder and chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, is the most legendary figure in the history of mortgage banking, and you have to admire the terrific scrap he put up to stay in business over the past six months. Using a thrift charter to tap the Federal Home Loan Bank System for $50 billion in lending money is just the latest of Mr. Mozilo's nervy and often brilliant moves. (Read More)

Open Forum: The Economic Outlook

Mr. Bernanke's remarks at the Women in Housing and Finance and Exchequer Club Joint Luncheon in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

HUD Backs Off Increase in FHA Premiums

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has canceled a planned increase in the mortgage insurance premiums for FHA multifamily mortgages due to opposition from housing groups and concerns about the multifamily market. (Read More)

Housing Downturn Picked Up Speed in 2007

The housing contraction unexpectedly gained momentum in 2007 and looks to extend, with some ferocity, at least well into 2008, according to Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

FICO Updates Scoring To Improve Accuracy

Fair Isaac Corp. here is in the process of releasing the newest version of its credit scoring module, FICO 08. (Read More)

Poll: Americans Worried by Mortgage Industry's Woes

The results of a Harris Poll shows Americans are very concerned about what is happening in the mortgage business and how it affects the overall economy. (Read More)

Tracking Loan Program Changes at FHA, Etc.

Potential for change and expansion clearly are high when it comes to Federal Housing Administration loan programs, and keeping track of such changes has created apparent business opportunities not only for compliance service providers but also for companies such as SearchMyLoan.com here. (Read More)

Roundup: BCAP Alt-A Tranches Are Downgraded by Moody's

Twenty tranches from four mortgage-backed securities deals issued by BCAP in 2007 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service and six tranches have been placed under review for possible downgrade. (Read More)

American Home Gets Upgrade

Fitch Ratings has raised its residential servicer ratings on American Home Mortgage Servicing by one notch, reflecting the company's post-bankruptcy restructuring under new owner WL Ross & Co. (Read More)

Downey Faces Accounting Change

Downey Financial Corp. will have to treat home loan modifications as a "troubled debt restructuring" under accounting rules as the result of an interpretation change by its auditors, KPMG, the company said. (Read More)

Study: Foreclosure and Debt Haunting American Consumers

A Center for American Progress report finds that as the housing crisis is getting worse with the third quarter of 2007 featuring "the highest foreclosure rate on record - 0.8% of all mortgages foreclosed - after six consecutive quarters of rising foreclosure rates," American consumers continue to add on already record amounts of debt and have less disposable income than ever before. (Read More)

Dutch Fund Invests in U.S. Apartments

PGGM, a Dutch pension fund, is investing $200 million in Behringer Harvard's multifamily portfolio. (Read More)

Capital One Warns Earnings May Fall Short of Expectations

Capital One Financial Corp. sharply lowered its estimate of fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 earnings last week, citing credit costs associated with the shutdown of GreenPoint Mortgage as a factor in the weaker earnings outlook. (Read More)

Popular Reduces Mortgage Assets

Popular Inc. here has reclassified some on-balance-sheet securitizations as sales under Financial Accounting Standard 140. The company also provided an update on its goodwill impairment analysis regarding its investment in E-Loan. (Read More)

Centralized Data Collection Smooths Origination

As lenders look to cut channels and loan products to deploy new products, data centralization becomes important and lenders like First Houston Mortgage here have realized that relying on old technology can be a hindrance in this area. (Read More)

Fiserv Sheds CredStar Unit

First Advantage Corp. bought Fiserv Inc.'s CredStar, a credit-reporting agency catering to mortgage lenders. (Read More)

FHLBs Offer Foreclosure Help

The Federal Home Loan Banks are getting involved in foreclosure prevention and offering their member banks and thrifts access to grants and advances to facilitate refinancing of subprime mortgages into fixed-rate 30-year mortgages. (Read More)

A CFC/BoA Combo: 23% Production Share

After almost 40 years of originating and servicing residential loans, it's the end of the line for Countrywide Financial Corp. and its well-tanned founder, chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo. (Read More)

CFC Loses Its CIO to Fiserv

Countrywide Financial Corp., which is slated for sale to Bank of America, has lost its chief information officer, Richard K. Jones - a 12-year veteran of the lender - to technology giant Fiserv Inc. (Read More)

FBR Pulls Plug on First NLC

Friedman Billings Ramsey last week pulled the plug on it subprime production division, First NLC Financial Services of Deerfield Beach, Fla., closing the company and letting most of its workers go. (Read More)

MBA Sees Loan Volume Falling to Lowest Level Since 2000

Single-family originations will decline by 16% this year compared to 2007 and drop below $2 trillion for the first time since 2000, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association forecast. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Mavent Inc. appointed Joe Chang vice president of product development. (Read More)

Praise for FirstAm's Split Plan

An analyst's report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods called the splitting of First American Corp.'s businesses into two separate companies "a long-term positive." (Read More)

Auction Will Close Out FL Project

Real estate auction company Marsha Wolak Auctions here will be auctioning the remaining 20 of 250 new Florida condos in the Three Fountains complex in Viera Beach, Fla. (Read More)

An Industry in Crisis

* Pain Management: GSE Loan Limit Hike OK'd by Treasury * MGIC Pre-Announces Huge Loss For 4Q * Downey: NPAS At $1 Billion * Goldman Top Creditor To First NLC * Murder-suicide By B&C Executive (Read More)

GSEs Facing $16B in Hits?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could write down the value of their subprime and alt-A securities by as much as $16 billion in the fourth quarter, according to a new report issued by Credit Suisse. (Read More)

Disaster for MI Cos.

Based on what preliminary indications show, the fourth quarter of 2007 was another financial disaster for the mortgage insurance industry. (Read More)

MI Firms Ranked By Policies In Force

Policies in Force Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 9/30/07 9/30/06 % change Share % pt. +/- 1 Mortgage Guaranty Ins. $196,601 $173,421 13% 21.47% -1.16% 2 PMI Group $177,013 $146,292 21% 19.33% +0.24% 3 Radian Guaranty Inc. $135,015 $115,261 17% 14.75% -0.29% 4 United Guaranty $120,465 $102,896 17% 13.16% -0.27% 5 Genworth Financial $113,970 $90,501 26% 12.45% +0.64% 6 Republic Mortgage Ins. $104,432 $84,050 24% 11.41% +0.44% 7 Triad Guaranty Ins. $68,047 $53,885 26% 7.43% +0.40% Industry Total: $915,543 $766,306 19% 100% Notes: Policies-in-force include pool and bulk insurance. Data as of 9/30/07. Source: NMN/Quarterly Data Report. Questions? E-mail Paul.MuoloSourceMedia.com. (Read More)

Mortgages Hit World Market

Developments early last week suggested the international markets may not be as insulated from the spreading U.S. mortgage contagion as some had hoped and that bond insurers who cover securitized residential real estate finance risks - and have ties to some of the troubled primary mortgage insurers - are facing mounting difficulties. (Read More)

Temp IncreaseIn GSE Limits

House leaders have struck a deal with the White House to temporarily increase the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limit from $417,000 up to a maximum of $730,000 during negotiations on a $150 billion economic stimulus package. (Read More)

B&C Deal Goes For Premium

American General Finance here has agreed to pay $1.49 billion to Popular Inc. - a 3% premium - for most of its subprime loan portfolio. (Read More)

BoA Grows Home Loans

Bank of America's earnings per share fell 28% in the fourth quarter, and the company blamed writedowns on mortgage-related securities and higher credit costs for the sharp drop in income. (Read More)

Earnings Drop For Wachovia

Wachovia Corp. reported a 98% drop in earnings in the fourth quarter to $51 million, compared to $2.3 billion a year ago, as it wrote down the value of its subprime mortgage and commercial real estate securities and increased loan-loss reserves. (Read More)

Proposed Bailout Agency Is Gaining Support in Congress

The idea of recreating a Depression-era agency to purchase defaulted mortgages and prevent widespread foreclosures is gaining traction in the House and Senate. (Read More)

Fieldstone Exec Kills Self, Wife

Walter Buczynski, a former top executive of Fieldstone Mortgage, recently plunged to his death from the Delaware Memorial Bridge, after allegedly killing his wife, authorities said. (Read More)

Repayment Plans Outpace Loan Mods in B&C Relief Effort

Hope Now servicers are starting to provide data on their loan workout efforts and the first report shows that troubled subprime ARM borrowers in the third quarter were seven times more likely to end up in a repayment plan than getting relief through a loan modification. (Read More)

Editorial: The Bright Side

Despite all the torrents of bad news recently, it is a great time to get a mortgage. The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has dropped another 20 or so basis points, to less than 5.75%, and the MBA's weekly survey showed that refinancings have surged to more than 60% of whatever market there still is. (Read More)

Open Forum: What Happened

Experts of Mr. Mudd's recent remarks before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Goldman Is Big 1st NLC Creditor

Goldman Sachs & Co. has filed a $5 million unsecured claim in bankruptcy court against the now-defunct First NLC Financial Services, Deerfield Beach, Fla., a subprime lender owned by Friedman Billings Ramsey. (Read More)

Roundup: Some Countrywide Alt-A Deal Classes Downgraded

Fifty-seven classes from 10 issues of Countrywide alternative-A mortgage-backed securities transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

C&W Touts NY Office RE

The New York office market is going strong, with space availability at its lowest since 2001, according to Cushman & Wakefield. (Read More)

Fitch Places 188 Tranches from 18 CMBS Deals on Watch Negative

Fitch Ratings has placed 188 tranches from 18 commercial mortgage-backed securities deals, representing $8.4 billion in total, on Rating Watch Negative, following a review in its surveillance methodology. (Read More)

Considering Crisis Impact on MI Firms and Stock Market

JJMotgage: What if PMI went under? PMI was trading over $50 a share last spring. (On Jan. 18) it is at $6.47. So now all of these policies don't get paid and all of these lenders are exposed to billions of more dollars in foreclosures. 90% loans won't exist and the housing inventory would be 25 times worse. (Read More)

Loan Limit Increase Unites Former Opponents on GSE Issue

Efforts to increase the conforming loan limit so Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase jumbo loans is creating strange bedfellows and generating more support for passing a GSE reform bill this year. (Read More)

Working Toward State/Local Foreclosure Prevention

Without a federal solution to the staggering foreclosure problem, states, at the urging of community development groups, are taking action and passing foreclosure-prevention legislation. (Read More)

MHI Opposes GSE's Move to Boost MH Fees

The Manufactured Housing Institute said it vigorously opposes Freddie Mac's recent move that, as of March 1, it will be charging an additional "delivery fee" to lenders to purchase manufactured home mortgages of 50 basis points. (Read More)

M/I Home Contracts Fall 11%

For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2007, M/I Homes Inc. here reported 2,513 new contracts, 11% below the 2,825 listed for 2006. (Read More)

JPM Buys U.K. Lifetime Equity-Release Loans

Working to pay off its debt to the government, liquidity-strapped U.K. lender Northern Rock PLC, Newcastle upon Tyne, recently agreed to sell a £2.2 billion ($4.3 billion) portfolio of lifetime home-equity-release mortgages to JPMorgan here just days before shareholders voted to place additional review requirements on certain other capital markets actions the board might take. (Read More)

'CaliFlorida' Drives Housing Woes

As goes "CaliFlorida," so goes the nation's housing economy, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More)

CS Consolidates Mortgage Ops

Credit Suisse last week moved to consolidate several of its mortgage-related business, resulting in an untold number of layoffs, most of which were here in New York. (Read More)

BoA-CFC Deal to Close in Late '08

Bank of America chief executive Kenneth Lewis said this past week that he expects his company's purchase of the troubled Countrywide Financial Corp. to close some time in the second half. (Read More)

LA Realty on Auction Block

Plagued by a persistent tide of foreclosures, a surplus of inventory and falling prices, California's housing market is one of the worst in the nation. (Read More)

Post Properties Gets M&A Offer

Post Properties, a multifamily real estate investment trust, has reported a buyout proposal to acquire the company for $44 to $47 per share in cash. (Read More)

Downey Financial Swings to Loss as Credit Costs Increase

Downey Financial here lost $56.6 million last year, or $2.03 per share, with increased credit costs and a lower interest margin contributing to the red-ink results. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-RealtyTrac has hired Larry Spencer as vice president. (Read More)

CFC Averts 80G Foreclosures

Countrywide Financial Corp. here said it provided workout options that helped over 80,000 borrowers keep their homes in 2007. (Read More)

Prepayments Rise as Rates Rally

Prepayments on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities rose 13% in December, perhaps reflecting an early response to the late-December rally in mortgage rates, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. (Read More)

Sample: Vols Fall 43%

Residential lenders - to the surprise of few - saw their loan production fall by 43% in the fourth quarter compared to the year-ago period, according to preliminary survey figures compiled by this newspaper. (Read More)

CFC Tallies 4Q Loss

Countrywide Financial Corp. lost $422 million in the fourth quarter, bringing the company's full-year 2007 loss to $704 million as deteriorating credit continued to pressure the company. (Read More)

MBIA Takes 4Q Loss

MBIA Inc., whose credit guarantees stand behind billions of dollars in subprime mortgage bonds, posted a $2.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter, blaming the problem partly on the performance of second liens and "CDO squared" transactions. (Read More)

S&P Downgrades Mount

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has downgraded 3,787 classes from U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities that are collateralized by first-lien subprime mortgage loans rated between January 2006 and June 2007. (Read More)

Record Mortgage SARs Seen

In the first fiscal quarter of this year financial institutions filed a record 15,000 suspicious activity reports with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, passing on allegations of mortgage fraud and other criminal behavior. (Read More)

Sambol Gets BoA-CFC Post

David Sambol has been chosen to head up the combined consumer mortgage business of Bank of America Corp. here once it completes its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., which is expected in the third quarter of this year. (Read More)

Citi to SellOr Close FCS

Citigroup, decimated by billions of dollars in writedowns on subprime assets, has decided to close its warehouse lending division, First Collateral Services, Concord, Calif. (Read More)

Residential Originators In 4Q (Sample)

Origination Volume % Organization Name Location 4Q 07 4Q 06 Change America First CU Riverdale, UT $85 $62 37% Amerifund Lending Group West Lake Village, CA $109 $250 -56% Bank Mutual Corp Milwaukee, WI $42 $41 4% Cimarron Mortgage Jackson, MS $63 $70 -10% Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA $68,476 $121,904 -44% Fidelity Bank Wichita, KS $16 $17 -8% People's United Bank Bridgeport, CT $78 $270 -71% Quicken Loans Inc. Livonia, MI $3,614 $5,115 -29% Ridgewood Savings Bank Ridgewood, NY $65 $32 103% Universal American Mortgage Clearwater, FL $1,288 $2,438 -47% Totals: $73,836 $130,198 -43% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. National Mortgage News is still compiling 4Q 2007 results. Want to participate in this survey? Send an e-mail to the address below. (Read More)

Fiserv Sells DataTrac Back to Original Owner

In a consolidation play, Fiserv has sold Del Mar DataTrac Inc. to TVC Capital LLC here. (Read More)

Contract Underwriter Clayton Granted Immunity in Probe

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has granted Clayton Holdings immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing information on the due diligence work it conducted for Wall Street firms that securitized subprime mortgages over the past five years. (Read More)

'Use AutomationMore Wisely'

In 2007, it was reported that 75% of all loans were approved via a decision engine and the rendering could be done in 12 seconds, according to Wachovia SVP Steven Daniels. (Read More)

Editorial: Panic Attack

It's time for everybody to take a deep breath. (Into a paper bag if necessary!) The spread of the subprime mortgage crisis into world markets, presaged by the European Central Bank's recent unprecedented infusion of half a trillion dollars of lending money into European economies, has caused a panic that has made markets around the world extremely volatile. A recent 600-point swing in one day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was a nail-biting Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - but luckily the final swing was 300 points on the upside! (Read More)

Open Forum: The Home Owners' Loan Corp.

Mr. Pollock's recent financial services outlook paper, "Crisis Intervention in Housing Finance," on the Home Owners' Loan Corp. is presented as our Open Forum. First of two parts. (Read More)

Open Forum: Fed Cuts Rates by 50 Basis Points

The Federal Open Market Committee last week dropped the fed funds and discount rates 50 basis points at its regular meeting. (Read More)

Existing Homes Sales Decline 13%

Existing single-family home sales fell by 13% in 2007 and new home sales plummeted 26.4%, but many economists expect sales will bottom out this summer while house prices continue to fall. (Read More)

Eyeing the Value of Originating FHA in the Current Market

Hkitty76: I am in a battle currently with my boss and I need your opinions. We were going to get set up with FHA, but suddenly he doesn't want to go through it because it will be too much work and the processing of the file is tough. He's just making some excuses. I have done FHA in the past so it's not a big deal to me. Do you think a small broker company with about three people will survive without having FHA? Just a little background for you, this town is all about going to the local bank because that's what their parents did, which all of those banks have FHA. Let me know what you think. I really need all the opinions I can get. (Read More)

Comerica Net Income Falls

Comerica Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income dropped by more than a third when compared to both the third quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2006. The company said that fourth-quarter earnings were largely impacted by a decrease in net interest margin and an increase in loan loss provisions. (Read More)

GSE Preferred Securities Hit Seen

In an indication of how widespread mortgage-related problems spread late last year, even banks that avoided subprime lending are taking charges on mortgage assets, including the preferred securities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Read More)

Panel: Don't Shy Away from Tech Innovation

As the industry goes through this downturn, panelists at the 11th Annual SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference here stressed that this is not the time for the industry to shy away from technology innovation. In fact, all agreed that now is the time to re-evaluate processes and adopt a smart technology strategy to increase both efficiency and market share. (Read More)

Roundup: Certain CMLT Pass-Through Classes Downgraded

Thirty-eight classes of Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Clarification

Fitch Ratings has placed 188 tranches from 18 commercial real estate collateralized debt obligations, representing $8.4 billion in total, on Rating Watch Negative, following a review in its surveillance methodology. Analysts at the rating agency wish to clarify information in a Jan. 28 article by noting that transactions placed on review are not technically "CMBS deals," although the underlying collateral may be commercial mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

Ginnie Funds Top Rankings

Mutual funds invested mainly in Ginnie Mae securities topped the rankings of mortgage funds in 2007, reporting an average cumulative total return of 6.30%, according to data from Lipper Inc., New York. (Read More)

Indices PointTo Price Drop

Two credit rating agencies report that commercial real estate indices they maintain point to a decline in commercial real estate prices. (Read More)

GGP Assures that Its Capital Position Is Strong in Wake of Rumors

General Growth Properties, a retail real estate investment trust, has been denying news reports and blog write-ups alleging that the REIT may default on its debt obligations or file for bankruptcy. (Read More)

Bank to Grow CRE Lending

Atlantic Coast Bank is looking to expand its commercial real estate lending activity and has initiated some personnel changes to support this move. (Read More)

MRC Seeing Opportunity in Short-Term Bridge Loan Funding

Madison Realty Capital, a private commercial real estate lender, similar to a hedge fund, is seeing opportunity in the current environment. (Read More)

Reverse Mortgage Lending: Coming of Age

An inordinate number of potential borrowers are turning 62, the age of eligibility for the government-backed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage that dominates the reverse mortgage market, and this alone would make the products - which allow seniors to tap the equity in their homes while still living in them - attractive. The "subprime" crisis' dampening effect on other mortgage lending has taken the reverse mortgage's appeal even further, transforming the one-time niche product into one that - as one executive in this Special Report puts it - "a lot of people believe ... is the only one out there." (Read More)

Loan Woes Lead to New Market Tech Need

With volume falling about 20% last year and another 20% this year if all the projections end up being true, lenders need new loan products to reach out to new markets if they're going to survive. Given the credit crunch and subprime issues, though, the mortgage market has returned to a very vanilla, conventional environment. (Read More)

Reverse Mortgages Heat Up as Brokers' Options Narrow

Not only is the reverse mortgage hot, "a lot of people believe it is the only product out there," the chief operating officer of Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc., Spring, Texas, said. There is a lot of movement towards this product from mortgage brokers, who are finding few, if any, traditional forward mortgage products to originate, said the COO, Marc Helm. Unlike the forward business, there is an active secondary market for these loans, he said. "I think, if anything, the current environment in the mortgage industry is going to help the reverse mortgage grow more rapidly than it would have under normal circumstances." (Read More)

Jack Kemp Speaks for Generation

Jack Kemp, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, nine-term congressman, vice presidential candidate and professional football quarterback, is now a spokesman for reverse mortgage lender Generation Mortgage Co. here. The 72-year-old statesman is an original investor in the reverse mortgage lender and has been a strong advocate for the appropriate utilization of reverse mortgages by seniors. "A reverse mortgage is certainly not for everyone, but it can play a significant role in one's ability to care for oneself and one's family later on in life," said Mr. Kemp. (Read More)

House Passes Stimulus Bill

The House passed a $146 billion economic stimulus bill last week that temporarily increases the loan limits on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration in high-cost areas. (Read More)

'Minorities More Likely to Have Subprime Loans'

In areas where banks do not have branches, minority borrowers, such as African-Americans and Latinos, are more likely to have subprime loans than those in white neighborhoods, according to speakers on the "The Subprime Mortgage Meltdown - How It Affects Communities and Lenders" panel at the New York State Bar Association Business Law Section annual meeting. (Read More)

CFC Totally Abandons Using CP

Countrywide Financial Corp. has completely abandoned using commercial paper borrowings to fund its operations and instead is relying on hefty advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank System, according to its fourth-quarter earnings release. (Read More)

Report Eyes Crunch's CRE Impact

Although the commercial real estate sector is better equipped to handle the impact of an ongoing credit crunch than it has been in the past, returns are likely to be down in 2008, according to a report from Deloitte Consulting's real estate group. (Read More)

Mortgage Woes Affect Banks

For a pair of banks headquartered in the mid-Atlantic region, mortgage-related charges had a negative affect on their fourth-quarter results. (Read More)

Traditional Multifamily Sources Picking Up Market Slack

In an environment in which conduit lenders are not active, traditional sources of multifamily lending are picking up the slack. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Garden Grove-Susie Phillips has joined Informative Research as the company's vice president of strategic planning and business development. (Read More)

Tech Can Aid in Tough Market

As more and more lenders shut their doors and overall volume slips, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Several panelists at the 11th Annual SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference here shared concrete strategies that can help lenders in the current down market. (Read More)

Ellie Releases Custom/Banker 3.0

Ellie Mae has released its Encompass Banker Edition 3.0 and Encompass Custom Edition 3.0. Encompass Custom is offered as an LOS with extensive configurability, while Encompass Banker is Ellie Mae's entry into the ranks of end-to-end systems designed for community banks, credit unions and other small to midsize mortgage lenders. (Read More)

OOMC Asset Buy Seen

H&R Block here has found a buyer for the $61 billion subprime servicing portfolio of its Option One Mortgage Corp. unit, according to investment banking sources. (Read More)

Data: Brokerages Drop 34%

David Olson of Wholesale Access - a man who has made his living from studying loan brokers - said last week that the future for third-party intermediaries looks downright bleak. (Read More)

No. Of Loan Brokerage Firms At Year-End

Period # of Mortgage Percentage Change Ending Brokerage Firms From Prior Period 2007 35,000 (34%) 2006 53,000 (2%) 2005 54,000 (2%) 2000 30,000 (9%) 1995 23,000 15% Notes: A percentage figure in parenthesis indicates a decline. (Read More)

FHA to Up Premiums?

Deteriorating market conditions and adverse loan performance could force the Federal Housing Administration to raise its insurance premiums later this year if Congress doesn't give the agency more tools to manage its risks, according to HUD officials. (Read More)

GSE Plans New Multifamily Program

Freddie Mac is launching a new program to securitize multifamily mortgages on a regular basis by buying and pooling the loans and then securitizing them through a broker/dealer. (Read More)

Lenders See Refi Spike

The recent drop in interest rates combined with relatively low home prices has driven up mortgage refinance applications in many markets across the country. And for the last two or three weeks, lenders have seen spikes in refis. (Read More)

Thornburg: Profit Returns

Single-family residential mortgage lender Thornburg Mortgage Inc. here returned to profitability in the fourth quarter with net income before preferred stock dividends of $64.8 million, down 19% from the $80.3 million for the same period the year prior but marking a huge comeback from the $1.1 billion loss it suffered in the third quarter. (Read More)

Commercial Volumes In 4Q '07 (A Sample)

Organization Name Location 4Q 07 Vol. 4Q 06 Vol. % Change Wachovia Charlotte, NC $11,371 $24,322 -53% Key Bank Real Estate Capital Cleveland, OH $5,556 $6,861 -19% Principal Real Estate Investors LLC Des Moines, IA $2,684 $1,641 64% Q10 Capital LLC Brentwood, TN $1,221 $1,652 -26% Capestone Realty Advisors LLC Cleveland, OH $578 $516 12% M&T Realty Capital Corp. Baltimore, MD $334 $551 -39% Pace Financial Columbus, OH $275 $123 124% Meredith & Grew Boston, MA $119 $176 -32% BankAtlantic Fort Lauderdale, FL $77 $123 -37% Bison Financial Group LLC St. Petersburg, FL $52 na na Astoria Federal S&L Lake Success, NY $13 $16 -19% Pan Pacific Financial Corp. Roseville, CA $5 $3 70% Gershman Investment Corp. St. Louis, MO $2 $26 -92% Totals $22,287 $36,009 -38% Notes: NMN is still collecting 4Q 07 results. If you would like to provide your commercial numbers send an e-mail to Paul.Muolo (Read More)

Rejections a Question in Refis

Expectations are growing that the Federal Reserve's rate cuts have set the stage for a refinancing boom that could bolster struggling mortgage companies and help a lot of borrowers get into safer and lower-cost mortgages. (Read More)

Loan Limit Hike Could Take Months

After Congress passes the economic stimulus bill, it may take another two months before Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac begin buying jumbo loans, according to the GSEs' regulator. (Read More)

GFE Move by Month-End?

HUD's long-awaited redesign of the good-faith estimate should be available to everyone and published in the Federal Register by the end of February, according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development official. (Read More)

LendingTree Posts Huge Loss

The LendingTree posted a stunning $502 million loss in the fourth quarter, compared to a net profit of $14 million a year ago. (Read More)

ResCap Loss Pushes GMAC Financial Services into the Red

A big loss at subsidiary Residential Capital, which has been pummeled by the subprime mortgage crisis, pushed GMAC Financial Services into the red for the fourth quarter of 2007. GMAC attributed its $724 million fourth-quarter loss largely to a $921 million net loss at the ResCap unit. Writedowns of credit residuals and MBS, higher funding costs, market-driven impairment on real estate assets and equity investments, and restructuring charges all contributed to the ResCap loss, the company said in its earnings release. Layoffs continued in the fourth quarter, as ResCap trimmed its workforce by another 3,000 positions. (Read More)

PHA Suit Eyes HUD Chief

The Philadelphia Housing Authority, in a recent lawsuit, accuses U.S. housing secretary Alphonso Jackson of taking retaliatory action against the agency because it would not transfer, at a steep discount, a $2 million piece of public property to a friend of the secretary. Previous to the suit being filed, the Department of Housing and Urban Development had accused the PHA of not providing enough housing units to people with disabilities, an allegation that if confirmed could lead to a loss of federal funds for the authority. The existence of the PHA lawsuit was first reported by The Washington Post. (Read More)

Editorial: No Silver Bullets

"Do more with less." That's the new mantra of mortgage technology, according to a fascinating workshop at the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference in Orlando, Fla. (Read More)

HOLC Offers Clues to Recovery

Mr. Pollock's recent financial services outlook paper, "Crisis Intervention in Housing Finance," on the Home Owners' Loan Corp. is presented as our Open Forum. Second of two parts. (Read More)

Rating Overhaul Needed but Could Lead to More Pressure

Rating agencies last week separately warned that they are continuing to revise certain policies and procedures in reaction to unexpectedly high U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities losses, putting pressure on the ratings of certain collateralized debt obligation tranches and possibly those of bond insurers and some banks. This could potentially lead to more dislocations in more markets in the short term but in the long run the hope seems to be it will stabilize the market by giving it a better way to size up mortgage-related securities and insurance. (Read More)

Most Commercial/Multifamily Volumes Fall, Except at GSEs

Commercial and multifamily originations were down 16% in the fourth quarter, compared to the 2006 fourth quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported at its commercial and multifamily real estate finance convention here. (Read More)

Commercial RE Price Increases May Not Be as High

Commercial property prices are not likely to go up in 2008 as much as they did in previous years, according to the National Association of Realtors. (Read More)

Weak Housing Market Fuels Rise in Nonperforming Assets

Banks across the country are seeing the recovery of real estate-owned assets affect their non-interest expenses. (Read More)

New Vendor Offers Storage as Online Service

As lenders look to seriously embrace paperless processing this year as a way to cut costs and gain efficiencies, they'll need a place to store all those imaged files. Seeing the need to fill this gap for both imaged files now and full e-notes as the industry progresses, Cerberus Storage has entered the space offering enterprise level data vaulting and storage services. (Read More)

Citi Pays Premium for PCLender

Given an increased emphasis on loan quality, certain lenders have decided to somewhat endorse technology that they trust by offering correspondents a discount if they use approved loan origination systems. Along this vein, PCLender, a Web-based LOS here, and CitiMortgage have extended their Affinity agreement. (Read More)

VirPack to Offer Web-Hosted Vault

VirPack here has released a new hosted Web-based document management and electronic loan delivery platform called VirPack Vault. (Read More)

Firm's Earnings Rise as Mortgage Unit Grows

Monarch Financial Holdings Inc., the bank holding company for Monarch Bank, saw record quarterly net income and continued strong loan and asset growth. While other players are cutting back their mortgage operations in the fourth quarter of 2007, the bank continued the expansion of its franchise, Monarch Mortgage. (Read More)

Franklin Credit Delays Reporting Again

Franklin Credit Management Corp. has again delayed its financial report for the third quarter of last year and subsequent periods. (Read More)

Roundup: Some Aussie MBS with PMI Exposure on Review

The Sydney office of Moody's Investors Service here placed on review for possible downgrade 325 tranches from 144 Australian residential mortgage-backed securities deals totaling 83 billion Australian dollars ($74 billion) following the rating agency's downgrade of PMI Mortgage Insurance Ltd. (Read More)

US Bancorp Net Income Falls

U.S. Bancorp here reported a drop in net income of more than 20% in the fourth quarter of 2007 as compared to the same period the year before. The company cited the challenging economic environment facing the financial services industry as a factor in its performance. (Read More)

Shut Subprime Affects H&R Staff

Shutting its subprime mortgage business will result in staffing reductions in the headquarters support staff at H&R Block Inc. here. (Read More)

MA Home Sales Drop Below 3,600 for First Time in 16 Years

In November, Massachusetts reached an ominous milestone. It was the first time in 16 years that the state had seen less than 3,600 sales of single-family homes. Home sales fell by a double-digit percentage for the third month in a row and prices were also down when compared to November 2006, according to The Warren Group. (Read More)

Stay In Home Sees Growth

As part of its long-term strategy to expand its presence in the reverse mortgage lending market, as well as take advantage of the overall growth within the market, a financial advisory and advocacy firm based here that educates and provides seniors with reverse mortgages has expanded its office space. (Read More)

'GSE Loss Estimates Too High'

GSE regulator James Lockhart last week said a $16 billion loss estimate made on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by a Credit Suisse analyst is "too high." Two weeks ago, CS analyst Moshe Orenbuch said the two could face $16 billion in charge-offs on their subprime and alt-A holdings even though the bonds in question have AAA ratings. (Read More)

Law Change May Affect NY Buyers

A proposed change in the bankruptcy law that would allow courts to write down the value of home mortgages in the event of bankruptcy by the borrower would have cost homebuyers in New York more than $2,989 if it had been law in 2006, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The House Judiciary Committee passed the Emergency Home Ownership and Mortgage Equity Protection Act in December. The legislation would end a 110-year-old federal protection that prevents bankruptcy judges from altering the mortgage terms of loans on primary residences. The protection was specifically affirmed by Congress in the 1978 rewrite of bankruptcy law as well as in a 1993 Supreme Court decision, said the MBA. If bankruptcy judges are allowed to unilaterally change the terms of a signed mortgage contract, lenders will face new uncertainty as to the value of the asset - the home - that is to serve as collateral for the loan. To account for the new risk that this bill imposes, lenders will be forced to require higher downpayments, higher costs at closing and higher interest rates. Holding all else constant, the association believes that this will increase interest rates on all future mortgages by one and a half to two percentage points. On average, MBA expects mortgage interest rates to go up at least one and a half percent if this bill passes. (Read More)

CMBS Are Down but Are Likely to Come Back

Commercial mortgage securitizations are down, in the aftermath of the subprime-mortgage-induced credit crunch, but they are likely to come back. In the meantime, portfolio lenders have an advantage over securitization lenders. And while collateralized debt obligation avenues are mostly absent now, it is expected to be back in a simplified form. (Read More)

Fitch Enhances RMBS Default/Loss Model

Fitch has made enhancements to ResiLogic, its mortgage default and loss model for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

People

ARIZONA Phoenix-Community Bank of Arizona said that financial lenders Ivy Voss and Laurie Hallums have joined the commercial real estate lending division at the bank's Central Avenue location. (Read More)

Nehemiah Optimistic for DPA

Nehemiah Corp. of America here, the nation's pioneer of the private downpayment assistance gift, celebrated 10 years of service during which it has provided over $1 billion in DPA funds that helped over 250,000 minority and low- to moderate-income families become homeowners. (Read More)

OCC: Size Up CRE Portfolios

The Comptroller of the Currency is warning national banks to size up their commercial real estate portfolios before his examiners start knocking on their doors. (Read More)

JPM Adds Warehouse

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to purchase what it calls "certain intellectual property" belonging to Washington Mutual's warehouse lending division and is in the process of making job offers to some of the unit's warehouse executives, sources confirmed to National Mortgage News. (Read More)

FHA Aims at Seriously Overdue

Now that the FHA Secure program has fallen short in helping slightly delinquent subprime borrowers, proposals are being floated to expand the Federal Housing Administration program to refinance a growing number of seriously delinquent borrowers. (Read More)

NAHB Cuts Off PACs

The politically powerful National Association of Home Builders is taking unprecedented steps to persuade current and future lawmakers to put a tax credit in place for homebuyers who help knock down the record inventory of unsold houses. At its annual convention here last week, the 235,000-member group voted to suspend all political contributions to federal congressional candidates and their political action committees until further notice. (Read More)

Jumbos Get a Boost

Lenders will be able to originate jumbo loans for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration pretty soon now that President Bush has signed the economic stimulus bill. (Read More)

Morgan Shuts Most of Saxon

Morgan Stanley, which 18 months ago bought subprime lender Saxon Capital for $706 million, last week closed most of the unit's third-party production offices but vowed to keep its servicing operation open. (Read More)

Freddie Gives MIs a Lifeline

With the private mortgage insurance industry facing a capital crunch, Freddie Mac has thrown these companies a lifeline that, if successful, will help to keep them from shutting down. (Read More)

Residential Servicers at Dec. 31, 2007 (Sample)

Servicing Volume % Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change America First CURiverdale, UT $1,115 $957 17% B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase BankBethesda, MD $21,184 $20,998 1% Bank Mutual Corp.Milwaukee, WI $1,059 $1,124 -6% Carolina First Mtg. Corp.Greenville, SC $391 $402 -3% Countrywide Financial Corp.Calabasas, CA $1,476,203 $1,298,394 14% Fidelity BankWichita, KS $2,329 $2,474 -6% Guardian Mortgage Co.Richardson, TX $1,947 $2,005 -3% HSBC Mortgage Corp. USADepew, NY $66,288 $65,269 2% ING Bank FSBWilmington, DE $20,464 $10,231 100% Midwest Loan ServicesHoughton, MI $4,376 $4,004 9% National City MortgageMiamisburg, OH $187,512 $171,006 10% NATIXIS Real Estate CapitalNew York, NY $11,077 $10,372 7% Paul FinancialSan Rafael, CA $164 $906 -82% Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) Minneapolis, MN $453,300 $467,784 -3% Sandy Spring BankColumbia, MD $456 $391 17% State Employees CURaleigh, NC $9,139 $8,910 3% SunTrust Mortgage Inc.Richmond, VA $149,855 $129,974 15% U.S. Bank Home MortgageBloomington, MN $118,636 $99,799 19% WachoviaCharlotte, NC $193,124 $175,244 10% Washington MutualSeattle, WA $623,365 $710,797 -12% Submitted Totals: $3,341,985 $3,181,040 5% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. National Mortgage News is still compiling 4Q 2007 results. Want to participate in this survey? Send an email to the address below. (Read More)

AIG Reassures Market on Credit Default Swap Exposure

In a follow-up announcement, American International Group Inc. here said it does not expect losses on its credit default swap portfolio to be material. (Read More)

Top Six Servicers Declare 30-Day Halt on Foreclosure Starts

Under the auspices of the Bush administration, six of the nation's largest residential servicers controlling almost 60% of the market last week unveiled a new program to freeze for 30 days all foreclosures - prime and subprime alike - on loans under their control. (Read More)

Zacks: Crunch Could Get Worse

A financial analyst at Zacks Investment Research, parent of Zacks.com, sees some positive signs emerging for the mortgage business, but he warns that the current credit-tightening cycle is likely to get worse before it gets better. (Read More)

Editorial: Rays of Light

Not all the news is bad in the mortgage industry these days. (Read More)

Open Forum: Reforming GSE Regulation

Excerpts of Mr. Lockhart's recent testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

More Fed Cuts May Aid Market Still Facing Liquidity Issues

It sounded last Thursday like Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was likely to cut short-term rates yet again, potentially good news for a market that could certainly use some help with continuing U.S. mortgage and liquidity woes. (Read More)

Consumer Groups Wary about BoA Purchase of Countrywide

A quartet of consumer groups have expressed their apprehension about the proposed takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp. here by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America in a letter to the two top Democrats in Congress overseeing financial matters. (Read More)

Merger Undone By Housing Woes

Executives at a bank here and a thrift headquartered in a suburb of Cincinnati blame the housing crisis for the bust up of a proposed merger agreement between the two. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Gregory Tornquist

Mr. Tornquist, president of Cenlar FSB, Ewing, N.J., was named chief executive officer in addition to retaining the title of president of Cenlar FSB and president of Cenlar Capital Corp. Since joining Cenlar in 1987, he has played a lead role in the company's servicing and subservicing business, becoming chief financial officer in 1998, executive vice president in 2004 and president in 2006. (Read More)

The Manufactured Housing Industry Is Calling All Lenders

The Manufactured Housing Institute is lobbying lawmakers and the housing finance industry to increase the availability of financing for the purchase of manufactured homes. (Read More)

Fitch Eyes $139B of Subprime RMBS for Possible Downgrade

Fitch Ratings has placed 2,972 classes of 2006 and 2007 subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (totaling $139 billion) on Rating Watch Negative. (Read More)

J.E. Robert Looking For Equity Investments

JER Investors Trust, a real estate investment trust that originates and invests in commercial mortgage-related securities, and JER Partners, the private equity division of J.E. Robert Cos., are looking for investments for a private equity fund. (Read More)

Global MBS Issuance Is Up Despite Worldwide Credit Crunch

Issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased last year despite the global credit crunch, a report from the London office of Moody's Investors Service here says. (Read More)

M&T's Earnings Fall in 2007 as Alt-A Credit Quality Weakens

In accordance with generally accepted accounting principals, M&T Bank Corp. saw a bit more than one-fifth of its net income for 2007 evaporate as compared to the same time period 12 months earlier because of the downturn in housing prices and rising delinquency rates for alt-A products. A bright spot for the company was the strong growth of commercial loans in the second half of 2007. (Read More)

Middleburg Sees Investment Drop

Middleburg Financial Corp. here saw its fourth-quarter earnings drop by nearly two-thirds in a year-over-year comparison, due mostly to an impairment charge related to the company's investment in Southern Trust Mortgage LCC. Middleburg recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $5 million related to its investment in STM. (Read More)

Ashford, PREI Form Venture

Ashford Hospitality Trust and Prudential Real Estate Investors are in a joint venture to invest in mezzanine debt and equity interests in hotel properties nationwide. (Read More)

MFA's Stock Sale Nets $231.3 Million

MFA Mortgage Investments has priced a public offering of 25 million shares of common stock at $9.25 per share, for estimated gross proceeds of $231.3 million. (Read More)

USAA Real Estate Raises $450MM

USAA Real Estate Co. has raised $450 million in equity commitments from 10 institutional investors for an industrial fund. (Read More)

MuniMae Trades On OTC Market

Municipal Mortgage & Equity, a multifamily lender and investment manager, is now trading its stock on the over-thecounter market. It will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. (Read More)

Unraveling of Nonprime Market Puts IndyMac in the Red

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. here recorded its first-ever annual loss in the 23-year history of the company. In a letter to shareholders, Michael W. Perry, the company's chairman and chief executive, said given that IndyMac's business model had been focused on the non-government-sponsored enterprises mortgage business, the company "bore the brunt of the crisis as it worsened throughout the year." (Read More)

Workouts Top Agenda

In past years, when retention topped the topics of discussion at the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference, people were usually talking about portfolio retention, and the risk they faced generally came from refinancing. Today, servicers are talking about retention in a different context. (Read More)

Big Easy's Big Welcome

Industry executives will be convening in New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina destroyed an estimated 275,000 housing units in the Gulf region just over two and a half years ago, and mortgage lenders continue to play a big role in helping New Orleans recover. (Read More)

Streetcars Are Running Again

One of the best signs that progress has been made in this city following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina is that all three of its streetcar lines - St. Charles, Riverfront and Canal - have resumed operations. (Read More)

New Orleans Jazz Fest Is Back

Over the years I have always bumped into people amazed by the city, the music and the people that are New Orleans. I am one of those truly enthusiastic about the city, which for decades fashioned the most popular jazz event in America, the New Orleans Jazz Fest. (Read More)

HBO Puts Focus on Crescent City

David Simon, the man behind the gritty, realistic television dramas "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Corner" and "The Wire," is in discussion with HBO with the hopes of launching a new series set in New Orleans. (Read More)

Servicers Reach Out to Consumers

Countrywide Financial Corp. and a consumer advocacy group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, reached a deal to extend their efforts to help delinquent, subprime borrowers retain their homes just weeks ago. (Read More)

The 'Street of Dreams'

When coming to New Orleans, visitors look forward to experiencing the people, the culture, the history, the music, and the Creole and Cajun cuisine. (Read More)

First American Employs Analytics to Score Second Liens

First American Subordinate Lien Outsourcing here, a unit of the First American Corp., has created a new scoring model to measure the risk/reward potential for second-lien loans. (Read More)

'Case by Case' Is Still the Rule

A Federal Reserve Board survey of senior loan officers shows that the vast majority of commercial banks are taking a "case-by-case" approach to loan modifications. (Read More)

Limited Impact from Higher Limit

The temporary increase in the conforming loan limit is not likely to help as many borrowers as originally expected, according to a number of sources at last week's National Association of Home Builders convention here. (Read More)

States Focus on Compliance

A new report from Aite Group LLC titled "Trends in State Banking Supervision: A Snapshot View" shows that state regulators are focused on compliance topics that are a direct result of the subprime mortgage crisis. (Read More)

CMBS Expected to Weaken in '08

Delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities are likely to go up this year, according to Standard & Poor's. (Read More)

Equity Residential's Net Drops

Equity Residential reported earnings of $0.44 per share for the fourth quarter of 2007, down from EPS of $1.57 for the fourth quarter of 2006. (Read More)

Correction

The Fed recently lowered the funds rate 125 basis points in 10 days. The basis point figure was misstated due to a typographical error in a cover story in the Feb. 11 issue. (Read More)

Good Sign: Homebuilder Traffic Is Up

An industry hungry for some good news will get some today when the National Association of Home Builders releases the results of a monthly survey that found traffic to near-dormant subdivisions across the country showed a marked increase earlier this month. (Read More)

For Sale Inventory Still Draging Down Values

Even though the backlog of unsold houses is going down slowly, it is still a drag on the market and could push the housing recovery well into 2009, according to economists at the National Association of Home Builders convention here last week. (Read More)

Fidelity Releases New Loan Workout Tool

With a universal mandate to work out thousands of loans, lenders are desperately looking to technology for help. Fidelity National Information Services Inc. has built a new Web-based loan-modification and electronic-signature utility for its ClosingStream e-mortgage technology platform. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has hired Lee Norman as a managing director in its Los Angeles office focusing on debt and equity placement for all property types throughout the Western United States. (Read More)

Expert Says Beware of Credit Repair

Foreclosures, debt, or past credit problems have tainted the records of many customers who turn into credit repair targets even though according to the Federal Trade Commission, accurate and timely negative information on a credit report cannot be legally removed. (Read More)

JPM Adds Warehouse

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to purchase what it calls "certain intellectual property" belonging to Washington Mutual's warehouse lending division and is in the process of making job offers to some of the unit's warehouse executives, sources confirmed to National Mortgage News. (Read More)

FHA Aims at Seriously Overdue

Now that the FHA Secure program has fallen short in helping slightly delinquent subprime borrowers, proposals are being floated to expand the Federal Housing Administration program to refinance a growing number of seriously delinquent borrowers. (Read More)

NAHB Cuts Off PACs

The politically powerful National Association of Home Builders is taking unprecedented steps to persuade current and future lawmakers to put a tax credit in place for homebuyers who help knock down the record inventory of unsold houses. At its annual convention here last week, the 235,000-member group voted to suspend all political contributions to federal congressional candidates and their political action committees until further notice. (Read More)

Jumbos Get a Boost

Lenders will be able to originate jumbo loans for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration pretty soon now that President Bush has signed the economic stimulus bill. (Read More)

Morgan Shuts Most of Saxon

Morgan Stanley, which 18 months ago bought subprime lender Saxon Capital for $706 million, last week closed most of the unit's third-party production offices but vowed to keep its servicing operation open. (Read More)

Freddie Gives MIs a Lifeline

With the private mortgage insurance industry facing a capital crunch, Freddie Mac has thrown these companies a lifeline that, if successful, will help to keep them from shutting down. (Read More)

Residential Servicers at Dec. 31, 2007 (Sample)

Servicing Volume % Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change America First CURiverdale, UT $1,115 $957 17% B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase BankBethesda, MD $21,184 $20,998 1% Bank Mutual Corp.Milwaukee, WI $1,059 $1,124 -6% Carolina First Mtg. Corp.Greenville, SC $391 $402 -3% Countrywide Financial Corp.Calabasas, CA $1,476,203 $1,298,394 14% Fidelity BankWichita, KS $2,329 $2,474 -6% Guardian Mortgage Co.Richardson, TX $1,947 $2,005 -3% HSBC Mortgage Corp. USADepew, NY $66,288 $65,269 2% ING Bank FSBWilmington, DE $20,464 $10,231 100% Midwest Loan ServicesHoughton, MI $4,376 $4,004 9% National City MortgageMiamisburg, OH $187,512 $171,006 10% NATIXIS Real Estate CapitalNew York, NY $11,077 $10,372 7% Paul FinancialSan Rafael, CA $164 $906 -82% Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) Minneapolis, MN $453,300 $467,784 -3% Sandy Spring BankColumbia, MD $456 $391 17% State Employees CURaleigh, NC $9,139 $8,910 3% SunTrust Mortgage Inc.Richmond, VA $149,855 $129,974 15% U.S. Bank Home MortgageBloomington, MN $118,636 $99,799 19% WachoviaCharlotte, NC $193,124 $175,244 10% Washington MutualSeattle, WA $623,365 $710,797 -12% Submitted Totals: $3,341,985 $3,181,040 5% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. National Mortgage News is still compiling 4Q 2007 results. Want to participate in this survey? Send an email to the address below. (Read More)

AIG Reassures Market on Credit Default Swap Exposure

In a follow-up announcement, American International Group Inc. here said it does not expect losses on its credit default swap portfolio to be material. (Read More)

Top Six Servicers Declare 30-Day Halt on Foreclosure Starts

Under the auspices of the Bush administration, six of the nation's largest residential servicers controlling almost 60% of the market last week unveiled a new program to freeze for 30 days all foreclosures - prime and subprime alike - on loans under their control. (Read More)

Zacks: Crunch Could Get Worse

A financial analyst at Zacks Investment Research, parent of Zacks.com, sees some positive signs emerging for the mortgage business, but he warns that the current credit-tightening cycle is likely to get worse before it gets better. (Read More)

Editorial: Rays of Light

Not all the news is bad in the mortgage industry these days. (Read More)

Open Forum: Reforming GSE Regulation

Excerpts of Mr. Lockhart's recent testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

More Fed Cuts May Aid Market Still Facing Liquidity Issues

It sounded last Thursday like Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was likely to cut short-term rates yet again, potentially good news for a market that could certainly use some help with continuing U.S. mortgage and liquidity woes. (Read More)

Consumer Groups Wary about BoA Purchase of Countrywide

A quartet of consumer groups have expressed their apprehension about the proposed takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp. here by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America in a letter to the two top Democrats in Congress overseeing financial matters. (Read More)

Merger Undone By Housing Woes

Executives at a bank here and a thrift headquartered in a suburb of Cincinnati blame the housing crisis for the bust up of a proposed merger agreement between the two. (Read More)

Promotion Spotlight: Gregory Tornquist

Mr. Tornquist, president of Cenlar FSB, Ewing, N.J., was named chief executive officer in addition to retaining the title of president of Cenlar FSB and president of Cenlar Capital Corp. Since joining Cenlar in 1987, he has played a lead role in the company's servicing and subservicing business, becoming chief financial officer in 1998, executive vice president in 2004 and president in 2006. (Read More)

The Manufactured Housing Industry Is Calling All Lenders

The Manufactured Housing Institute is lobbying lawmakers and the housing finance industry to increase the availability of financing for the purchase of manufactured homes. (Read More)

Fitch Eyes $139B of Subprime RMBS for Possible Downgrade

Fitch Ratings has placed 2,972 classes of 2006 and 2007 subprime residential mortgage-backed securities (totaling $139 billion) on Rating Watch Negative. (Read More)

J.E. Robert Looking For Equity Investments

JER Investors Trust, a real estate investment trust that originates and invests in commercial mortgage-related securities, and JER Partners, the private equity division of J.E. Robert Cos., are looking for investments for a private equity fund. (Read More)

Global MBS Issuance Is Up Despite Worldwide Credit Crunch

Issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa increased last year despite the global credit crunch, a report from the London office of Moody's Investors Service here says. (Read More)

M&T's Earnings Fall in 2007 as Alt-A Credit Quality Weakens

In accordance with generally accepted accounting principals, M&T Bank Corp. saw a bit more than one-fifth of its net income for 2007 evaporate as compared to the same time period 12 months earlier because of the downturn in housing prices and rising delinquency rates for alt-A products. A bright spot for the company was the strong growth of commercial loans in the second half of 2007. (Read More)

Middleburg Sees Investment Drop

Middleburg Financial Corp. here saw its fourth-quarter earnings drop by nearly two-thirds in a year-over-year comparison, due mostly to an impairment charge related to the company's investment in Southern Trust Mortgage LCC. Middleburg recorded a non-cash impairment charge of $5 million related to its investment in STM. (Read More)

Ashford, PREI Form Venture

Ashford Hospitality Trust and Prudential Real Estate Investors are in a joint venture to invest in mezzanine debt and equity interests in hotel properties nationwide. (Read More)

MFA's Stock Sale Nets $231.3 Million

MFA Mortgage Investments has priced a public offering of 25 million shares of common stock at $9.25 per share, for estimated gross proceeds of $231.3 million. (Read More)

USAA Real Estate Raises $450MM

USAA Real Estate Co. has raised $450 million in equity commitments from 10 institutional investors for an industrial fund. (Read More)

MuniMae Trades On OTC Market

Municipal Mortgage & Equity, a multifamily lender and investment manager, is now trading its stock on the over-thecounter market. It will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. (Read More)

Unraveling of Nonprime Market Puts IndyMac in the Red

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. here recorded its first-ever annual loss in the 23-year history of the company. In a letter to shareholders, Michael W. Perry, the company's chairman and chief executive, said given that IndyMac's business model had been focused on the non-government-sponsored enterprises mortgage business, the company "bore the brunt of the crisis as it worsened throughout the year." (Read More)

Workouts Top Agenda

In past years, when retention topped the topics of discussion at the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference, people were usually talking about portfolio retention, and the risk they faced generally came from refinancing. Today, servicers are talking about retention in a different context. (Read More)

Big Easy's Big Welcome

Industry executives will be convening in New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina destroyed an estimated 275,000 housing units in the Gulf region just over two and a half years ago, and mortgage lenders continue to play a big role in helping New Orleans recover. (Read More)

Streetcars Are Running Again

One of the best signs that progress has been made in this city following the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina is that all three of its streetcar lines - St. Charles, Riverfront and Canal - have resumed operations. (Read More)

New Orleans Jazz Fest Is Back

Over the years I have always bumped into people amazed by the city, the music and the people that are New Orleans. I am one of those truly enthusiastic about the city, which for decades fashioned the most popular jazz event in America, the New Orleans Jazz Fest. (Read More)

HBO Puts Focus on Crescent City

David Simon, the man behind the gritty, realistic television dramas "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Corner" and "The Wire," is in discussion with HBO with the hopes of launching a new series set in New Orleans. (Read More)

Servicers Reach Out to Consumers

Countrywide Financial Corp. and a consumer advocacy group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, reached a deal to extend their efforts to help delinquent, subprime borrowers retain their homes just weeks ago. (Read More)

The 'Street of Dreams'

When coming to New Orleans, visitors look forward to experiencing the people, the culture, the history, the music, and the Creole and Cajun cuisine. (Read More)

First American Employs Analytics to Score Second Liens

First American Subordinate Lien Outsourcing here, a unit of the First American Corp., has created a new scoring model to measure the risk/reward potential for second-lien loans. (Read More)

'Case by Case' Is Still the Rule

A Federal Reserve Board survey of senior loan officers shows that the vast majority of commercial banks are taking a "case-by-case" approach to loan modifications. (Read More)

Limited Impact from Higher Limit

The temporary increase in the conforming loan limit is not likely to help as many borrowers as originally expected, according to a number of sources at last week's National Association of Home Builders convention here. (Read More)

States Focus on Compliance

A new report from Aite Group LLC titled "Trends in State Banking Supervision: A Snapshot View" shows that state regulators are focused on compliance topics that are a direct result of the subprime mortgage crisis. (Read More)

CMBS Expected to Weaken in '08

Delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities are likely to go up this year, according to Standard & Poor's. (Read More)

Equity Residential's Net Drops

Equity Residential reported earnings of $0.44 per share for the fourth quarter of 2007, down from EPS of $1.57 for the fourth quarter of 2006. (Read More)

Correction

The Fed recently lowered the funds rate 125 basis points in 10 days. The basis point figure was misstated due to a typographical error in a cover story in the Feb. 11 issue. (Read More)

Good Sign: Homebuilder Traffic Is Up

An industry hungry for some good news will get some today when the National Association of Home Builders releases the results of a monthly survey that found traffic to near-dormant subdivisions across the country showed a marked increase earlier this month. (Read More)

For Sale Inventory Still Draging Down Values

Even though the backlog of unsold houses is going down slowly, it is still a drag on the market and could push the housing recovery well into 2009, according to economists at the National Association of Home Builders convention here last week. (Read More)

Fidelity Releases New Loan Workout Tool

With a universal mandate to work out thousands of loans, lenders are desperately looking to technology for help. Fidelity National Information Services Inc. has built a new Web-based loan-modification and electronic-signature utility for its ClosingStream e-mortgage technology platform. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has hired Lee Norman as a managing director in its Los Angeles office focusing on debt and equity placement for all property types throughout the Western United States. (Read More)

Union Targets Bank Directors

An investment group affiliated with union pension funds says it plans to challenge directors of two of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders, Bank of America and Washington Mutual, over their role in risk management during the mortgage crisis. (Read More)

Expert Says Beware of Credit Repair

Foreclosures, debt, or past credit problems have tainted the records of many customers who turn into credit repair targets even though according to the Federal Trade Commission, accurate and timely negative information on a credit report cannot be legally removed. (Read More)

Toll May Hit $341 Billion

JPMorgan Chase, in a new report, estimates that depositories and investment bankers could be on the hook for $341 billion in mortgage-related writedowns - both residential and commercial - in the years ahead. (Read More)

JPMorgan's Latest Estimate On Losses

Asset Outstandings Current Estimated Type in Loan Type Expected Loss Writedown Amt. (Read More)

CFC's Foreclosures Rise 92%

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest residential servicer with a market share of almost 17%, said its foreclosure rate almost doubled in January from the same month a year ago, according to newly released figures. (Read More)

FBR Loses $270 Million

Friedman Billings Ramsey Group here lost $270 million in the fourth quarter, blaming its performance, in part, on the bankruptcy of its subprime division, First NLC Financial Services of Florida. (Read More)

Md. Examines Ocwen

The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is examining the collection practices of Ocwen Loan Servicing, West Palm Beach, Fla., one of the largest subprime players in the U.S. (Read More)

FHA Called Upon for More Help

All of a sudden FHA Secure appears to be a cure-all for many kinds of troubled borrowers and now a proposal is being shopped to use the Federal Housing Administration program to help homeowners with underwater mortgages. (Read More)

Jumbo Lenders in 4Q 2007 (Sample)

($ in Million) Jumbo % Organization Name Location 4Q 07 4Q 06 Change America First CU Riverdale, UT $1 $1 0% B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD $236 $952 -75% Carteret Mortgage Corp. Centerville, VA $22 $150 -85% EMC Mortgage Lewisville, TX $670 $1,177 -43% Franklin American Mortgage Franklin, TN $7 $22 -70% Guardian Mortgage Co. Richardson, TX $2 $2 0% HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY $204 $226 -10% M&T Mortgage Buffalo, NY $109 $152 -28% Midwest Loan Services Houghton, MI $5 $1 400% Navy FCU Merrifield, VA $193 $70 176% Perl Mortgage Chicago, IL $62 $166 -63% Ridgewood Savings Bank Ridgewood, NY $57 $21 171% Sierra Pacific Mortgage Folsom, CA $4 $416 -99% U.S. Bank Home Mortgage Bloomington, MN $271 $318 -15% Wachovia Charlotte, NC $911 $1,461 -38% Note: Results may be incomplete because some lenders would not provide jumbo volumes. Jumbo loans exceed the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit of $417,000, a limit that soon will be adjusted upward. (Read More)

Katrina Looms in Backdrop as Servicers Meet in New Orleans

When leaders of the mortgage servicing industry settle into their annual conference in New Orleans this week, the hurricane that reshaped the city and much of the Gulf Coast region will weigh on their minds. (Read More)

Mission Selling NPA Portfolio

Mission Capital Advisors here is taking bids on a $131.2 million portfolio of nonperforming mortgages secured by commercial and residential properties in western Florida. (Read More)

S&P Sees Stable REIT Outlook

Rating agency Standard & Poor's says that equity real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies "continue to maneuver well through the rough waters of the capital markets," maintaining sound property operating performance. (Read More)

Democrats Irk Lenders with Additional 'Stimulus' Proposal

Senate Democrats have crafted a second stimulus bill that includes bankruptcy changes lenders strongly oppose and likely will sink the bill. (Read More)

Editorial: Year of the Servicer

Everyone attending this week's Mortgage Bankers Association's National Servicing Conference in New Orleans will know that 2008 is the Year of the Servicer. It's one of the verities of the mortgage business: when originations tail off (usually because interest rates rise), servicing value zooms. (Read More)

Open Forum: The Vocabulary of Housing

Mr. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, has contributed an editorial on "revisiting the vocabulary of housing." His comments are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Fed Cut Hopes and Writedowns that Warrant Them Continue

More evidence that further Fed rate cuts are possible fueled by the release of the last Fed meeting's minutes continued to offer some hope last week but other developments linked to the U.S. mortgage woe-sparked global credit crunch left the market outlook mixed. The continuing crunch last week had notably prompted the United Kingdom government to take temporary control of U.K. lender Northern Rock and reportedly caused a state regulator in the U.S. to set a deadline for bond insurers to bolster their flagging ratings. Although trading of Northern Rock's ordinary and preference shares had been suspended as a result and the company was disappointed that its alternative efforts to find a private market solution had not been successful, at least one rating agency report indicated the move was an improvement for the company's soundness. The U.K. government has made plans to appoint two executives that will work with existing management to operate the company at arms-length from other government operations and otherwise, the company's operations remain largely unchanged, customers' funds remain government-protected and the lender is slated to return to private ownership "at the earliest opportunity." (Read More)

Could Another Housing 'Bubble' Be Waiting in the Wings?

The common perception among economists is that the current housing bubble will be a relatively short-term affair that should see a return to normalcy within the next few years. (Read More)

Farmer Mac Pays Stock Dividends

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., better known as Farmer Mac, has declared quarterly dividends on its common and preferred stock. (Read More)

Thrifts Lose$5.2B in 4Q

Federally chartered thrift institutions reported a $5.2 billion loss in the fourth quarter, the biggest loss since the second quarter of 1988 when the thrift industry took a $4 billion loss during the savings and loan crisis. (Read More)

Zacks Cautions Market on Freddie's Stock

While saying that Freddie Mac's stock is trading well below its historical valuation norms, analysts at Zacks.com are still cautious about the company's prospects going forward. (Read More)

Roundup: Positives Outweigh Negatives for CMBS Market

U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities continued to see more positive rating actions than negative ones in 2007 even though the 12-month global downgrade rate for securities backed by residential mortgages, as well as structured finance in general, rose to "historically high levels," Moody's Investors Service said. (Read More)

Two Buyers Take Multifamily REIT

GMH Communities Trust, a multifamily real estate investment trust, is being sold in two parts to two different investors for a total cash payout of about $9.61 per GMH share, as well as the assumption of GMH debt. (Read More)

Housing Market's Woes Turn into Apartment Market's Gain

The downturn in the housing market and tighter availability of credit are having a positive impact on multifamily rentals, according to the National Multi Housing Council's first-quarter survey of executives. (Read More)

CIT Exits CRE Financing?

CIT is no longer in the commercial mortgage finance business, according to an early February report in Commercial Mortgage Alert. In response to queries from National Mortgage News, a spokeswoman for CIT issued a statement saying, "CIT, like many financial firms, announced plans to cut expenses and reduce staffing in certain businesses to reflect current and expected market conditions. Included in that initiative was a reduction in staff in our commercial real estate financing group. We continue to maintain, and are committed to, our commercial real estate advisory business and its related fee-based initiatives and remain focused on supporting our existing client relationships." (Read More)

Housing Downturn's Fallout Takes Toll on Larger Economy

The housing downturn is the key to current economic performance and the largest drag on economic growth, according to Doug Duncan. (Read More)

Zillow: Condo Prices Fall 7.4%

Home values nationally fell year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2007, leaving one in three recent homebuyers with "negative equity," according to online real estate information provider Zillow. (Read More)

Capstead Sells Over-Allotment

Capstead Mortgage closed a public offering of eight million common shares in early February, and last week the company said that underwriters had exercised their option to purchase 600,000 additional shares of the 1.2 million potential over-allotment at the public offering price of $15.50. (Read More)

Economic Downturn Puts Hit on Imperial Capital's Earnings

Imperial Capital Bancorp Inc. here said that net income for the quarter and the year that ended Dec. 31 fell in comparison to 12 months prior. Based primarily on the operations of its wholly owned subsidiary, Imperial Capital Bank, net income for 2007 was down 42% to $15.6 million, or $2.81 per diluted share, compared to $26.9 million, or $4.71 per diluted share, for 2006. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades Hundreds More B&C Classes

More than 750 additional classes of subprime mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Ohio AG Says Freddie Did Not Disclose Subprime Exposure

Ohio attorney general Marc Dann recently filed suit against Freddie Mac accusing it of fraud and "secretly and intentionally participating in one of the largest housing investment deceptions in modern U.S. economic times." (Read More)

Originators Express Frustration over Current State of Affairs

The following is a quartet of threads on www.MortgageGrapevine.com where the posters made comments about some of the larger originators in the business. (Read More)

Farm Credit System Bucks Market Trend

The Farm Credit System, a cooperatively owned network of lenders for agriculture, rural housing and rural businesses, saw its net income increase last year despite the turmoil in the broader credit markets. (Read More)

Charter Bank Grows Asset Base

Charter Bank said that it earned nearly $17 million in net income last year as its assets reached a record $1.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2007. Total assets were up 11% from $1.3 billion reported at the end of 2006. (Read More)

Web Roundup: Home Loan Applications Fall in Mid-February

Applications Drop The Market Composite Index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, fell from 1063.5 to 822.8 on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ended Feb. 15, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. On an unadjusted basis, applications decreased 21.2% on the week but were up 33.9% from the level recorded a year earlier. The Purchase Index fell from 403.9 to 357.6 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the Refinance Index declined from 4901.5 to 3533.8. Refinancings represented 61.7% of total applications, down from 67.4% the previous week, while adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 12.8%, the MBA said. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from 5.72% to 6.09%, and points (including the origination fee) fell from 1.15 to 1.10 for loans with 80% loan-to-value ratios, the association reported. (Read More)

Counseling Helps Cash Flow

As more and more lenders begin working with credit counseling agencies to improve contact rates with delinquent borrowers, they are finding that counselors provide more than just a way to get borrowers talking about solutions to their home loan problems. (Read More)

LSSI Gains Traction in Servicing

Technology providers, like the lenders they serve, face a challenging market as the mortgage industry struggles to right itself. (Read More)

SIRs Offers Field Services Certification

An organization that represents companies in the field services industry has teamed up with a consulting company to offer Web-based testing and certification exams for property inspection and property preservation providers. (Read More)

Wolters Kluwer Stepping Up Loan-Modification Services

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a provider of compliance and workflow tools, is expanding its services to support loan modification and workouts for the mortgage industry. (Read More)

Top Commercial Servicers Gain Market Share

The theme of consolidation in the commercial servicing space continues, with all the major servicers adding to their portfolios at the end of 2007. (Read More)

Promoting Cross-Border Lending

Citibank (Banamex USA), a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc., is looking hard at technology to enable it to do cross-border lending more effectively. (Read More)

Lender Touts E-Mortgage Payoff

While some lenders hold back on the electronic mortgage because of bad market conditions and an unclear return on investment, others like First Houston Mortgage here have done it and say it has paid off. (Read More)

CB&T Automates Loan Pricing

In moving from a servicing outfit to an origination and servicing shop, Commonwealth Bank & Trust Co. here realized that it had to turn to technology to assist this transition. (Read More)

New York and Washington Markets Attract Foreign Capital

Foreign investors have identified New York and Washington as their top two cities for real estate investments, according to the latest annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate. (Read More)

MSP Processes39 Million Loans

Fidelity National Information Services said it completed a successful year-end processing of loans serviced using its Mortgage Servicing Package on the first day of the year, saying that all daily, month-end and quarter-end processing had been done by 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 1. (Read More)

Banks Expect Mortgage Biz to Rise

Community bankers are seizing on opportunities in the residential mortgage market to increase their market share and maintain a strong origination business, according to an annual survey by the American Bankers Association. (Read More)

Lender Contact Rates Improve

Industry data indicate lender efforts to assist delinquent borrowers are proving to be more efficient. (Read More)

ServiceLink Offers Warranted AVMs

ServiceLink, a national provider of origination and default services, is offering warranted collateral valuations and automated valuation model reports designed to protect against overstated valuations resulting in losses. "The mortgage industry needs a higher level of confidence that valuations are accurate and reliable," said Kevin Gugenheim, ServiceLink executive vice president and chief strategic officer. (Read More)

Roundup: Subprime Suits Outpacing S&L Crisis

The number of subprime-related cases filed in federal courts is "dramatically outpacing" the litigation filed during the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s, according to Navigant Consulting Inc., Chicago. According to a Navigant study, 278 subprime-related cases were filed in 2007, nearly half the total of 559 S&L cases handled by the Resolution Trust Corp. over several years. "The S&L crisis has been a high-water mark in terms of the litigation fallout of a major financial crisis," said Jeff Nielsen, managing director of Navigant Consulting. "The subprime-related cases appear on their way to eclipsing that benchmark." Mr. Nielsen said the wave of litigation "appears to be just the beginning" and that there has been "a steady acceleration" of such cases so far this year. (Read More)

KB Home Sued on Appraisal Allegations

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against homebuilder KB Home and mortgage lender Countrywide KB Home Loan, alleging that the two companies used fraudulent appraisal reports as part of a scheme to artificially support prices of KB houses just as the California real estate market began to collapse in late 2005. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Pasadena-IndyMac Bank has added new members to its mortgage bank. (Read More)

Clayton Sees Goodwill Charge

Clayton Holdings, a provider of analytics, consulting and outsourced services here, reported a loss of $91.7 million in the fourth quarter, reflecting a loss of $92.8 million related to impairment of goodwill and other assets in its transaction management business. (Read More)

40% B&C to Default?

An estimated 40% of outstanding subprime mortgage loans could go into default over the next three years based on current economic assumptions, according to Michael Bykhovsky, president of Applied Analytics, San Francisco. (Read More)

Res. Wholesalers In 4q 07 (Sample)

Wholesale Volume % Organization Name Location Q4 07 Q4 06 change Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY $596 $460 30% B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD $312 $856 -64% Cimarron Mortgage Jackson, MS $29 $31 -6% EMC Mortgage Lewisville, TX $246 $1,824 -87% Fifth Third Mortgage Cincinnati, OH $1,062 $727 46% HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY $1,794 $2,208 -19% ING Bank FSB Wilmington, DE $2,252 $1,418 59% Midwest Loan Services Houghton, MI $8 $6 33% National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH $3,134 $4,007 -22% People's United Bank Bridgeport, CT $14 $182 -93% Ridgewood Savings Bank Ridgewood, NY $58 $22 164% Sierra Pacific Mortgage Folsom, CA $1,290 $2,171 -41% SunTrust Mortgage Inc. Richmond, VA $5,128 $5,629 -9% U.S. Bank Home Mortgage Bloomington, MN $2,730 $1,436 90% Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco, CA $7,132 $11,528 -38% Totals: $25,785 $32,504 -21% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. NMN soon will publish a final 4Q 07 ranking of residential wholesalers. NMN is still receiving 4Q surveys. Subprime firms excluded from this sample. (Read More)

GSEs Edge Warily Into Jumbos

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are entering the jumbo market with very unsure footing due to legislative, securitization and capital constraints. (Read More)

High Risk? High Price

Freddie Mac seller/servicers delivering high-risk mortgages to the GSE could wind up paying guarantee and delivery fees of close to 78 basis points per loan under new requirements that go into effect in three months. (Read More)

Fannie Loses $3.6 B

Fannie Mae reported a $3.6 billion loss in the fourth quarter and a $2.1 billion loss for 2007 as revenue was eaten up by hedging losses, loan-loss provisions and credit losses. (Read More)

Margin Calls for TM

Thornburg Mortgage, a jumbo lending REIT and the nation's 38th largest funder overall, late last week revealed that it has been hit with $300 million in margin calls from its lenders since Feb. 14. (Read More)

Astoria's Earnings Fall to $37.1 Million

Astoria Financial Corp. here saw its net income decline from $37.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 to $19.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. (Read More)

Frank Seeks to Fund FHA Buys of Distressed Mortgages

House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants the Federal Housing Administration to purchase distressed mortgages from lenders and he is seeking $15 billion to fund the program. (Read More)

Ameriquest Mortgage Founder Resigns as Ambassador

Roland Arnall, who founded both Ameriquest Mortgage and its wholesale affiliate Argent, has resigned as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands effective March 7, citing his son's health. (Read More)

Protest Angers MBA Executive

Members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now staged a protest at the hotel where the Mortgage Bankers Association was holding its National Mortgage Servicing Conference here last week. While only a small number of protesters participated, the action angered MBA chairman-elect David Kittle, who noted during a press conference that MBA member companies have been working with ACORN to promote loss mitigation that avoids foreclosure and keeps borrowers in their homes. He called the protest "counterproductive." He also noted that loan workout solutions doubled in the fourth quarter of last year from the third quarter. (Read More)

FIS Desktop '08 Gets Underway

Fidelity National Information Services has released FIS Desktop 2008, an improved imaging, retrieval, expense and communication management system that provides real-time connectivity to mortgage banking and financial industry players. FIS said it links default services customers to more than 10,000 vendors, service providers and investors through a single user-interface. It also automates some functions and eliminates the need to build multiple interfaces among various data and service providers, the company said. The FIS Desktop 2008 release includes a redesigned user interface and development framework designed to increase flexibility and allow advanced integration. It allows users to view all active loans in the FIS Mortgage Servicing Package and to launch workflows from mortgage servicing systems using a combination of business rules. (Read More)

Editorial: An Unwelcome Visitor

Here's the prospect of something coming back we hoped we'd never see again - stagflation. The word conjures up bad memories of 20% prime mortgages, long gas lines and the "Misery Index" of the late 1970s, a time when economic malaise lay upon the land. (Read More)

Open Forum: The Era of Reform

Mr. Reich's remarks at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Legislative & Regulatory Conference in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Eyeing Weak Economy/Inflation and Bond Insurance Moves

It had been a relatively tough week up through press time last Thursday as the combination of a weak economy and inflationary signs, among other things, led to more concerns for the market. (Read More)

Two Rating Agencies Look at Commercial Real Estate Prices

Two leading credit rating agencies recently reported on commercial real estate prices, with Moody's seeing declines and S&P seeing some recent improvements. (Read More)

Mortgage CDO Lawsuit Filed

HSH Nordbank AG has filed a lawsuit against UBS involving a U.S. mortgage-linked collateralized debt obligation portfolio, alleging breaches of contractual obligations and fiduciary duties that UBS denies. (Read More)

More Suing than in S&L Era Seen

There could be more litigation resulting from the current subprime mortgage crisis than from the thrift crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Navigant Consulting Inc. here said. The savings and loan debacle has been considered to be "the high water mark" in terms of legal filings related to a financial predicament, said Jeff Nielsen, Navigant's managing director. (Read More)

Roundup: Some Firms Seeing Mortgage-Related Pressures

Credit Suisse Group and related entities have been put on CreditWatch Negative by the London office of Standard & Poor's here due to its estimated $2.85 billion in mortgage-related writedowns for the first quarter that mispricing by a small number of traders contributed to. (Read More)

Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Index Falls Slightly

A leading indicator of commercial real estate brokerage activity maintained by the National Association of Realtors fell 0.4% in the fourth quarter. According to the trade group, this is the second consecutive quarterly decline for the index, which peaked in the second quarter of 2007 at 120.7 (it is now at 120.1). For nine consecutive quarters before the two recent declines, the index showed quarterly gains. Lawrence Yun, the association's chief economist, said, "The decline in the index implies that commercial activity, as measured by net absorption and the completion of new commercial buildings, is likely to contract moderately over the next six to nine months." (Read More)

CBRE Becomes a DUS Lender

CB Richard Ellis Group, a commercial real estate services company and lender, has become a Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing lender and will be doing this multifamily lending through its capital markets platform. (Read More)

FBR Examines Discounts

With banking companies having a high concentration of housing-related assets trading at a steep discount these days, that doesn't necessarily mean it's time to jump in and buy up their stocks, according to analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here. (Read More)

Flagstar Bancorp Suspends Its Dividend for the First Quarter

Flagstar Bancorp has suspended its dividend for the first quarter of 2008. (Read More)

Ratings Roundup: Fitch Downgrades 400 More B&C Classes

Nearly 400 additional classes of first-lien subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were downgraded by Fitch Ratings from Feb. 15 to Feb. 21 as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Ryland Adopts Much of Mortgage Risk Disclosure Proposal

Ryland Homes has agreed to substantially implement a shareholder proposal by a LIUNA pension fund requiring better disclosure of the homebuilder's mortgage risk. (Read More)

Document Services: Technology May Help

As lenders look to create internal efficiencies, going paperless is one solution. Handling physical paper, keying and rekeying data, faxing that paper and storing that paper takes both time and money. (Read More)

Team Automates Loan Mods

Given the overwhelming foreclosure issue, lenders need to get the paper out of the process, keep compliant and try to ensure homeowners get a fair shake, according to Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. (Read More)

Flagstar Creates DocVelocity Unit

Flagstar Bank here has created a subsidiary called DocVelocity as part of an initiative to offer the benefits of paperless processing to the rest of the lending institution. (Read More)

MBS ProClose Aims to Show Web Services and XML Increase Accuracy

Document preparation vendor MBS ProClose Inc. has launched ProClose Platinum, which the company is billing as a Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, extensible markup language, data-driven Web services document platform that offers mortgage lenders accuracy, compliance, docs-on-demand convenience, heightened security, scalability and the variable cost affordability via a Software as a Service approach. (Read More)

Firm Pushes Expansion and Does So Itself

As its name suggests, marketing and cross-sell vendor XSell believes lenders need to use technology to expand beyond just mortgage. (Read More)

GSEs May Shift Appraisal Policy

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may stop accepting appraisals ordered by mortgage brokers by Sept. 1 as part of a settlement the two secondary market agencies are negotiating with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. (Read More)

Niche Lending Finds a Way

Despite the meltdown in the subprime-mortgage sector, lenders continue to devise new and unusual ways - or dust off little-known products - to finance borrowers who fit into numerous market niches. (Read More)

FCM Faces Another Delisting Threat

Franklin Credit Management has been notified by the Nasdaq composite index that because its common stock has failed to maintain a minimum bid price of $1 per share or more for 30 days, the company faces delisting from the market effective Aug. 18, though earlier delisting threats also remain an issue. (Read More)

Dems Fail to Invoke Cloture on Bill

Senate Democratic leaders failed late last week to get the necessary 60 votes to bring a bill up for debate that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgages. The failure to invoke cloture is a major victory for the financial services industry that solidly opposed the bankruptcy provision contained in a foreclosure prevention bill. (Read More)

GSE Exec Eyes Huge Loss, Offsets

Even with the huge loss Freddie Mac posted for the fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 periods, its chairman and chief executive Richard F. Syron told a conference call right now is a "momentous time" for the company. (Read More)

Using Outsourcing to Launch Retail

GenEquity Mortgage Inc. recently decided to launch new retail branches by outsourcing closing, loan funding, line management and post-closing services. (Read More)

Housing Costs Threaten Middle-Class Security

The economic security of America's African-American and Latino middle class is endangered by insufficient assets and high housing costs that put America's households of color at risk of impoverishment, according to a new study by Demos and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University. "The vast majority of African-American and Latino families who have entered the middle class are either borderline or at high risk of falling out of the middle class altogether," Demos said, and lack of affordable housing is one of the most significant contributing factors. Only 26% of African-American and 37% of Latino middle-class families spend less than 20% of their after-tax income on housing - both are below the national average of 40%. (Read More)

Proposing 'Average Price' Use in GFE

Mortgage lenders could use the average price in listing the costs of third-party settlement services on a newly designed good-faith estimate, according to a RESPA reform proposal the Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to publish soon. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Santa Ana-Grubb & Ellis Co. said that Jack Van Berkel has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer. (Read More)

Ratings Reports Pressure MIs

A pair of rating agencies have taken a critical eye towards the companies that make up the private mortgage insurance business. (Read More)

UBS to 'Redouble' MBS Cut Efforts

UBS's plans to improve finances damaged by U.S. mortgage exposures include a move to "redouble" efforts to "manage down" its holdings of mortgage-backed securities and derivatives, embattled chairman Marcel Ospel told shareholders at an extraordinary meeting here last week. Besides cutting its MBS and derivative holdings, UBS's risk management plans include using a separate unit to handle those asset reductions and cuts in proprietary trading, the executive said. (Read More)

Citi Reducing Holdings 20%

Citigroup late last week disclosed plans to reduce its on-balance-sheet mortgage holdings by $45 billion over the next year or 20% of its total portfolio. (Read More)

First Franklin Closed

Merrill Lynch last week closed its failed experiment in subprime lending, First Franklin Financial Corp., adding that it intends to sell the unit's servicing division, Home Loan Services. (Read More)

Defaults Set Record

The overall mortgage delinquency rate jumped to 5.82% in the fourth quarter of last year, the highest level seen since 1985, according to the national delinquency survey of the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More)

ARMs Loans Fare Worst

Loan Type % Loans Outstanding % Foreclosure Starts Prime Fixed 65% 18% Prime ARM 15% 20% Subprime Fixed 6% 12% Subprime ARM 7% 42% FHA 7% 8% Source: MBA. Data for 4th Quarter 2007. (Read More)

CFC's POA 'Debt' at $1.2 Billion

Countrywide Financial Corp., one of the largest funders of payment-option ARMs in the nation, is owed at least $1.2 billion from borrowers who have chosen to forestall interest payments. (Read More)

CFC's POA Woes

($ in millions) Total POA holdings at 12/31/07 $28,423 Accumulated negative amortization $1,216 POA no-doc or lo-doc loans 81% Borrowers using neg-am option 71% POA loans 90-plus days late 5.36% Average initial FICOs on POA 717 Source: CFC's 10-K filing/Table by National Mortgage News. (Read More)

TMA Defaults On Margin Call

Thornburg Mortgage at press time last Thursday appeared to be potentially facing "material" defaults due to deteriorating mortgage-backed securities market conditions. (Read More)

Change for Broker Pay?

In an effort to restore faith in the dishonored mortgage business, the Mortgage Bankers Association has begun kicking around the idea of paying mortgage brokers only if the loans they originate perform as promised. (Read More)

Ambac Stops All Structured

Ambac Financial Group here at press time was seeking to bolster flagging ratings strained by the U.S. mortgage woe-sparked global credit crunch by suspending all new structured finance business for six months and reducing its quarterly dividend to one cent per share from seven cents per share. (Read More)

States With The Highest Delinquency Rates

State Total Past Due 30-day 60-day 90-day Foreclosure Foreclosure Inventory Starts Mississippi 11.07% 5.91% 2.02% 3.14% 2.14% 1.09% Michigan 8.97% 4.62% 1.81% 2.55% 3.38% 1.29% Georgia 8.37% 4.57% 1.66% 2.13% 1.84% 0.96% Indiana 8.35% 4.67% 1.63% 2.04% 3.53% 1.20% Alabama 8.32% 4.50% 1.45% 2.37% 1.36% 0.69% Louisiana 8.09% 4.58% 1.44% 2.06% 2.03% 0.71% Tennessee 8.01% 4.33% 1.55% 2.13% 1.41% 0.77% West Virginia 7.88% 4.79% 1.46% 1.63% 1.37% 0.71% Ohio 7.67% 4.17% 1.49% 2.01% 3.88% 1.15% Florida 7.47% 3.86% 1.65% 1.97% 3.22% 1.46% Source: MBA. Note: Unlike national figures, state data in the MBA National Delinquency Survey are not seasonally adjusted. (Read More)

Bond Insurance Ties Prove Troubling for Mortgage Insurers

The bad news keeps on rolling in for those firms involved in the mortgage insurance business, especially those that have ties to the financial guarantee business as well. (Read More)

Fed: Lenders Must Sacrifice Some Principal

Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke is breaking away from the Bush administration's efforts to keep the restructuring of subprime mortgages narrowly focused on interest rate freezes and reductions. (Read More)

Editorial: Getting It Done

House and Senate conferees should swiftly reconcile and President Bush sign the pending reauthorization of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act, and fund it at a level that helps reduce some of the worst housing conditions in America. (Read More)

Open Forum: Against a Lender Bailout

Mr. Paulson's remarks on housing and the mortgage market before the National Association of Business Economists in Washington last week are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Heavy Selling Seen Widening MBS Spreads to 1986 Level

Spreads between agency mortgage-backed securities and comparable Treasuries last week hit their widest levels since the mid-1980s, according to mortgage researchers. (Read More)

Moody's Wary of CRE Loans

Moody's Investors Service has taken negative rating actions on some regional and community banks, citing their exposure to commercial real estate. (Read More)

ASR Sells Remaining South Carolina Property

Real estate investment and management company American Spectrum Realty Inc. has sold its remaining South Carolina property, Columbia Northeast, on Feb. 28. The project is located in one of American Spectrum's non-core markets. (Read More)

HGI Launches Global RE Fund

Henderson Global Investors, an independent asset management firm with $117.8 billion under management, has launched the Henderson Global Real Estate Equities Fund, an institutional share-class mutual fund that aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation primarily by investing in property-related securities throughout the world. A portfolio team comprised of Henderson's Europe and Asia-Pacific real estate equity managers manages the fund, with Transwestern Securities Management LLC managing the North American portion. The fund has a $1 million investment minimum. (Read More)

Grubb & Ellis Wealth Management Acquires TIAA Building

Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors LLC has acquired the TIAA Building on behalf of a private investor participating in the Grubb & Ellis Wealth Management program. The acquisition closed on Feb. 29. (Read More)

NHP and PMB to Buy 28 Buildings

Nationwide Health Properties and Pacific Medical Buildings are together acquiring a portfolio of 28 medical office buildings for up to $2 billion over a period of three years. (Read More)

Irwin Suspends Dividend But Says Capital Position is Strong

Irwin Financial Corp. became the latest banking company to suspend its dividend. The company said it is suspending dividends on preferred stock and trust-preferred securities in addition to its common stock. (Read More)

Analyst Shrugs Off Margin Calls

Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here say that Thornburg Mortgage's disclosure that it faced $300 million of margin calls in February is not a major cause for worry. (Read More)

Zacks: Stay Away from Banks

Predicting that commercial real estate values will follow the residential sector "into the tank," analysts at the Zacks.com website are warning investors away from some big banking stocks. (Read More)

MGIC Planning to Sell Stock

MGIC Investment Corp. here has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation to sell shares of its common stock in order to raise capital. (Read More)

Roundup: Scottish Re Downgraded on Subprime Worries Roundup: Scottish Re Downgraded on Subprime Concerns

A.M. Best here has downgraded certain ratings of Hamilton, Bermuda-based life reinsurer Scottish Re Group Ltd. and its primary operating insurance subsidiaries, citing "continuing market deterioration in the subprime mortgage loan market" that has hurt its consolidated investment portfolio. (Read More)

Canadian Real Estate Feels Fallout from U.S. Credit Crunch

Canada's commercial mortgage market remains relatively attractive performance-wise despite the credit crunch and related funding cutbacks, according to a mortgage broker with dual headquarters here and in Montreal. (Read More)

Ratings Roundup: S&P Taking a Second Look at Alt-A Deals

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has placed 1,887 classes of alternative-A, first-lien residential mortgage-backed securities on CreditWatch with negative implications. (Read More)

Price Gains Significant Despite Recent Drop

Housing prices in every one of the 20 markets tracked by the popular S&P/Case-Shiller Housing Price Index are higher than they were in the first quarter of 2001. (Read More)

Prices Still Up Since '01

% Decline % Increase City Peak From Peak Since 1st Qtr '01 Atlanta Aug 06 4.3 29.4 Boston Sep 05 9.8 64.6 Charlotte Aug 07 2.9 31.9 Chicago Sep 06 5.1 60.0 Cleveland Jul 06 9.2 12.1 Dallas Aug 06 3.4 20.8 Denver Aug 06 6.6 31.0 Detroit Dec 05 18.7 3.3 Las Vegas Aug 06 16.5 96.1 Los Angeles Sep 06 14.9 133.0 Miami Dec 06 17.5 131.7 Minneapolis Sep 06 9.2 55.4 New York Jun 06 6.5 101.8 Phoenix Jun 06 17.5 87.7 Portland Sep 07 1.7 82.5 San Diego Nov 05 19.1 102.5 San Francisco May 06 13.3 89.3 Seattle Jul 07 3.9 84.9 Tampa Jul 06 15.9 100.1 Composite Jul 06 10.5 84.9 Source: S&P/Case Shiller Housing Price Index. (Read More)

Capital Turmoil Blunts Recovery

The capital markets have placed themselves into a crisis they can't extricate themselves from, according to an industry advisor who paints the situation as "very ugly." (Read More)

GSEs Agree Brokers Should Rely on Independent Appraisers

Mortgage lenders must use independent appraisal firms and mortgage brokers cannot select their own appraiser under a settlement the New York attorney general succeeded in getting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sign. (Read More)

PHH Offsets Higher Origination Losses with Servicing Profit

While PHH Corp. here was profitable for the fourth quarter, for the full year the company lost money. In addition, its mortgage production segment had an increased loss in the fourth quarter and the full year over the previous year. (Read More)

Attendees Looking for Solutions

As the industry gathers at the MBA's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo in Dallas, there is certain to be talk about the market downturn. But attendees don't just want speculation, they'll be looking for strategies that detail how technology can solve real-world business issues. (Read More)

Steps to Going Paperless

A relatively small change in procedure and reorganization of tasks without any expenditure can bring most small- or medium-sized lenders cost savings within two or three years as well as bring them a step closer to "paperless" lending. (Read More)

MBA Technology Show to be More Interactive This Year

This year at the MBA tech show there will be some noticeable changes. In an effort to appeal more to lenders the MBA will run more concurrent sessions and host a roundtable that will invite audience participation. (Read More)

New Vendor Exec Team Poised to Deliver for Lenders

At this year's MBA technology conference lenders will be looking to do more with less. LOS vendor Mortgage Cadence is poised to deliver with its new executive team. (Read More)

LOS Moves to SaaS Model

Realizing the demand for lenders to move away from licensed technology toward paying for their technology on a transactional basis, LOS vendor Mortgage Builder here will roll out its application on a Software as a Service basis at MBA tech. Mortgage Builder is one of the first LOS providers to offer three distinct business models to control loan origination costs. Mortgage Builder's SaaS-based LOS product allows lenders to pay by usage and sidestep periodic flat-fee charges typically offered in an application services provider model or the higher upfront costs associated with purchase. All three business models deliver the same, full-featured end-to-end LOS functionality and the ability to move from one business model to another with minimal effort. (Read More)

Fremont May Take More Asset Hits

Fremont General Corp. here warned it may need to take additional asset writedowns and reserves, which could lead to further losses for the troubled company or force its bank subsidiary, Fremont Investment & Loan, to reduce its regulatory capital. (Read More)

Most Housing Markets Remain Sheltered from the Downturn

The housing markets in the vast majority of the country have been largely unaffected by recent price declines, according to a partner in a popular index the media likes to use to show the enormity of the housing crisis, and an index housing trade groups say paints exactly the wrong picture. (Read More)

FHA Moves Fast on Higher Limit

Federal Housing Administration lenders now have the green light to originate $700,000 mortgages in San Francisco, Boston, Washington and other high-cost metropolitan areas designated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week. (Read More)

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite

MIEC INDEX: 46.7 Change: -6.3 Company 3/6/2008 2/28/2008 Wkly.% Chg. 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi % Chg. P/E Ratio Astoria Federal (AF) 24.84 27.01 -8% 19.75 29.99 25.77% 18.89 Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) 5.22 6.63 -21% 4.25 42.24 22.82% n/a Doral Financial (DRL) 18.82 20.59 -9% 10.80 43.00 74.26% n/a Fiserv, Inc (FISV) 50.98 52.86 -4% 44.16 59.85 15.44% 20.40 Fannie Mae (FNM) 21.80 27.95 -22% 23.84 70.57 -8.56% n/a Fidelity National (FNF) 15.99 17.26 -7% 12.60 28.62 26.90% 28.07 Franklin Bank (FBTX) 3.50 4.14 -15% 3.43 19.02 2.04% n/a Freddie Mac (FRE) 20.13 24.73 -19% 21.00 68.12 -4.14% n/a Kaufman & Broad (KBH) 22.06 25.64 -14% 15.76 49.54 39.97% n/a LandAmerica Financial (LFG) 34.92 35.26 -1% 23.23 108.92 50.32% n/a IndyMac Bancorp (IMB) 4.88 6.42 -24% 3.95 37.50 23.55% n/a PMI Mortgage Ins. (PMI) 6.08 7.83 -22% 5.43 50.50 11.97% 2.70 Radian Group (RDN) 5.55 7.22 -23% 5.44 63.95 2.02% n/a Triad Guaranty (TGIC) 4.70 5.88 -20% 5.00 47.35 -6.00% n/a Washington Mutual (WM) 11.76 15.81 -26% 10.73 44.66 9.60% n/a Notes: NMN compares last Thursday's closing price to that of the 52-week low. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Calabasase-All Valley Trustee has hired Michael S. Goldstein as executive vice president of marketing. (Read More)

MBS Losses Shrink Balance Sheets

Losses on mortgage securities during the current financial crisis may total $400 billion, resulting in "much larger" decreases in lending and balance sheet shrinkage topping $1 trillion, according to a recent report by Wall Street and business school experts. (Read More)

Maryland Scrutinizing Servicers

In response to the impact of the subprime lending crisis on homeowners, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is working on two new initiatives putting servicers on notice that their response to the crisis will be carefully scrutinized. (Read More)

B&C Vanishes as Volumes Fall to 7-Year Low

Hammered by the subprime crisis and subsequent credit crunch, residential mortgage bankers funded $496 billion worth of loans in the fourth quarter, the industry's worst quarterly performance in nearly seven years. Subprime originations were virtually nonexistent: the industry produced just under $6 billion in A- to D credits during the period. Not since the early 1980s has subprime production been so weak. (Read More)

Top Residential Originators In 4Q 07

Origination Volume % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name Q4 07 Q4 06 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $68,476 $121,904 -44% 13.79% -3.27% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $55,985 $86,752 -35% 11.28% -0.86% 3 Chase Home Finance $50,290 $44,451 13% 10.13% +3.91% 4 Bank of America (1) $43,762 $45,582 -4% 8.81% +2.44% 5 CitiMortgage Inc. $37,038 $50,562 -27% 7.46% +0.38% 6 Washington Mutual $24,884 $43,347 -43% 5.01% -1.05% 7 Wachovia $20,519 $27,886 -26% 4.13% +0.23% 8 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) 15,500 23,114 -33 3.12 -0.11 9 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $13,168 $15,314 -14% 2.65% +0.51% 10 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $12,089 $25,946 -53% 2.43% -1.20% 11 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker $8,550 $7,330 17% 1.72% +0.70% 12 National City Mortgage $8,460 $11,377 -26% 1.70% +0.11% 13 PHH Mortgage $8,309 $9,586 -13% 1.67% +0.33% 14 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $7,791 $5,874 33% 1.57% +0.75% 15 Flagstar Bank FSB $6,464 $4,881 32% 1.30% +0.62% 16 First Horizon Home Loans $6,439 $7,251 -11% 1.30% +0.28% 17 Amtrust Bank $6,135 $5,363 14% 1.24% +0.49% 18 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $4,118 $3,419 20% 0.83% +0.35% 19 Provident Funding Associates $4,056 $5,109 -21% 0.82% +0.10% 20 Quicken Loans Inc. $3,614 $5,115 -29% 0.73% +0.01% Total of Top 20: $405,646 $550,164 -26% 81.70% 0.00% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose their production. Subprime specialists excluded from this ranking but many lenders listed here include subprime - and other nonconforming loan types - in with their totals. Market share cut based on estimated 4Q fundings of $496.5 billion. (1) BoA is in the process of purchasing Countrywide. (Read More)

MBS Fund Collapses

Investment fund Carlyle Capital Corp. Ltd. said at press time last Thursday it expected its lenders would "promptly" seize substantially all of its remaining assets as a result of margin calls linked to a slump in the prices of top-rated agency mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

RESPA Fix 'Too Much'

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally issued its long-awaited RESPA reform proposal and it is getting a chilly reception from settlement service providers and others in the housing industry. (Read More)

Fitch Goes Negative on Title Insurance

Fitch Ratings here has revised its ratings outlook for the entire title insurance industry and placed them on negative based on unfavorable profit fundamentals for the current fiscal year. (Read More)

Feds Planning A New 'Sting'

The FBI has set mid-June for another "national sweep" in its continuing effort to nab perpetrators of mortgage fraud. (Read More)

Are E-Loans a Cure?

The mortgage industry has gotten a black eye because of the resulting fallout of the subprime boom. Many executives believe mainstream adoption of electronic mortgages can reshape the quality of loans closed and thus restore trust in those involved in mortgage lending. (Read More)

Macquarie Stops Taking Apps as Cost of Funding Skyrockets

Macquarie Mortgages USA here is no longer accepting applications for new loan originations. However, a spokesman from the New York office of the Australian-based parent company, The Macquarie Group, added "it is business as usual for our existing customers." (Read More)

FBI Eyeing CFC In Fraud Probe?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal inquiry into suspected securities fraud by Countrywide Financial Corp., according to combined news reports. (Read More)

GSEs Prepare To Buy Jumbos

Fannie Mae will begin purchasing fixed-rate jumbo mortgages April 1, but the single-family loans will have to be manually underwritten until its automated underwriting system is updated. (Read More)

Morgan: Spring Homebuying Will be Weak

If mortgage lenders thought a stronger-than-expected spring homebuying season would help reverse their fortunes, they should think again. (Read More)

Editorial: Flirting with Disaster

We've heard a few colorful terms recently to describe the mortgage meltdown we are currently undergoing. One, from an anonymous respondent to one of our surveys, was "the 100-year flood." Another, from Richard Pratt's annual Midwinter Housing Conference in Park City, Utah, was "the roach motel," meaning investors check in but they don't check out. (Read More)

Open Forum: Preventing More Foreclosures

Mr. Bernanke's remarks at the Independent Community Bankers of America Annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

New Fed Move Directly Aids MBS Liquidity, but Is It Enough?

The Federal Reserve helped ease liquidity pressures for the mortgage market last week, most notably by agreeing to lend primary dealers up to $200 billion in Treasury securities for up to 28 days secured by a pledge of any of several types of mortgage-related securities, including certain private-label ones. (Read More)

Deleveraging Pressure Puts Squeeze on Mortgage Investors

Mortgage companies face tough choices now. They face a market that wants to see lower leverage ratios, but to reduce leverage they either have to raise new capital or sell assets in a difficult market. (Read More)

Looking at Electronic Disclosure Holistically

While many vendors offer an electronic disclosure product, e-disclosures go beyond e-delivery, e-signing and paper fulfillment in the event the borrower doesn't e-sign. As a result, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services here has created a complete e-disclosure workflow that includes both compliance and doc creation in addition to the more typical features described earlier. (Read More)

ILOG Sees Integration Potential for Rules Management Tool

Realizing the need to create a more efficient process, lenders are looking to tailor their systems to fit their own needs. As a result of this trend a scalable business rules management system is required that is both Java and .NET compatible. (Read More)

Analysis: Tech Adoption Really Is Coming

While the doom and gloom has managed to find its way to the mortgage technology sector, with spending expected to be down, there may be a silver lining coming in the second half of this year for substantial technology adoption. (Read More)

Lenders Using Automation to Verify Income

While checking a borrower's income may not have been a priority in the past, it's quickly become a necessity in the current mortgage market and lenders are turning to technology to get this job done. (Read More)

Wireless Technology Keeps an Eye on Vacant REO Property

If the servicer can't save the borrower from foreclosure, the next focus is making sure real estate-owned properties are maintained. (Read More)

Georgia Law Firm Expands National Default and REO Services

Morris Hardwick Schneider, a real estate closing law firm here, has established two new mortgage service divisions - national default services and national REO. (Read More)

Best Practices Can Help Servicers Minimize Litigation Risk

In today's challenging environment, servicers must make sure they identify best practices in order to handle the increased litigation by consumers who are challenging foreclosure enforceability. (Read More)

Once Again Nehemiah Prevails Over HUD

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California has ruled against a Department of Housing and Urban Development rule to ban private downpayment assistance as proposed in the "Standards for Mortgagor's Investment in Mortgaged Property" regulation published Oct. 1, 2007. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Revision Takes Big Toll on 800 B&C Ratings

More than 800 additional classes of subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were recently downgraded by Fitch Ratings as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Grubb & Ellis Realty Buys Two Bank Buildings

Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors LLC has acquired a two-building portfolio in Carpentersville and Northlake, Ill., on behalf of a private investor participating in the Grubb & Ellis Wealth Management program. (Read More)

Maguire Looks At Alternatives

Southern California-focused real estate investment trust Maguire Properties Inc. is continuing its review of strategic alternatives for achieving greater value for stockholders, including possible sale of the company. A special committee comprised of independent directors of the board is conducting the review. (Read More)

Capmark Funds Apartment Deal

Capmark Finance Inc. originated $25.6 million in 5.83%, fixed-rate refinancing for Rock Creek Apartments, a multifamily property here. The loan has a seven-year term with interest-only payments. (Read More)

AFRT to Buy Senior Notes

American Financial Realty Trust has commenced a cash tender offer to purchase any and all of the outstanding $450 million principal amount of its 4.375% convertible senior notes due 2024. (Read More)

UDR Completes $1.7 Billion Portfolio Sale

Multifamily real estate investment trust UDR Inc. has completed the sale of 25,684 apartment homes in 86 communities for $1.7 billion to DRA Fund VI LLC in a joint venture with Steven D. Bell & Co. (Read More)

SL Green Sells 1250 Broadway

SL Green Realty Corp. has sold 1250 Broadway here to Murray Hill Properties for $310 million, or $463 per square foot, at a capitalization rate of 4.5%. (Read More)

Analysts Predict Commercial Realty Prices May Fall Sharply

Commercial real estate prices in the United States are likely to decline 10% to 20% during the course of an ongoing downcycle, according to JPMorgan. (Read More)

Life Company Exposure to B&C Called Modest

Fitch Ratings here says that life insurance companies' exposure to nonprime mortgage loans is right now still manageable, maintaining its view from an August 2007 report. But since that report was issued, in the second half of last year there was significant deterioration in subprime performance, which has lead to a decline in market valuations. (Read More)

MortgageWire Roundup: Mortgage Banking Jobs Stabilizing

Mortgage brokerage firms cut 4,100 employees in January, while employment at mortgage banking companies appeared to stabilize, according to a government jobs report. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 3,900 full-time employees in the mortgage banker/broker sector lost their jobs in January. Total employment in the sector fell from 368,800 in December to 364,900 in January. Over the past 12 months, mortgage bankers have cut their payrolls by 25% and eliminated 86,700 jobs, while 23,900, or 17%, of the brokers counted by the BLS have lost their jobs or left the sector. But the recent uptick in refinancings along with rising defaults and workout cases that are straining servicing departments must have forced mortgage banking companies to stop cutting, at least for now. They added 200 workers to their payroll in January. Friday's job report also shows that the troubled homebuilding industry has lost 346,000 jobs since September 2006. Homebuilders laid off 14,400 employees in February, and residential specialty trade contracts cut another 16,300 employees. (There is a one-month lag in the BLS's reporting of jobs data on the mortgage industry.) GINNIE TO SECURITIZE HIGH-BALANCE Ginnie Mae said that pools backed by the Federal Housing Administration's temporary high-balance loans will be ready for issuance on April 1. Ginnie Mae said it will create a new multiple-issuer security under the Ginnie Mae II mortgage-backed securities program to accommodate the loans. "We believe it's important that Ginnie Mae support the stimulus package and create a vehicle that will improve market liquidity as soon as possible," said Thomas R. Weakland, Ginnie Mae's acting vice president. "This new security will enable more borrowers to qualify for safe, affordable FHA-insured loans, which is critically important as the mortgage industry continues to navigate the ongoing market upheaval." All single-family loans higher than the FHA's current loan limit of $362,790 will be eligible for inclusion in the new pools. (Read More)

Hedge Fund Sees Value in 1st Century Bank

A hedge fund here is making what it called "a friendly tender offer" to increase its stake in 1st Century Bancshares, also here, making the argument that the bank holding company's "pristine balance sheet" can be used to make an acquisition of a financial institution being weighed down by the subprime mortgage crisis. (Read More)

$11B in Loans Called Questionable

While it has always been difficult to get a handle on the true size of mortgage fraud, a new report by a leading provider of fraud detection products calls into question some $11 billion in loan applications. And that's during just a six-month window. (Read More)

Thornburg Sees Impairment Hit

Thornburg Mortgage here last week restated its 2007 earnings and took an additional $676 million impairment charge, according to the company's amended annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Read More)

Fraud Is Spreading to All States

While Florida continues to be a hot bed for mortgage fraudsters, the crime is becoming more evenly spread among all states as opposed to being concentrated in just a few, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Asset Research Institute. (Read More)

Loan Mods Rise Sharply

Mortgage servicers modified 104,260 subprime loans in the fourth quarter and another 45,320 in the month of January, according to a Hope Now alliance report that shows servicers are stepping up their efforts to help struggling borrowers. (Read More)

Fannie Offers HomeSaver Advance to Borrowers in Default

Fannie Mae is giving servicers a new tool called HomeSaver Advance to help delinquent borrowers who are getting back on their feet but don't have the resources to cover missed payments. (Read More)

Dems Propose FHA-Refi Subsidy

The chairmen of the House and Senate Banking Committees are drafting a bill to provide up to $300 billion in Federal Housing Administration guarantees to refinance at-risk or delinquent homeowners into affordable FHA-insured mortgages. (Read More)

Prez Advisors: License Brokers

A panel of presidential advisors - including the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve - has officially recommended that all mortgage brokers be licensed by either state or federal authorities. (Read More)

S&P Raises Writedown Tally

Standard & Poor's has raised its estimate for total subprime mortgage-related securities writedowns globally but indicated, "The end is in sight." (Read More)

Grapevine: Open Houses Tough to Crack

Ohiomortgageguy: I've tried open houses as a source of business, but to this point, I've had exactly zero success. What's the best way to approach it? If you go to an open house unannounced, it's difficult to just ask to plop down some brochures as they almost certainly have a "mortgage guy" who has already done so. What do you recommend? Any ideas, tips, suggestions? (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Newport Beach-Nationwide Health Properties Inc. promoted Donald D. Bradley to executive vice president and chief investment officer, Abdo H. Khoury to executive vice president and chief financial and portfolio officer, and Derrick D. Pete to vice president corporate development. (Read More)

Financial Hiring Stable

Mortgage lenders may be slashing payrolls, but overall financial hiring activity appears stable, according to a survey of chief financial officers by Robert Half International. (Read More)

CRE Overdue Rates Still Low

The Mortgage Bankers Association released its inaugural analysis of commercial/multifamily mortgage delinquency rates for major investor groups that shows delinquency rates ended 2007 at or near record lows for most major investor groups. (Read More)

JPMC May Get Bear's EMC

If JPMorgan Chase's purchase of Bear Stearns goes through as planned, the banking giant will gain control of EMC Mortgage of Texas, considered to be one of the top servicers of 'scratch and dent' home loans in the U.S. (Read More)

Most Servicers Gain

Even though the residential origination business has been decimated, servicing portfolios continued to show modest growth in the fourth quarter, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by this publication. Eight of the nation's 10 largest servicers saw their portfolios increase in size during the period. (Read More)

TM Strikes Call Deal

Thornburg Mortgage here has entered an agreement with five of its remaining reverse repurchase counterparties and their affiliates that have issued margin calls. But the agreement is contingent on, among other things, the company's ability to raise at least $948 million in net capital proceeds by the end of this week. (Read More)

GSE Move to Aid E-Mortgages

With all of the clamor to increase data purity and transparency, the migration to SMART Docs and e-mortgages appears inevitable. However, the idea of tackling SMART Docs is daunting to some lenders, which is why Fannie Mae has stepped in to make things easier. (Read More)

OFHEO Loosens Capital Charge

In a move designed to increase liquidity to the ailing U.S. mortgage market, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week loosened a 30% capital surcharge on the two, promising that it will "consider" further reductions in the near future. (Read More)

'Tough Times This Year'

Reflecting on how the mainstream press has treated the mortgage business in the past year, Mortgage Bankers Association chairman Kieran Quinn told attendees at the Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations here that the public has been given a steady diet of bad news. (Read More)

Top Residential Servicers At 12/31/07

Servicing Volume % Market Mkt Sh Rk Organization Name 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. $1,476,203 $1,298,394 14% 16.04% +0.92% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $1,473,178 $1,341,870 10% 16.00% +0.38% 3 CitiMortgage Inc. (1) $799,753 $521,509 53% 8.69% +2.62% 4 Chase Home Finance $775,940 $674,057 15% 8.43% +0.58% 5 Washington Mutual $623,365 $710,797 -12% 6.77% -1.50% 6 Bank of America $516,937 $419,497 23% 5.62% +0.73% 7 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $453,300 $467,784 -3% 4.92% -0.52% 8 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $198,170 $155,656 27% 2.15% +0.34% 9 Wachovia $193,124 $175,244 10% 2.10% +0.06% 10 National City Mortgage $187,512 $171,006 10% 2.04% +0.05% 11 PHH Mortgage $163,056 $160,298 2% 1.77% -0.09% 12 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $149,855 $129,974 15% 1.63% +0.11% 13 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $117,505 $99,799 18% 1.28% +0.11% 14 Aurora Loan Services Inc. $114,045 $92,983 23% 1.24% +0.16% 15 First Horizon Home Loans $111,287 $101,755 9% 1.21% +0.02% 16 EMC Mortgage (2) $89,054 $71,954 24% 0.97% +0.13% 17 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) $70,500 $66,000 7% 0.77% -0.00% 18 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $66,288 $65,269 2% 0.72% -0.04% 19 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $65,554 $59,456 10% 0.71% +0.02% 20 Morgan Stanley $65,002 $45,657 42% 0.71% +0.17% Submitted Totals: $7,709,628 $6,828,959 13% 83.74% 4.26% Notes: Includes subservicing contracts. Results may be incomplete because some servicers would not provide numbers. Subprime servicers excluded from this table but are listed separately in this report. Also, some firms listed here include subprime in with their total numbers. Market share cut based on outstanding U.S. housing debt of $9.206 trillion at Dec. 31, 2007. QDR/NMN assumes it has captured 90% of the market. (1) Fall 2007 Citigroup bought the servicing operation of Ameriquest Mortgage. (2) EMC is owned by Bear Stearns. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

WL Ross Buys OOMC MSRs

WL Ross & Co., the private equity firm run by billionaire turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross, has agreed to pay approximately $1.1 billion to buy Option One Mortgage Corp.'s mortgage servicing rights and related assets from H&R Block. (Read More)

BoA: Rigid Process for Buys/CFC

Bank of America has a rigid transition process it uses for any of the acquisitions is has done or is doing, the company's president for consumer real estate, Floyd Robinson, said. (Read More)

GSEs Aid in Tough Times

Drawing on his hobby of whitewater rafting, Zach Oppenheimer, senior vice president, single family business at Fannie Mae, noted that the mortgage industry has been through rough waters before, including the 1983 recession, problems in the Oil Patch States, the Russian debt crisis and the Sept. 11 attacks. (Read More)

'Recession Hits Industry'

Whether or not the U.S. currently is in a recession, "the real estate industry is, the mortgage industry is," said Rob Couch, the general counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Read More)

PMI Suffers a $1 Billion Loss in First Quarter

Driven by losses on its investment in a financial guaranty company, The PMI Group here had a fourth-quarter 2008 loss of $1 billion, or -$12.51 per share, and a full-year 2007 loss of $915.3 million, or -$10.81 per share. (Read More)

MuniMae Gets Aid from Merrill

Municipal Mortgage & Equity LLC here has addressed strains from municipal bond market woes by entering into an agreement with Merrill Lynch Capital Services to meet future margin calls without posting additional cash as collateral Under the agreement, Merrill Lynch has received a security interest in MuniMae's ownership of the common shares of MuniMae TE Bond Subsidiary LLC, an entity that holds the company's housing bonds and interests in housing bonds originated by the company, in place of collateral related to margin calls," the Baltimore-based company said. (Read More)

Editorial: One Ray of Light

Our last editorial intimating impending disaster for the mortgage business was written before the effective collapse of Bear Stearns but clearly we were concerned that a big casualty like this investment banker could send the dominoes tumbling all down Wall Street. It is nothing less than shocking that an old-line house like Bear would have to be bailed out by the feds and then disposed of for less than the New York real estate it owns. Still, a market solution to this debacle, rather than a federal solution, is better as it shows the industry still is functioning as a going concern, even with as shocking a fire sale as this one has turned out to be. The news that fully a third of subprime loans at Countrywide (to mention another draconian, but industry-driven, solution to dire financial pressure) are now delinquent just underlines the rapidly accelerating and quite unsettling sense of malaise that hovers around the business as no early resolution presents itself. (Read More)

Open Forum: Keeping the Market Liquid

Mr. Mudd's remarks before the National Association of Home Builders 2008 International Builders Show last month in Orlando, Fla., are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

OFHEO Move Helps Improve Mortgage Securities Market

An Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight move last week, combined with recent Federal Reserve moves, brought some recovery to the mortgage-backed securities market. (Read More)

FHA Modernization Fails to Pass Before Easter Recess

Congress has adjourned for the Easter recess without passing a Federal Housing Administration modernization bill due to an impasse over raising the FHA single-family loan limits. (Read More)

Taxing Issues Arise When It Comes to 'Underwater' Owners

The latest emphasis with regard to federal income taxes has been to protect underwater owners from having to pay Uncle Sam when they dispose of their homes for less than what they owe. And for good reason. Millions of people are drowning in mortgage debt. (Read More)

Roundup: Oxford Funding Does Road Show; R&G Settles Suit

Oxford Funding Corp., a publicly traded asset resolution company, is hosting a "road show" to promote its new hedge fund, the Oxford Opportunistic Mortgage Fund. (Read More)

'Rate Drop Mitigates Resets'

Subprime borrowers are benefiting from the drop in short-term interest rates and resets on adjustable-rate mortgages may not be that bad, according to Treasury secretary Henry Paulson. (Read More)

MBIA Cuts, Reorganizes Positions

MBIA here, one of the bond insurers strained by mortgage-related exposures, has made plans to eliminate 48 positions in its insurance department and withdraw some of its ratings. (Read More)

Bank HE Losses May Accelerate

Continued declines in home prices, high consumer debt levels and slowing economic trends have all combined to yield increasing losses in many bank home-equity portfolios and credit losses are expected to accelerate in 2008, according to a new report by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Using a SAM as a Servicing Tool

A New York mortgage banker has come up with a shared appreciation mortgage program that gives servicers a tool for reducing the principal amount of a mortgage and possibly recouping the loss down the road. (Read More)

Prepays Rates Jump in Month

Prepayment rates for 30-year mortgages in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities jumped in February, driven by the 70-basis-point rally in mortgage rates the month before, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. (Read More)

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments

Cpn Year WAC Fctr Feb '08 Jan '08 Fannie Mae 6.00 2007 6.57 .935 25.0 13.4 Fannie Mae 6.00 2006 6.55 .807 28.4 14.3 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.46 .271 14.8 10.1 Freddie Mac 6.00 2007 6.53 .933 23.9 13.7 Freddie Mac 6.00 2006 6.50 .815 26.7 13.6 Freddie Mac 6.00 2003 6.43 .325 13.3 8.3 Source: Bear Stearns & Co. (Read More)

Roundup: Drop In Alt-A Ratings

The ratings of 131 tranches (backed by Impac-originated mortgage collateral) in 17 alternative-A securitizations from various issuers have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

European-Style Covered Bonds Seen as Possible Aid for U.S.

European-style covered bonds may have a role to play in extricating the U.S. mortgage market from its crisis, market participants and observers said at the second annual Euromoney U.S. Covered Bond Investors Forum here. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades CIFG

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the insurer financial strength ratings for French bank-owned CIFG Guaranty and some of its affiliates as part of an ongoing review of the company, its capitalization and its mortgage-related exposures. (Read More)

Dems to Eye Relief Bills

Senate Democrats will be pushing for vote on a foreclosure prevention package during the first week in April that will allow distressed homeowners to seek relief in the bankruptcy courts and possibly expand the Federal Housing Administration program to provide more refinancing opportunities for subprime borrowers. (Read More)

Roundup: Henderson Property Fund Completes Six Deals

The Henderson Property Fund, Henderson Global Investors' diversified core open-end property fund, has completed six transactions totaling more than $100 million in 2007. (Read More)

Foreclosure Data Differs

There is a data discrepancy with much of the foreclosure data that is published, according to Brad Geisen, founder and chief executive officer of foreclosure.com, which stopped posting its data a year ago. (Read More)

RESPA/HOEPA YSP Conflict Seen

There are conflicts in the way the Federal Reserve Board's Home Owners Equity Protection Act regulatory proposal and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Real Estate Settlement and Procedure Act regulatory proposal treat yield spread premiums, an official with the Mortgage Bankers Association pointed out. (Read More)

Origen Gets Opinion on Its 'Ability to Continue'

The auditor for Origen Financial Inc. here has given the company an unqualified opinion about its ability to continue as a going concern. The statement from Grant Thornton LLP appears in Origen's 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Read More)

CRE/MF Debt Outstanding Grows $2.6

The level of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding grew by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, exceeding $3.3 trillion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's analysis of the Federal Reserve Board flow of funds data. The total was an increase of $356 billion, or 12%, from the end of 2006. (Read More)

People

ARIZONA Phoenix-Community Bank of Arizona, a wholly owned subsidiary of Community Bancorp, hired a new lender, Cynthia Dye. (Read More)

Ocwen Debt Ratings Put On Review

A plan to take Ocwen Financial Corp. private in a CEO-led buyout has fallen through, and Fitch Ratings placed the company's debt ratings on negative review in the aftermath of the news. (Read More)

15,000 SARs Filed in Quarter

The FBI expects federally regulated lenders to file more than 60,000 mortgage-related suspicious activity reports this fiscal year. (Read More)

Alt-A Plummets by 87%

Like subprime credit mortgage originations, alternative-A credit residential real estate loan volumes largely evaporated last quarter. (Read More)

FHA Bill Splits Parties

A Democratic congressional plan to refinance one million at-risk homeowners into Federal Housing Administration loans is getting support from the party's presidential candidates, but a thumbs-down from the Bush administration and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. (Read More)

Countrywide Vets Eye Subprime

Countrywide may have been bloodied up by the subprime mortgage mess, but some veterans of the company see an opportunity to profit from the carnage. (Read More)

Liquidity from FHLBs

The Bush administration has enlisted the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks to use their balance sheets to purchase and hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed mortgage-backed securities and provide additional liquidity for the mortgage market. (Read More)

Top Alt-A Lenders In 4Q 07

Alt-A Lenders % Market Rk Location 4Q 07 4Q 06 change Share 1 Amtrust Bank $1,777 na na 19.47% 2 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $727 $1,307 -44% 7.97% 3 Chase Home Finance $687 $2,680 -74% 7.53% 4 Flagstar Bank FSB $601 $1,182 -49% 6.58% 5 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $534 $671 -20% 5.85% 6 Aurora Loan Services Inc. (1) $448 $4,747 -91% 4.90% 7 First Horizon Home Loans $398 $1,419 -72% 4.36% 8 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $323 $2,059 -84% 3.54% 9 Wells Fargo & Co. $184 $7,300 -97% 2.02% 10 Credit Suisse (E) $170 $2,440 -93% 1.86% 11 Bank of America $167 na na 1.84% 12 M&T Mortgage $157 na na 1.72% 13 EMC Mortgage (2) $137 $10,826 -99% 1.50% 14 MortgageIT (E) $134 $1,568 -91% 1.47% 15 Fifth Third Mortgage $131 $205 -36% 1.44% Top 15 Totals: $6,575 $36,403 -82% 72.04% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some lenders would not disclose this data point. In general, alt-A loans are neither conventional nor subprime, but borrowers using these loans tend to have strong FICO scores. Market share based on estimated 4Q alt-A production of $9.1 billion. The AP-QDR assumes it has captured 70% of the market. (Read More)

Refis Spike

Refinancings jumped to 62% of the market for the week ending March 28, according to the MBA. A week earlier, they were less than half. The reason? A drop in mortgage rates. As tracked by Freddie Mac, rates have come down more than 25 basis points in the past two weeks. (Read More)

CitiMortgage Scales Back Funding of Second-Lien Products

CitiMortgage has told its brokers that it will stop table funding standalone seconds and all combo products, according to a memo provided to this newspaper. (Read More)

Fairway Bucks Industry Trend

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. here reached its highest volume in company history in February, despite the widely perceived downturn in the mortgage business. (Read More)

Home Prices Are Still Falling

Home values continued to decline sharply early this year, and few see much of a silver lining in the most recent gloomy data. (Read More)

Ginnie Mae Aims to Jump Start HECM Deals

Ginnie Mae is opening the door for issuers that want to combine FHA single-family mortgage securities with reverse mortgage securities in a new Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit. (Read More)

Open Forum: Banks Are Feeling the Stress

Mr. Dugan's recent testimony on the condition of the banking system before the Senate Financial Services Committee is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Editorial: Good Ideas

We went to the Mortgage Bankers Association's recent Mortgage Technology Conference in Dallas not to count heads (attendance was off as was to be expected) but to hear some good ideas. And we heard a few. (Read More)

Is This Map for the Road to Recovery the Right Way to Go?

We may have a ways to go before we see a "boom" market again, but last week at press time some recent efforts to improve market conditions appeared to be making a little headway - even though several market participants continued to be battered by liquidity woes and questions were raised about whether existing federal involvement is appropriate and constructive long-term. (Read More)

Doc Automation Extends to Storage, Delivery

As lenders move to a more automated environment, the need for enhanced document capture methods that e-store and display docs is necessary. Seizing on this trend, eLynx here has SwiftPublish. (Read More)

FBR: Financials Face Intensifying Headwinds

Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here have lowered their price targets on 21 financial companies, saying that despite a late-March rally there remains too much uncertainty with regard to credit and liquidity to get back into the sector. (Read More)

Centerline Sees Stock Volatility

Centerline Holding Co., parent of Centerline Capital Group, told shareholders that the company is unaware of what caused the volatility in trading of the company's common shares on March 4. Trading volume was about triple the company's typical daily volume on that day. (Read More)

MI Companies: In A Face-Off Situation

Of the five major team sports played in the United States, hockey is unique because after every stoppage, no matter the cause, the two teams have an equal opportunity to gain control of the puck. (Read More)

Analyst Expects PMI to be Challenged in 2008 and 2009

According to a report from Friedman Billings Ramsey, Arlington, Va., the PMI Group Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif., will post a much larger loss than originally projected for this current year and will still be in the red next year as well. (Read More)

Radian Revises 4Q Results

Following the completion of the company's fair value process related to insured collateralized debt obligations in its financial guaranty business, Radian Group Inc. revised its fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 to reflect a larger loss for both periods. (Read More)

MGIC Adds Capital

MGIC Investment Corp. is raising $745 million in new capital through concurrent equity and debt sales. (Read More)

Triad Teams With Fiserv, FICS

As a means of expanding its footprint in the mortgage insurance sector, as well as simplifying the process of ordering mortgage insurance, Triad Guaranty Insurance Corp. here has engaged in two strategic partnerships. (Read More)

Triad Negotiating With An Investor

Triad Guaranty Inc. has delayed filing its Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission because it is "actively engaged in negotiations" with an unnamed potential investor. (Read More)

Class Action Filed Against PMI

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP here has filed a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of purchasers of PMI Group Inc. common stock during the period between Nov. 2, 2006 and March 3, 2008. (Read More)

Fed Stressing Rule Compliance

The comment period on the Federal Reserve Board's proposed get-tough rules to combat abusive lending practices doesn't end until April 8, but the Fed is already at work to ensure compliance, not just within its own ranks but also with other regulators on the federal and state levels. (Read More)

Report Faults New Century

New Century Financial Corp. had a "brazen obsession" with increasing loan production and it eventually drowned in a flood of repurchase demands on defaulted subprime mortgages, according to a bankruptcy court-appointed investigator. (Read More)

Roundup: Lending Slowdown Spreads to the United Kingdom

Gross lending in the United Kingdom fell to an estimated £24 billion ($48 billion) in February, the lowest monthly level seen in two years, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders here. (Read More)

JPM Hikes Bid for Bear

JPMorgan Chase and Bear Stearns had at press time amended the merger agreement the latter recently was forced into due to liquidity woes, improving Bear's stock valuation in the deal during a week when its trading share price improved to some degree but federal involvement in the transaction was questioned. (Read More)

OFHEO: GSE Limit Won't Drop in 2009

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits will remain at $417,000 in 2009 even though prices are expected to decline by 10% or more this year. (Read More)

Thornburg Raises $1.35 Billion

Thornburg Mortgage Inc. here addressed a deadline last week for a capital raise that would keep a key agreement with some counterparties in place with a deal involving MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners III LP and MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners (Cayman) III LP. (Read More)

Judge Deals Setback to REDC in Lawsuit

Federal Judge James Otero recently denied a request by Real Estate Disposition Corp. for a temporary restraining order against National Home Auction Corp., a national foreclosure auction company. (Read More)

HFF Secures Refinance Loan For Pittsburgh Airport Hotel

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, a provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry, has arranged a refinancing for the Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh Airport here. (Read More)

Moody's Takes New Look at Alt-A Deals

Moody's Investors Service is reviewing deals in the alt-A mortgage-backed securities sector as part of its ongoing surveillance, becoming the latest rating agency to rethink its alt-A standards in light of the declining housing market. (Read More)

Countrywide's Data Is Mixed in February

Countrywide Financial Corp. funded more loans in February than in January, but its volume was down 27% from a year earlier, with sharp drops in adjustable-rate and home-equity lending accounting for the decline. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. received and accepted the resignations of Andrew McCormick and Richard Johnson. (Read More)

Farmer Mac's Earnings Decline

Farmer Mac's earnings fell sharply last year under generally accepted accounting rules, though the company said its "core earnings," which excludes certain volatility associated with changing derivative values, actually rose. Under GAAP, Farmer Mac earned net income of $4.4 million in 2007, down from $29.8 million in 2006. (Read More)

'Farley's Angels' Fight Loan Fraud

You've heard of "Charlie's Angels"? Well, now there's "Fraud Angels," complete with Farley instead of Charlie. (Read More)

Carrington Buys Fremont's Servicing

Fremont Investment & Loan has entered a deal to sell mortgage servicing rights to an affiliate of Carrington Capital Management, which previously purchased New Century's mortgage servicing portfolio. (Read More)

New MBA Headquarters Opens in April

By the end of April the Mortgage Bankers Association hopes to complete the purchase of a newly constructed eight-story office building downtown here that will serve as its new headquarters. (Read More)

Jumbo Loans Down by Half

Mortgage lenders funded $57.6 billion worth of jumbo mortgages in the fourth quarter, a 47% decline from the same period a year earlier, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Residential Jumbo Lenders In Q4 2007

Jumbo % Market Rk Organization Name Location Q4 07 Q4 06 Change Share 1 Washington MutualSeattle, WA $7,509 $14,774 -49% 13.06% 2 CitiMortgage Inc.O'Fallon, MO $6,802 $9,656 -30% 11.83% 3 Wells Fargo & Co.San Francisco, CA $6,766 $15,419 -56% 11.76% 4 Chase Home FinanceIselin, NJ $5,959 $6,644 -10% 10.36% 5 Bank of AmericaCharlotte, NC $4,924 $8,224 -40% 8.56% 6 ING Bank FSBWilmington, DE $2,242 na na 3.90% 7 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC)Minneapolis, MN $1,200 $3,867 -69% 2.09% 8 SunTrust Mortgage Inc.Richmond, VA $1,089 $5,963 -82% 1.89% 9 WachoviaCharlotte, NC $911 $1,461 -38% 1.58% 10 Aurora Loan Services Inc.Aurora, CO $855 $2,541 -66% 1.49% 11 Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY $724 $160 353% 1.26% 12 MC Mortgage Lewisville, TX $670 $1,177 -43% 1.16% 13 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX $540 $1,414 -62% 0.94% 14 Amtrust Bank Cleveland, OH $522 na na 0.91% 15 Branch Banking & Trust Co. Wilson, NC $521 $779 -33% 0.91% 16 Thornburg Mortgage Inc. Sante Fe, NM $496 $1,162 -57% 0.86% 17 National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH $456 $1,793 -75% 0.79% 18 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage Bloomington, MN $271 $318 -15% 0.47% 19 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD $236 $952 -75% 0.41% 20 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA Depew, NY $204 $226 -10% 0.35% Totals: $42,897 $76,530 -44% 74.23% Note: Results may be incomplete because some lenders would not provide jumbo volumes including Countrywide. Jumbo loans exceed the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac loan limit which until recently was $417,000. The temporary loan is $729,750 in some high-cost markets. (Read More)

UBS Takes Huge B&C Writedown

UBS AG, once a major warehouse lender to the subprime industry, said it will take a $19 billion writedown on its mortgage-related investments in the first quarter, including charges against its structured finance positions. (Read More)

Fed Probe of Jackson?

Housing secretary Alphonso Jackson is stepping down April 18 after being dogged by allegations of using his office to help friends and Bush administration supporters and recent reports that he is a subject of a federal probe. (Read More)

$4 Billion Hit at DB

Deutsche Bank managing director Michael Commaroto, who has overseen the foreign bank's whole loan trading operation for much of the decade, has left the company, industry sources confirmed to National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Nat City Looks for Buyer

National City Corp. here is exploring "strategic alternatives," a term which has become a corporate euphemism for the company is up for sale. In its statement, NCC said it would make no further statements until its board has approved a specific course of action. (Read More)

At A Glance: National city Mortgage

($ in millions) Residential servicing at 12-31-07 $187,512 No. of units serviced 1,158,041 Servicing rank 10th 2007 residential fundings $46,350 2007 origination rank 12 Retail share of production 56% Wholesale share of production 39% Correspondent production 5% Parent National City Corp. (Read More)

Triad to Stop New Policies?

Triad Guaranty Corp. here, the smallest of the private mortgage insurers, raised the possibility of the company going into run-off and ceasing writing new mortgage insurance policies. This disclosure came in the company's delayed 10-K filing. (Read More)

Many Object to Plan for Federal Mortgage Commission

State regulation of mortgage bankers and brokers would be rated by a new federal commission that would also set minimum licensing and underwriting standards as part of a larger plan to restructure the U.S. financial regulatory system. But many sectors of the mortgage industry are objecting to the plan. (Read More)

Home Equity Overdues Rise

The number of home-equity loans and lines that were overdue increased sharply late last year, according to the American Bankers Association. (Read More)

U.S. Judge Clears Way for Subpoenas in CFC Case

A federal judge here has ruled that a bankruptcy trustee can subpoena loan documents from Countrywide Financial Corp. and interview company executives under oath as part of a widening civil case involving the lender/servicer. (Read More)

Open Forum: Sustaining Homeownership

Mr. Kroszner's remarks at the recent National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Legislative Conference in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. First of two parts. (Read More)

Editorial: Parallel Lines

The mortgage meltdown of this year and last often has been compared to the thrift crisis of the late 1980s. While there are many differences as well, the biggest similarity is the ultimate cost of the two debacles, hundreds of billions of dollars in each case. (Read More)

Even as Writedowns Continue Some See It as Time to Buy

Even as multibillion-dollar writedowns continued to slam the market there was some relative good news last week as more players indicated they believe the time to buy mortgage-related assets opportunistically has arrived and Wall Street reports indicated there had been a relative return of liquidity. (Read More)

Economist: Bottom May Be Two Years Off

Housing prices may not bottom out until 2010, if then, according to the deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. (Read More)

Weak Economy Leaves Some Skimping on Renovations

A weaker economy, declining home prices, tighter credit standards and high energy costs will continue to take a toll on home improvement spending, according to Fitch Ratings, which recently held a conference call to discuss the latest home improvement spending trends. (Read More)

KBW Optimistic On GSE Outlook

Equity analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods financial services unit here have given Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a rare treat these days: an upgrade. (Read More)

Zillow: High-End Hurt the Most

While overall, high-priced homes have seen their values fall by a larger percentage than lower-valued homes, that's not the case in all markets, according to a recent analysis of home value trends by Zillow.com. (Read More)

$11 Billion Issue Is One of Canada's Largest Mortgage Deals

A sale of government-backed Canadian mortgage bonds that appears to be one of the biggest debt offerings of its kind closed March 26, according to White & Case LLP, a legal adviser involved in the sale. (Read More)

EC Is Skeptical On U.K. Bailout

The European Commission here has launched an investigation into the United Kingdom aid package for mortgage bank Northern Rock PLC, Newcastle upon Tyne. (Read More)

Arbor Commercial Funds $9 Million in Three Loans

Arbor Commercial Funding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC, has funded three loans for various properties around the country for more than $9 million. Arbor funded a $4 million loan under the Fannie Mae DUS product line to refinance the 180-unit complex known as Sunset Rill Apartments in Knoxville, Tenn. The 10-year loan amortizes on a 30-year schedule and carries a note rate of 5.92%. (Read More)

Capmark Finances Apartment, Commercial Properties

Capmark Finance Inc. has brokered and originated several commercial and multifamily real estate deals over the country. (Read More)

FB&M Funds Two Loans

Commercial mortgage banker Florida Bond & Mortgage Inc. recently arranged two permanent, first-mortgage loans in Florida totaling $5.3 million. (Read More)

Wachovia, Wells and BoA Top Commercial List

Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Bank of America were the top commercial/multifamily originators in 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual commercial/multifamily originations rankings. (Read More)

CRE Refi RiskRemains Low

The commercial and multifamily mortgage market faces limited exposure to refinance risks stemming from the current credit crunch, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Research DataNote. The report notes that relatively few commercial/multifamily mortgages will mature in the next two years. (Read More)

Mercantile Funds$20.5M of Loans

Mercantile Commercial Capital LLC, which specializes in Small Business Administration 504 loans, closed on eight commercial property loans for projects that total more than $20.5 million in January and February. (Read More)

Roundup: MGIC Raises Nearly $1 Billion of Debt and Equity

MGIC Investment Corp. here made gross proceeds of $948 million on its simultaneous sales of equity and debt. (Read More)

Luminent To Exit Reit Status

Luminent Mortgage Capital here, which lost $721 million, or -$16.21 per share, in 2007, is asking its shareholders to approve converting from a real estate investment trust to publicly traded partnership. (Read More)

Impac Settles Repurchase Claims

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a real estate investment trust here, said it has settled a majority of its outstanding repurchase claims. (Read More)

WaMu Challenged On Directors

The CtW Investment Group, which is affiliated with a federation of unions known as Change to Win, is urging Washington Mutual shareholders to oppose the re-election of directors Mary Pugh and James Stever. WaMu officially will vote on the company's director slate at the company's April 15 annual meeting. In a news release, CtW executive director William Patterson said that Washington Mutual was "a leader in originating the high-risk mortgages that led to the current financial crisis." (Read More)

Alexandria Sells Preferred

Underwriters of Alexandria Real Estate Equities' recent preferred stock offering have exercised their overallotment option to purchase an additional 1.2 million shares. (Read More)

Senate Closer to FHA Compromise

Senate leaders ended a deadlock over housing legislation and agreed to move forward on a bipartisan foreclosure prevention bill last week. (Read More)

HCM Needs Capital Infusion

Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings, an "A" paper mortgage investing REIT, lost $37.7 million in the fourth quarter and signaled that it may not continue as a going concern unless it receives a capital infusion. (Read More)

Plan Offered to Protect Minority Borrowers

Alarmed that the housing downturn is having a disproportionate impact on minorities of all shades, groups of Hispanic, Asian and African-American real estate professionals have put forth a five-point action to protect people of color and prevent a roll-back in their homeownership gains over the last half-dozen years. (Read More)

FDIC Readies for Bank Failures

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is re-staffing its resolution and receivership division as it prepares for an increase in bank failures and the retirement of its veteran bank closers. (Read More)

Chicago FHLB's Earnings Decline

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago posted a 50% drop in earnings in 2007 and the troubled bank expects to report a loss in the first quarter. (Read More)

German Bank Takes Mortgage Hit

Bayerische Landesbank here has taken 4.3 billion euros ($6.7 billion) of writedowns between mid-2007 and the end of March 2008 on a portfolio that includes billions of dollars in U.S. subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

Roundup: Moody's Reviews MBS Rules

Moody's Investors Service is seeking market comment on five proposed enhancements to the securitization process for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA San Diego-Del Mar DataTrac Inc. said that Gregg Holsapple has been named vice president of product and technology. (Read More)

Fremont Gets FDIC Rebuke

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has sent Fremont General Corp., and its subsidiary Fremont General Credit Corp., a supervisory prompt corrective action directive ordering it to recapitalize Fremont Investment & Loan by May 26. (Read More)

Shearson Hires Restructuring Chief

Shearson Financial Network Inc. here has hired Harry R. Kraatz as its chief restructuring officer. Shearson, which had been a mortgage banker that aggregated smaller companies under its banner, had been operating as a mortgage broker since the company lost its warehouse funding capabilities. (Read More)

WaMu Joins Rush from Wholesale

With last week's announcement that Washington Mutual will exit the wholesale lending arena, loan brokers nationwide were left wondering who's next? (Read More)

1st Quarter MBS, ABS Evaporate

The volume of mortgage-backed security deals totaled $60.96 billion in the first quarter, down dramatically - nearly 78% - from $273.88 billion in the first quarter of 2007, according to Thomson Financial. Asset-backed securities were even farther down, more than 86%. (Read More)

U.S. Assets-Backed Securities

JPMorgan Leads League in ABS Totals 1/1/2008 -3/31/2008 1/1/2007 -3/31/2007 Proceeds* Market # of Proceeds* Market # of Book Runners (US$Mil) Share Issues (US$Mil) Share Issues JPMorgan 12,502.4 22.8 19 27,663.3 8.6 48 Citi 11,858.8 21.7 21 34,777.1 10.8 57 Banc of America Securities LLC 8,715.7 15.9 14 20,809.9 6.4 54 Barclays Capital 4,054.1 7.4 8 16,820.2 5.2 29 Lehman Brothers 3,222.1 5.9 10 14,671.9 4.5 36 Credit Suisse 2,851.4 5.2 6 17,504.0 5.4 36 Deutsche Bank AG 2,788.3 5.1 6 24,140.5 7.5 53 RBS 2,364.0 4.3 6 22,533.6 7.0 51 Wachovia Corp 2,202.5 4.0 5 14,781.9 4.6 25 Morgan Stanley 1,786.3 3.3 4 21,940.4 6.8 57 Goldman Sachs & Co 1,455.9 2.7 6 12,648.2 3.9 36 Merrill Lynch 500.0 .9 1 34,589.2 10.7 44 Standard Chartered PLC 400.0 .7 1 - - - Countrywide Securities Corp - - - 17,659.5 5.5 26 UBS - - - 13,498.5 4.2 30 Bear Stearns & Co Inc - - - 12,059.6 3.7 34 HSBC Holdings PLC - - - 4,807.4 1.5 8 Societe Generale - - - 1,901.7 .6 4 Washington Mutual Inc - - - 1,801.8 .6 6 ABN AMRO - - - 1,457.5 .5 3 Natixis - - - 1,272.0 .4 1 General Motors Corp - - - 1,112.9 .3 4 RBC Capital Markets - - - 1,065.0 .3 2 Calyon - - - 1,000.0 .3 1 Mizuho Financial Group - - - 930.0 .3 2 Terwin Capital LLC - - - 891.1 .3 4 Industry Total54,742.5 100.0 73 323,338.1 100.0 556 * Full to book runner (equal if joint) Source: Thomson Financial. (Read More)

Wells Fargo Touts E-Biz

Wells Fargo, the second largest residential originator, has moved forward in a big way with its electronic strategy, now stating that it is open for business to accept e-signed 1003 and upfront disclosures from correspondents. (Read More)

100 Layoffs At Bayview

Bayview Financial of Florida - a "scratch and dent" and small balance commercial lender - has laid off more than 100 workers at two affiliates, Silver Hill Financial and InterBay Funding, industry executives told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

Future Will Be Going in Reverse

Recent negative press aside, the reverse mortgage business has a bright future, according to several participants at the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association's Eastern Regional Meeting here last week. (Read More)

Top Residential Servicers At 12/31/07

Servicing Volume % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. $1,476,203 $1,298,394 14% 16.04% +0.92% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $1,473,178 $1,341,870 10% 16.00% +0.38% 3 CitiMortgage Inc. (1) $799,753 $521,509 53% 8.69% +2.62% 4 Chase Home Finance $775,940 $674,057 15% 8.43% +0.58% 5 Washington Mutual $623,365 $710,797 -12% 6.77% -1.50% 6 Bank of America $516,937 $419,497 23% 5.62% +0.73% 7 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $453,300 $467,784 -3% 4.92% -0.52% 8 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $198,170 $155,656 27% 2.15% +0.34% 9 Wachovia $193,124 $175,244 10% 2.10% +0.06% 10 National City Mortgage $187,512 $171,006 10% 2.04% +0.05% 11 PHH Mortgage $163,056 $160,298 2% 1.77% -0.09% 12 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $149,855 $129,974 15% 1.63% +0.11% 13 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $117,505 $99,799 18% 1.28% +0.11% 14 Aurora Loan Services Inc. $114,045 $92,983 23% 1.24% +0.16% 15 First Horizon Home Loans $111,287 $101,755 9% 1.21% +0.02% 16 EMC Mortgage (2) $89,054 $71,954 24% 0.97% +0.13% 17 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) $70,500 $66,000 7% 0.77% -0.00% 18 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $66,288 $65,269 2% 0.72% -0.04% 19 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $65,554 $59,456 10% 0.71% +0.02% 20 Morgan Stanley $65,002 $45,657 42% 0.71% +0.17% Totals: $7,709,628 $6,828,959 13% 83.74% 4.26% Notes: Includes subservicing contracts. Results may be incomplete because some servicers would not provide numbers. Subprime servicers excluded from this table but are listed separately in this report. Also, some firms listed here include subprime in with their total numbers. Market share cut based on outstanding U.S. housing debt of $9.206 trillion at Dec. 31, 2007. QDR/NMN assumes it has captured 90% of the market. (1) Fall 2007 Citigroup bought the servicing operation of Ameriquest Mortgage. (2) EMC is owned by Bear Stearns. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Dodd Says Foreclosure Prevention Bill Is Not a Bailout

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., last week defended his "draft" legislation to curtail foreclosures and restore liquidity to the nation's mortgage markets, maintaining the measure is not a bailout but rather a way to prevent more troubled homeowners from losing their homes. (Read More)

FHA Expands Refi Program

The Federal Housing Administration has expanded its FHA Secure program so that delinquent borrowers with underwater mortgages can refinance into an FHA-insured mortgage. (Read More)

OFHEO Chief Lockhart Frontrunner for HUD Job?

James Lockhart, the federal regulator whose chief responsibility is overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the leading candidate to become the next housing secretary, according to Washington sources. (Read More)

Editorial: Numbers Game

There are a lot of numbers being thrown around currently about the size and scope of the mortgage industry disaster (no need not to call it by its real name). But not all numbers are bad, even the negative ones. Yes, the recent widely circulated Wall Street loss estimate of $460 billion is a bad number. So is the even higher one of $500 billion we saw recently. But in estimating losses there is always a tendency to bid up the number as if it was a stock in play, so our advice is to toss out the highest and lowest number you see. That still leaves a staggering amount of losses to be endured. (Read More)

Open Forum: Sustaining Homeownership

Mr. Kroszner's remarks at the recent National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Legislative Conference in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. Second of two parts. (Read More)

Some Improvement Seen But Challenges Continue

Parts of the mortgage-related market have done better since its mid-March woes but events up through press time last week suggested the market overall continues to be challenged, the credit crunch is still claiming victims globally. (Read More)

GGP to Raise $822 Million of Capital

General Growth Properties is in a deal to raise $821.9 million from a common stock offering. The company said the proceeds will be used to pay down its revolving debt facility and for "general corporate purposes." (Read More)

HomeBanc Resurrected

The HomeBanc name is being revived, as CNBS Financial Group Inc. here has acquired the rights to the moniker from the now-defunct Atlanta-based mortgage company. (Read More)

Condo Index Falls Sharply

The Multifamily Condo Market Index ended 2007 on a low note, with the component of the index tracking builder confidence in current conditions standing at 18.8, down nearly 11 points from the same time a year ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders. (Read More)

Arbor Finances Apartments

Commercial Funding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC here, recently funded a $2 million loan under the Fannie Mae DUS 3MaxExpress program to refinance a 36-unit complex known as Sherwood Commons in New Milford, Conn. (Read More)

Capital Trust Offers 4M Shares

Capital Trust, a finance and investment management company chaired by Samuel Zell, will offer four million Class A common shares with Morgan Stanley & Co. acting as sole underwriter. (Read More)

Refinancing Is Boost to Origination Business

While the mortgage industry might not be experiencing a typical refinance boom right now, according to some industry sources, including an originator based here, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., refinancings are driving the market right now. (Read More)

Multiple Counting May Cloud Picture of Foreclosure Activity

There is a discrepancy with much of the foreclosure data being published, according to Brad Geisen, founder and chief executive officer of foreclosure.com here, which stopped posting its data a year ago. (Read More)

Reverse Servicer Plans to Expand into Originations

Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Spring, Texas, has come of age just as the leading edge of the 80-million-member baby-boom generation enters their twilight years. (Read More)

PropertyMaps and RealtyTrac Expand Offering

New homes, resale properties and now even houses in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure are available for searching on PropertyMaps.com. (Read More)

FTC Reassures On FDCPA Rule

The Federal Trade Commission has made public a rare advisory opinion on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in response to three specific questions presented by USFN, a national network of attorneys and trustee companies representing creditors in mortgage banking default services. (Read More)

New Home Sales Continue to Plummet as Demand Softens

Sales of new single-family homes fell by 1.8% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This sales pace was down nearly 30% from a year earlier and down by 58% from its peak in July 2005. (Read More)

HUD Disciplines Fleetwood Homes

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has taken action against a major builder of manufactured homes by requiring it to recertify its Woodland, Calif., plant. (Read More)

NPAs Rise Again at Downey

California thrift Downey Financial Corp. said its nonperforming assets increased to 10.93% at the end of February, an 89% spike over a three-month period. (Read More)

Fannie Puts FICO Floor at 580

Fannie Mae continues to tighten its underwriting standards and this time the changes will fall heaviest on borrowers with blemished credit who are seeking to refinance out of subprime mortgages. (Read More)

Curing Loans: Where's The Doctor?

The bad news has been piling up for the mortgage industry. Delinquencies in the fourth quarter of 2007 were nearing 6%, putting the overall delinquency rate at its highest level in more than two decades. Foreclosure starts and foreclosure inventory were at the highest level in the 30-plus-year history of the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Delinquency Survey. (Read More)

Countrywide Vets Choose to Build Servicer from Scratch

When Countrywide's former president Stanford Kurland decided to get into the business of buying and resolving troubled mortgage loans, he and his team of colleagues looked into buying an existing loan servicing platform to manage the company's assets. (Read More)

Oxford Buying $2.7M Portfolio

Oxford Funding Corp. has purchased a portfolio of loans from a lender in bankruptcy with a principal balance of $2.7 million. Oxford said the loans were purchased at a price equal to about 30% of the value of the collateral. (Read More)

Offshore Fund Eyes U.S. Loans

Nonperforming U.S. mortgages have reached the point in the cycle where they are cheap enough to buy, according to at least one asset manager here that has started two offshore investment funds to do this. (Read More)

New Servicer Focuses on High-Risk Segment

Strategic Recovery Group, a national mortgage asset recovery company, is launching a special servicing unit to meet the growing needs of lenders and investors in distressed debt. (Read More)

Radian Offers Claims Advance

The current economic environment has created a significant number of loan defaults and loan servicers are currently attempting to manage these cases by providing more options to help people remain in their homes. (Read More)

Fannie Aids 110,000 Loans

Noting that 1.5 million U.S. homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, Fannie Mae says it either refinanced or worked out a delinquency for 110,000 subprime mortgage borrowers last year. (Read More)

Is Consumer Debt at Risk?

A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis suggests that today's credit problems affecting the mortgage sector may spread to other consumer debt categories. (Read More)

Freddie Puts Pressure on MI Firms

Freddie Mac has ordered three more private mortgage insurers to come up with remediation plans following a downgrade by Standard & Poor's. (Read More)

Franklin Posts Loss, Extends Lending Pact

Franklin Credit Management Corp. lost $8.6 million last year, or $1.90 per share. The company cited the "rapid and substantial" deterioration in the housing and subprime mortgage markets as key factors in reducing the performance of loan portfolios acquired by the company. That forced the company to reassess its allowance for loan losses. (Read More)

Veto Threat Looms over Rescue Bill

The Bush administration has stiffened its resolve to block almost any legislation dealing directly with the housing crisis, including a bipartisan foreclosure prevention bill that cleared the Senate last week by an 84-12 vote. (Read More)

Fed's Proposed Disclosures for Compensation Irk Broker Group

The Federal Reserve Board's prescription for dealing with yield-spread premiums is drawing fire from mortgage brokers and mixed reviews from lenders and consumer groups. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades More B&C

Over 200 additional classes of subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were recently downgraded by Fitch Ratings as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

Fidelity Southern Sees Earnings Under Stress

Fidelity Southern Corp. here said earnings for the fourth quarter remained under increasing pressure. Management reported the provision for loan losses will be about $3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to $2.8 million in the third quarter. (Read More)

People

ARIZONA Phoenix-Johnson Capital, a commercial real estate investment banking firm, promoted Keaton Merrell to senior vice president. (Read More)

IndyMac Securitizes Jumbo, Alt-A

IndyMac Bank has traded $335 million of prime jumbo and alternative-A credit hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages in a private-label securitization slated to settle on April 15, according to its corporate blog, the IMB Report. (Read More)

Suspicious Activity Up Sharply

Financial institutions dramatically increased their filing of suspicious activity reports at the height of the mortgage boom and they also got better at detecting mortgage fraud before a loan is funded, according to a Treasury Department report. (Read More)

Metlife to Buy Reverse Lender

MetLife Bank NA, a subsidiary of MetLife Inc. here, is purchasing EverBank Reverse Mortgage LLC, Bloomfield, N.J., from EverBank, Jacksonville, Fla. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Read More)

Billions More in Writedowns Seen

NEW YORK-Some large industry players saw another round of mortgage-related writedowns numbering in the billions of dollars last week. (Read More)

ARMs Hurt Wachovia

Wachovia's $25 billion purchase of Golden West in May of 2006 seemed like a perfect match at the time. Wachovia inherited a strong branch network and mortgage presence in the coveted California market, both big pluses for an East Coast-based banking company that wanted to increase its market share in the mortgage industry and expand its footprint in the West. (Read More)

JPMC Earns $2.4 Bil

JPMorgan Chase & Co. here generated net income of $2.4 billion, or $0.68 per share, for the first quarter, down 50% from net income of $4.8 billion, or $1.34 per share, one year prior. (Read More)

WaMu Volumes Drop

Washington Mutual here, the nation's sixth largest originator, funded just $13.77 billion of home loans in the first quarter, a stunning 66% decline from the same period last year. (Read More)

Chase Tightens HELOC Rules

Chase Home Finance here, the second largest funder of HELOCs in the nation, will no longer originate second liens in Nevada if the combined loan-to-value ratio is above 60%. (Read More)

MGIC Suffers$34 Mil Loss

MGIC Investment Corp. here had a net loss of $34.4 million, or -$0.41 per share, for the first quarter of 2008, compared with net income of $92.4 million, or $1.12 per share, for the same period one year ago. (Read More)

Bear Profits; FTC Eyes EMC

Bear Stearns said in a filing last week that it was able to generate a $115 million net profit in the quarter ending Feb. 29, prior to a troubled period in which liquidity woes forced it into a Federal Reserve-assisted plan to merge with JPMorgan Chase. (Read More)

Loan Mod Progress Cited in Effort to Stave Off Legislation

Industry groups are using Hope Now servicing data to fend off legislation that would shield servicers from investor lawsuits and give them a freer hand in making loan modifications to avoid foreclosures. (Read More)

Top Alt-A Servicers At 12/31/07

Alt-A Servicers % Rk Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 change 1 Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco, CA $80,806 $87,161 -7% 2 Aurora Loan Services Inc. (1) Littleton, CO $68,815 $60,291 14% 3 CitiMortgage Inc. O'Fallon, MO $66,815 $42,020 59% 4 EMC Mortgage (2) Lewisville, TX $27,665 $44,078 -37% 5 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX $18,125 $17,194 5% 6 National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH $12,963 $13,809 -6% 7 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. Richmond, VA $11,603 $13,692 -15% 8 American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. (3) Melville, NY $5,916 $4,966 19% 9 Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC (BC) West Palm Beach, FL $5,410 $5,731 -6% 10 Taylor Bean & Whitaker Ocala, FL $4,805 na na 11 Midland Mortgage Oklahoma City, OK $3,756 na na 12 Regions Mortgage Inc. Montgomery, AL $2,830 na na 13 Cenlar FSB (SS) Ewing, NJ $1,086 $6,334 -83% 14 HomEq Servicing Corp. (BC) North Highlands, CA $1,027 na na 15 Central Mortgage Co. Little Rock, AR $584 $715 -18% Top 15 Totals: $312,206 $295,991 5% 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. (1) Owned by Lehman Bros. (2) Owned by Bear Stearns. (2) Owned by steel magnate Wilbur Ross. (BC) Servicer is a subprime specialist. (SS) Firm is a subservicing specialist. (Read More)

Experts Say High Re-Default Rates Inevitable

Servicing executives who spoke at SourceMedia's Second Annual Mortgage Servicing Conference here last week said that many subprime borrowers who receive loan modifications are still likely to fall back into default. (Read More)

Open Forum: Start an Emergency Group

Excerpts of Sen. Clinton's recent speech in Philadelphia on the state of the economy and mortgage crisis are presented as our Open Forum. She is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. (Read More)

Editorial: Second Act for Third Party

Washington Mutual's abandonment of wholesale is the latest example of an industry in full retreat. And it underlines the decimation in the ranks of mortgage brokers, where analysts have estimated that a third of all broker firms will go under. What future does the mortgage broker niche have? As we see it, a thriving one, unless there is a swift movement by lenders and consumers to the electronic channel. (Read More)

One Hurdle May Be Past in Crisis But Other Hurdles Remain

When it comes to the recent subprime mortgage woe-sparked market crisis, there appeared at press time to be some consensus that we have recently cleared one hurdle in that some liquidity has been restored, but other hurdles remain. (Read More)

Studying Subprime/Lifetime Loans

A second United Kingdom review of mortgage regulations' effectiveness found some parallels between the behavior of borrowers who took out subprime credit loans and so-called lifetime mortgages, a product category similar to reverse mortgages in the United States. (Read More)

Levitt Corp. Reduces 4Q Loss

Levitt Corp. took a $8.3 million net loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to $10.7 million net loss in 2006's fourth quarter. For all of 2007, Levitt Corp. took a $234.6 million net loss, compared with a net loss of $9.2 million the previous year. (Read More)

Survey: Reverse Borrowers Mostly Need Money to Live On

More than anything else, reverse mortgage borrowers need to tap into their home equity to pay for their daily living expenses, according to a survey by an Atlanta credit counseling agency. (Read More)

Eyeing Reverse Servicing's Red Flags

The reverse mortgage sector has not been overlooked by the scam artists that have pillaged the rest of the mortgage business. But servicers can fight back by thinking like a criminal. (Read More)

New Study Finds Inclusionary Zoning's Effects Vary by Area

It seems there is a competition between studies aiming to discover if and how much inclusionary zoning policies affect home prices and affordable housing. (Read More)

'Crisis Spreads but Emerging Markets, So Far, Are Immune'

The credit crisis has been spreading to other mortgage and debt markets but emerging markets, so far, have been largely unaffected, according to the International Monetary Fund here. (Read More)

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades 1,600+ B&C MBS Tranches

Moody's Investors Service recently downgraded more than 1,600 tranches in over 175 subprime residential mortgage-backed security transactions from nine issuers. (Read More)

Acquired EDM Firm Adds Parent's Offering

On the heels of the Xerox acquisition of BlitzDocs, the new entity dubbed Xerox Mortgage Services is using technology from its parent to enhance electronic document management functionality for its users. (Read More)

Dodd May Tweak FHA Refi Bill

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., may be willing to tweak his Federal Housing Administration refinancing bill so investors have an incentive to write down the loan amount and take a loss. (Read More)

Wells Fargo to Top Lender Ranks?

As Countrywide Financial Corp. struggled with bankruptcy rumors in the first quarter, Wells Fargo's residential production division kept chugging along. According to first-quarter figures, the company originated $66 billion in home mortgages during the period, a 7% increase from the first quarter of 2007. Its application pipeline was also $61 billion, a 42% jump from the fourth quarter. (Read More)

Subprime ABS, CDO And Mortgage-Related Hits

Company Writedown on Name CDO, ABS or Mortgages Hits Taken in 1Q 2008: Merrill Lynch $4.5 Deutsche Bank $4.0 Washington Mutual $3.5 Wachovia $1.6 Wells Fargo $0.7 April's Total: $14.3 Notes: These first-quarter writedowns were announced in April as part of 1Q08 earnings releases. Some of the charges listed here may involve marks on assets that are nonresidential in nature. Writedowns do not reflect actual losses but are a hit against earnings. (Read More)

Arbor Funds 3 Projects

Arbor Commercial Funding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC, has funded three projects totaling more than $61 million in loans. (Read More)

Capmark Originates $110 Million in Financing for MF Portfolio

Capmark Finance Inc. originated a total of $110 million in supplemental financing for a portfolio of 61 multifamily properties in Maryland and northern Virginia. (Read More)

HFF RefinancesNursing Homes

The New Jersey office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has arranged refinancing totaling $6.3 million for Morris Hills and Waterview nursing homes in Morristown and Cedar Grove, N.J. (Read More)

Big Lenders in GSE Jumbo Program

Freddie Mac has enlisted four major lenders to start up its jumbo mortgage program and to jump-start the jumbo mortgage market, which has suffered since the credit crunch hit last August. (Read More)

March Housing Starts Plunge 48%

Single-unit housing starts fell to a 17-year low of 680,000 in March. A year previous, starts were down a stunning 48%. The sequential decline was 7%. The figures were compiled by the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Multifamily starts (five units or more) totaled 247,000 during the month, a 25% decline from February but flat compared to March 2007. "While builders continue to report improvements in traffic through their model homes compared with late last year, this activity has not translated to actual sales," said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. (Read More)

Aguirre Next HUD Secretary?

President George Bush is very close to nominating a new housing secretary and sources indicate that Eduardo Aguirre Jr., the U.S. ambassador to Spain, is likely to get the job. (Read More)

OFHEO: GSEs 'Significant Concern'

Even though Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made "good progress" in fixing the operational problems that led to their respective accounting scandals, the two remain a "significant supervisory concern," according to a new report issued by their regulator. (Read More)

'GSEs More U.S. Risk than BDs'

The possible need to provide public support to the GSEs during the current financial crisis poses a greater risk to the U.S. government's top AAA rating than the potential need to support broker-dealers, according to Standard & Poor's. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA San Diego-Plaza Home Mortgage Inc. said that Nefertiti Bromber has joined the company in the position of sales manager in its Los Angeles branch. (Read More)

Two FHLBs End Merger Talks

The first consolidation in the 66-year history of the Federal Home Loan Bank System will have to wait now that the Chicago and Dallas FHLBanks have ended their merger talks. (Read More)

Bills Eye FHLB Muni Guarantees

Problems in the municipal bond market have prompted tax writers in the House of Representatives to turn to the Federal Home Loan Banks to provide letters of credit as guarantees for new bond offerings. (Read More)

Writeoff Parade Continues

Royal Bank of Scotland - the parent of Greenwich Capital, for years a major player in subprime ABS - said it would take almost $12 billion in mortgage-related writedowns and raise $24 billion in new capital. (Read More)

New Analysis: '07 Volume Off 15%

First, the good news: mortgage lenders of all stripes originated $2.79 trillion in residential loans last year, a modest 15% decline from 2006. (Read More)

BoA: MB Fees Are Silver Lining

Bank of America's earnings per share fell 80% from last year's first quarter as growing residential credit woes fueled a nearly $5 billion increase in the bank's credit loss provision. (Read More)

Ambac Takes $1B Hit

Ambac Financial Group, whose guarantees stand behind many subprime bonds, lost $1.6 billion in the first quarter, blaming its problems on the company's "direct exposures" to the MBS market. (Read More)

AGs Tackling Entire Industry?

Aforeclosure prevention working group composed of state attorneys general and banking regulators has cooperated with the mortgage industry to date, but some prominent AGs now believe litigation may be needed to stem what they see as an epidemic of foreclosures. (Read More)

Executive Spotlight: THOMAS MORANO

Mr. Marano, former senior managing director and global head of mortgages and asset-backed securities for Bear Stearns, has been named non-executive chairman of Residential Capital LLC, New York, the parent of GMAC Mortgage and its other residential affiliates. He succeeds former chairman Michael Rossi who recently resigned from the board for medical reasons. (Read More)

Top Residential Originators In 2007

Origination Vol. % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 2007 2006 change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $408,234 $460,387 -11% 14.60% -0.08% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $271,931 $397,641 -32% 9.73% -2.95% 3 Chase $210,201 $172,900 22% 7.52% +2.01% 4 CitiMortgage Inc. (2) $197,965 $169,219 17% 7.08% +1.69% 5 Bank of America (1) $187,423 $167,404 12% 6.70% +1.37% 6 Washington Mutual $141,660 $194,867 -27% 5.07% -1.15% 7 Wachovia Mortgage FSB $99,221 $118,474 -16% 3.55% -0.23% 8 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $80,827 $117,173 -31% 2.89% -0.84% 9 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $76,979 $89,951 -14% 2.75% -0.11% 10 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $59,404 $56,446 5% 2.12% +0.33% 11 National City Mortgage (3) $46,449 $43,116 8% 1.66% +0.29% 12 PHH Mortgage $38,096 $41,503 -8% 1.36% +0.04% 13 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker $34,215 $24,235 41% 1.22% +0.45% 14 EMC Mortgage Corp. (4) $31,656 $67,981 -53% 1.13% -1.04% 15 First Horizon Home Loans $31,101 $32,065 -3% 1.11% +0.09% 16 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $27,208 $22,360 22% 0.97% +0.26% 17 Amtrust Bank $25,307 $21,775 16% 0.91% +0.21% 18 Flagstar Bank FSB $25,177 $18,291 38% 0.90% +0.32% 19 Aurora Loan Services Inc. (5) $23,951 $36,241 -34% 0.86% -0.30% 20 Provident Funding Associates $21,148 $12,617 68% 0.76% +0.35% 21 MortgageIT (E) (6) $18,992 $28,703 -34% 0.68% -0.24% 22 Quicken Loans Inc. $18,458 $16,717 10% 0.66% +0.13% 23 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $15,674 $15,877 -1% 0.56% +0.05% 24 Morgan Stanley $13,320 $26,984 -51% 0.48% -0.38% 25 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $12,499 $12,119 3% 0.45% +0.06% 26 ING Bank FSB $11,986 $5,361 124% 0.43% +0.26% 27 Franklin American Mortgage $11,951 $8,111 47% 0.43% +0.17% 28 Fifth Third Mortgage $11,419 $9,421 21% 0.41% +0.11% 29 CTX Mortgage (HB) $11,333 $14,131 -20% 0.41% -0.05% 30 Hudson City Savings Bank $7,076 $5,070 40% 0.25% +0.09% Totals: $2,172,869 $2,409,146 -10% 76.96%0.90% Notes: Market share based on estimated 2007 loan production of $2.767 trillion. Fundings include prime and nonprime loans and both first and second liens. Results may be incomplete because some firms would not provide figures. (1) Countrywide is in the process of being bought by Bank of America. (2) Citigroup bought Argent Mortgage in the fall of 2007. (3) NatCity is for sale. (4) EMC is owned by Bear Stearns. (5) ALS is owned by Lehman but is no longer funding mortgages. (6) MortgageIT is owned by Deutsche Bank and has closed certain production divisions. (E) Estimate. (HB) Owned by a homebuilder. (Read More)

House to Vote On $300 Billion FHA Refinance Program

The House of Representatives is set to vote on a foreclosure prevention bill this week that would authorize the Federal Housing Administration to refinance struggling homeowners with underwater mortgages. (Read More)

Ginnie Mae Sees Surge as Government Loans Gain Favor

Ginnie Mae guaranteed $15 billion in mortgage-backed securities in March, up from $11.2 billion in the previous month, and agency executives are predicting a banner year for Ginnie Mae MBS issuers. (Read More)

Preston Slated For HUD Post

President George Bush has nominated Steve Preston, a former investment banker, to be the new housing secretary and replace HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson who resigned. (Read More)

Editorial: REO Best Practices

Attendees of SourceMedia Conferences' recent Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas heard some excellent pointers on best practices for real estate-owned disposition. And these best practices, intended to gain swift sales in a glutted market, also give some sobering insights into just how much REO there is currently, and with more to come. (Read More)

Open Forum: Setting Standards for Reform

The opening statement from Ranking Member Bachus before a recent House Financial Services Committee hearing entitled "Using FHA for Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention" is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Writedowns Could End But Others Concerns Could Linger

Multibillion-dollar, mortgage-related writedowns continued to slam the Street last week and while there appears to be some hope that some problem exposures are being reduced and the massive negative valuation adjustments will end, other investment banking problems could linger. (Read More)

First American Taps Fidelity Veteran

The First American Corp. here has added five people to its board of directors recommended by its largest shareholder. One of the five is a former top executive from its chief rival in the title insurance business. (Read More)

'Modified' Loan May Appeal to Originators

A mortgage industry veteran thought he discovered the perfect mortgage nearly a decade ago, but he could not get loan officers to sell it. (Read More)

El Salvador Sees First MBS Deal

The first El Salvador-originated residential mortgage-backed securitization ever completed has been rated, according to the San Jose, Costa Rica, office of Fitch Ratings here. (Read More)

Bank of England Seeks to Ease Mortgage Liquidity Squeeze

The United Kingdom's mortgage market may get somewhat of a boost thanks to the Bank of England's move to address liquidity concerns by allowing banks to temporarily swap certain high-quality securities, including some mortgage-backed debt, for U.K. Treasury bills. (Read More)

Former Fannie Chief Raines Reaches Settlement with OFHEO

Franklin Raines and two other former Fannie Mae executives have agreed to pay relatively minor fines and surrender underwater stock options to settle allegations of earnings manipulation during their tenure at the congressionally chartered mortgage giant. (Read More)

Eyeing a Key Issue

The secondary market is a key issue in today's challenging business environment so the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual conference centered on that topic may take on more importance this year. (Read More)

Tech Vendors: Lenders Will Talk 'Big Picture'

Vendors in attendance at this year's MBA's National Secondary Market Conference expect that the show will be dominated by hard conversations about a slowing economy, restoring liquidity and moving forward in a meaningful way. (Read More)

Dealing with Secondary Tightening

Out of the many challenges originators trying to keep up with tighter secondary market loan standards have faced of late, depreciation and a lack of equity may be the trickiest, particularly in the jumbo market. (Read More)

Navigating a Tough Market

Mortgage banker Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., Sun Prairie, Wis., has done relatively well despite the secondary market issues that have challenged the mortgage business - but it hasn't been easy, according to chief executive officer Steve Jacobson. (Read More)

Ross: OOMC Deal May Close Soon

WL Ross & Co. could close on its purchase of Option One Mortgage Corp.'s servicing business as early as this week, company president Wilbur Ross told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

BoA Promises Tighter Underwriting

Bank of America said that it will implement tighter home loan underwriting standards "as soon as practical" after integrating its operations with Countrywide Financial Corp. (Read More)

GreenPoint Legacy Still Hurting Capital One's Performance

Capital One's earnings per share declined by 14% in the first quarter, but the company benefited from relatively strong earnings in its "continuing operations." (Read More)

REITs Raising Fresh Funds

A number of real estate investment trusts have started issuing stock and debt notes in order to raise funds to take advantage of potential acquisition opportunities in a weakening real estate market. (Read More)

Foreclosures Batter FL Condos

A new survey of property owners in Florida's condominium, homeowner and other community associations shows rising mortgage foreclosures are causing revenue shortfalls that pose significant threats to operating and maintenance budgets and to the health and security of many communities. (Read More)

Fremont Selling Branches

Seeking to comply with a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. directive, Fremont General Corp. here is selling the deposits, the assets and the branch locations of Fremont Investment & Loan to CapitalSource Inc., Chevy Chase, Md., a real estate investment trust. (Read More)

Ginnie MaesTop Fund List

Mutual funds invested primarily in Ginnie Mae securities topped the rankings among mortgage mutual funds in the first quarter, while those invested mainly in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities and in adjustable-rate mortgage securities produced losses on average, according to data from Lipper Inc. here. (Read More)

Selected National Mortgage Fund Performance

1 Quarter 1 Year 5 Years 12/31/2007 03/31/2007 03/31/2003 03/31/2008 03/31/2008 03/31/2008 Fund Cumulative Cumulative Cumulative Name Total Return (%) Rank Total Return (%) Rank Total Return (%) Rank Adjustable-Rate Mortgage Funds Evergreen Adj Rt;I 1.5157 1 5.1701 4 17.8674 1 Franklin Inv:Adj Gv;C 1.4929 2 4.9269 5 N/A N/A Franklin Inv:Adj Gv;A 1.4768 3 5.3522 2 15.9597 5 Evergreen Adj Rt;IS 1.4528 4 4.9078 6 16.4155 3 Evergreen Adj Rt;A 1.4502 5 4.8973 7 16.2060 4 Federated Adj Rt;Inst 1.3835 6 5.4014 1 16.8904 2 Federated Adj Rt;Insv 1.3306 7 5.1893 3 15.5641 6 Evergreen Adj Rt;B 1.2640 8 4.1245 8 12.1322 7 Evergreen Adj Rt;C 1.2640 8 4.1245 8 12.1322 7 Legg Mason P:Adj Rt;I -3.4706 10 -2.7868 10 8.5145 9 Legg Mason P:Adj Rt;A -3.5251 11 -3.0282 11 7.1641 10 Legg Mason P:Adj Rt;C -3.6907 12 -3.6174 12 4.3232 11 Legg Mason P:Adj Rt;B -3.7475 13 -3.6747 13 4.1437 12 Average/Total -0.1387 13 2.3836 13 12.2761 12 Ginnie Mae Funds BlackRock:GNMA;BR 3.3640 1 9.4044 1 26.2796 2 BlackRock:GNMA;I 3.3529 2 9.3529 2 25.7350 3 BlackRock:GNMA;Svc 3.2907 3 9.1037 3 23.9460 9 BlackRock:GNMA;A 3.2524 4 8.9300 4 23.3977 10 BlackRock:GNMA;C 3.0694 5 8.2033 9 18.9680 41 BlackRock:GNMA;B 3.0533 6 8.1241 13 18.8444 42 SunAmerica:GNMA;A 2.8795 7 8.6912 6 22.1564 20 PIMCO:GNMA;Inst 2.8638 8 8.4022 8 28.0337 1 Victory:Fd for Inc;A 2.8195 9 8.1723 12 18.1716 48 Victory:Fd for Inc;R 2.8116 10 8.1803 11 17.8430 49 Putnam US Govt Inc;C 1.8698 60 7.1124 40 17.0248 51 T Rowe Price Sum:GNMA 1.8382 61 7.1728 35 21.7650 25 Dreyfus BASIC US Mtg Sec 1.8237 62 6.3494 52 21.9325 22 T Rowe Price GNMA 1.7422 63 6.9636 44 21.7957 23 Wright Inc:Curnt Inc;Std 1.6194 64 6.0338 56 18.7933 43 Average/Total 2.3910 64 7.4947 58 20.9535 57 U.S. Mortgage Funds Accessor:Mortg Secs;Adv 2.5011 1 7.6961 2 21.6035 18 PIA MBS Bond;MACS 2.4462 2 7.8929 1 N/A N/A Allegiant:Govt Mtg;I 2.4129 3 7.5803 3 23.3905 11 Allegiant:Govt Mtg;A 2.3501 4 7.3140 5 21.8658 15 Huntington:Mtge;Tr 2.3043 5 4.0027 42 28.2391 1 Accessor:Mortg Secs;Inv 2.3005 6 7.1675 7 19.0925 30 Allegiant:Govt Mtg;C 2.2772 7 6.5351 17 17.6161 33 iShares:Lehm MBS FR Bd 2.2323 8 7.1748 6 N/A N/A Huntington:Mtge;Inv A 2.2239 9 3.8085 45 26.3783 5 Accessor:Mortg Secs;C 2.1741 10 6.6188 15 15.7417 42 AMF:Intmdt Mortgage -5.3813 83 -3.7328 79 7.4156 69 Ivy:Mortgage Secs;C -5.5549 84 -5.4261 82 N/A N/A Ivy:Mortgage Secs;E -5.5769 85 N/A N/A N/A N/A Ivy:Mortgage Secs;B -5.6014 86 -5.6121 83 N/A N/A Morg Stan Inst:Advisory -9.5867 87 -7.8729 84 9.7846 64 Average/Total -0.1523 87 3.2785 84 17.6663 69 Source: Lipper, a Reuters company. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-Sean Burton has been named president and chief operating officer of CityView, a national institutional real estate investor. (Read More)

MPF Program on Death Bed

It looks like the Mortgage Partnership Finance program that once gave the Federal Home Loan Banks a chance to compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is on its last legs. (Read More)

Fannie Revisits AH Loan Fee Hike

In response to strong criticism from fair lending groups, Fannie Mae indicated it is reconsidering recent changes it made in tightening underwriting standards on its affordable housing mortgages and imposing new fees. (Read More)

Analyst: $150B of Pain to Go

To date, financial institutions have suffered $250 billion in losses and writedowns tied to subprime assets and could suffer another $150 billion more before the crisis is over, according to Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for Global Insight, Boston. (Read More)

Roundup: More B&C Scrutiny

More than 400 additional classes of subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were downgraded by Fitch Ratings recently as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. (Read More)

FTC Takes Aim at Bear's Servicer

The Federal Trade Commission's multiyear investigation into the servicing practices of EMC Mortgage Corp. has finally placed the Bear Stearns & Co. affiliate in hot water. (Read More)

Key Goldman Exec Leaving Firm

Goldman Sachs mortgage head and managing director Daniel Sparks has stepped down and been replaced by two other executives from within the firm who will co-head the unit going forward, a spokesman confirmed. (Read More)

Provident Posts Loss But Cites Regional Strength as Asset

Provident Bankshares Corp., the parent company of Provident Bank, reported a net loss of $17.6 million for the quarter ending March 31. (Read More)

People

FLORIDA Maitland-Digital Risk LLC has named former Credit Suisse conduit and credit products group founder Bruce Miller as the head of its structured finance consultancy practice in New York. (Read More)

First American, Fidelity Buck Trend with Profitable First Quarter Results

Of the five national title insurance underwriters, only The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. reported profits for the first quarter. (Read More)

Mortgage-Related Writedowns Push Deutsche Bank into Red

Deutsche Bank took a 141 million euro ($220 million) loss in the first quarter, a period in which it also took 2.7 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in writedowns, 885 million euros ($1.38 billion) of which were mortgage related. (Read More)

Street Vets Teaming Up with Black?

Former Deutsche Bank loan traders Michael Commaroto and Paul Mangione are talking to investor Leon Black about starting a fund to bottom-fish in delinquent mortgages and securities, industry officials told National Mortgage News. (Read More)

BoA Pledges to Mitigate Foreclosures on Countrywide Loans

Bank of America is promising regulators it will devote substantial resources to prevent foreclosures after it takes control of Countrywide's $1.47 trillion mortgage servicing portfolio. (Read More)

AmStar to Finance Reverse Warehouse

AmStar Financial Services Inc. here is launching what its top executive is describing as the first-ever warehouse lending facility dedicated to reverse mortgages. (Read More)

Citi Raises $4.5BWith Stock Offer

Shares of Citigroup sank more than 2% last Wednesday after the company priced a $4.5 billion common stock offering. Citi had previously announced its intention to issue $3 billion of shares but raised the amount in response to investor demand. The offering was priced at $25.27 per share. (Read More)

Roundup: Countrywide, New Vista Form Alliance to Sell REO

Countrywide Financial Corp. and New Vista Asset Management have joined together to find qualified borrowers for Countrywide's real estate-owned properties. The companies said New Vista's network of real estate agents, who have "deep roots in minority communities," are assigned to help ensure that prepared homebuyers, especially first-time buyers and minority buyers, have the opportunity to buy REO homes. New Vista and Countrywide will be hosting several community seminars to educate first-time homebuyers about purchasing REO units and obtaining the best available financing. The seminars will begin in Los Angeles and Dallas. "Countrywide and New Vista Asset Management share the common mission of helping to make sure that homeownership is achievable and sustainable, and that neighborhoods are stabilized during this difficult time in the housing market," said Steve Bailey, senior managing director for loan administration for Calabasas, Calif.-based Countrywide. (Read More)

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades 800+ Subprime Classes

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of more than 800 tranches in nearly 100 subprime residential mortgage-backed securities transactions from six issuers. (Read More)

Builders Told To Scale Down

The nation's giant homebuilding firms must pull back if they are to survive the current downturn, an analyst with Wachovia Capital Markets in San Francisco warned at the National Association of Home Builders' Spring Construction Forecast Conference here late last month. (Read More)

Mortgage Pros Talk about Looking for Greener Pastures

AE-Secret-Informant: How do you downplay 20 years experience in the mortgage (business) when trying to break into another line of work? Up until now I have made enough to cover all my monthly expenses and not dip into savings. This month I will be about $450 short and guess what, it's the first month in the past 10 years I am reaching into the piggy bank to make ends meet. Unfortunately I do not see things getting any better anytime soon. In fact, I think they will get worse for wholesale AEs, and I have initiated a job search for an outside sales job in other industries. Preferably, I would like to sell goods or services that excite me. Pet supplies, toys, beer - not insurance, not pharmaceutical, not copiers. Get the picture? So how do I downplay my 20 years in the mortgage biz? I have had three employers in the past 20 years. Same job description, namely business development, sales, customer service and retention, etc. I would like some advice from other AEs who have made the transition to other industries. (Read More)

CapitalSource Renews its $1 Billion Syndicated Credit Line

CapitalSource Inc., a real estate investment trust here, has renewed a secured credit facility of $1 billion. The syndicate is comprised of five banks. The lead is Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, which has made a commitment of $400 million. (Read More)

Builders: New Home Market Caught in a 'Diabolical Loop'

The housing market is trapped in a vicious downward spin, several panelists said at the National Association of Home Builders' Semi-Annual Spring Construction Forecast Conference late last month. (Read More)

PROMOTION SPOTLIGHT: Susan Graham

Ms. Graham has been promoted from vice president of operations to president of origination vendor Financial Industry Computer Systems, Dallas. Prior to joining FICS, she served as first vice president of residential and commercial loan servicing and origination for San Antonio Federal Credit Union. (Read More)

Data-Vision Adds E-Disclosure Functionality

Data-Vision Inc. has released a new version of its LoanQuoter software that allows lenders to facilitate the mortgage loan application process through its consumer-facing Web portals. (Read More)

Some Fear New Appraisal Standards Will Drive Up Costs

Experts believe proposed home appraisal rules will drive up costs for homeowners and limit their choices. (Read More)

FirstFed Raises Single-Family Loss Allowance

FirstFed Financial Corp., parent of First Federal Bank of California, expects to substantially increase its allowance for loan losses related to single-family home loans. (Read More)

Central Database and Analytics Help Alliance Aid Borrowers

Hope Now, the nation's largest partnership of government, private and nonprofit entities, is proving that strategy is one of the most efficient ways to assist those who are suffering from the subprime mortgage crisis. (Read More)

U.K. Group Skeptical of European Integration

A United Kingdom mortgage group is calling for the European Commission to shelve proposals to integrate European Union mortgage markets in light of recent market changes. (Read More)

Appraiser Independence Called Key to Restoring Confidence

Pending federal approval, property evaluation standards and the creation of the Independent Valuation Protection Institute are attracting positively cautious reviews. (Read More)

LaSalle Units Form New JV

LaSalle Hotel Properties, a multi-operator real estate investment trust, and LaSalle Investment Management, a global real estate investment manager, have formed a joint venture to seek U.S. hotel investments in high barrier-to-entry urban and resort markets. (Read More)

Moody's: CREIs Bouncing Back

Commercial real estate prices as measured by Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices rose 2.1% in February, offsetting most of the losses the CPPI had posted since October. (Read More)

Cousins Properties Selling 167 Industrial Acres in Atlanta

Cousins Properties Inc. is selling 167 acres of land at two Atlanta-area industrial parks to Weeks Robinson Properties, an industrial development here, for $18.5 million. (Read More)

Roundup: PHH Offers $220 Million of New Convertible Notes

PHH Corp. has priced an offering of $220 million of 4% senior convertible notes due 2012. The underwriters have an additional $30 million overallotment option. The notes are convertible to cash or to common shares of PHH stock under specified circumstances. The notes are senior unsecured obligations. (Read More)

Flagstar Hurt by Change in Accounting for Servicing Rights

Flagstar Bancorp lost $10.6 million in the first quarter as a change in accounting for mortgage servicing rights and higher credit costs damaged the company's results. (Read More)

FBR Upgrades Downey's Shares

Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here have upgraded their rating on Downey Financial Corp. to "market perform" from "underperform," even as they lowered their price target on the company's shares to $13. (Read More)

CRL: BrokersCharge More

In its latest study, the Center for Responsible Lending claims that subprime borrowers pay significantly more for getting a loan from a mortgage broker as opposed to a retail lender. (Read More)

Las Vegas Foreclosure Bus Tours Boost Home Sales

Re/Max Central here has launched a foreclosure bus tour for consumers and investors. "Re/Max Central believes it is a great time to buy Las Vegas real estate or a Las Vegas foreclosure as interest rates are at near-record lows, buyers have lots of choices due to abundant Las Vegas foreclosure inventory and lenders have great government assisted programs," said John and Ruth Ahlbrand, co-founders of Re/Max Central. (Read More)

Mortgage Insurers Continue to Feel Strain

Driven by losses in the mortgage insurance and title insurance segments of its business, Old Republic International Corp. here posted a first-quarter 2008 net loss of $19 million, or $0.08 per share, compared with net income of $107.7 million, or $0.46 per share, for the same period in 2007. (Read More)

Strong 1st Quarter Leads Analyst to Revise Outlook for MGIC

An analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, Arlington, Va., has cut his 2008 loss estimates for MGIC Investment Corp. here by more than half, as the company's first-quarter results were better than anticipated. The cut, from an expected loss of $5 per share to an expected loss of $2.15 per share, also factors in the recent issuance of additional shares in the company. (Read More)

Servicers Facing ARM Payment Resets Need to Be Proactive

As servicers get ready and start to deal with adjustable-rate mortgage payment resets, the multifaceted national effort to save homeowners in distress is an endeavor that requires proactive intervention and sometimes, unpopular cathartic measures. (Read More)

Subprime Mess Fuels FHA's Rise

Mortgage banking shops across the country are finding a huge demand for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans, especially from borrowers who are being squeezed by subprime loans. (Read More)

Consumers Have Little Say in Choice of Settlement Services

What if you visited a department store and a clerk told you what brand of shirt you had to buy? (Read More)

Fed Cuts May Stop There Even If Housing Still Hurts

The Federal Open Market Committee has cut its target for the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to 2% and indicated it will try to avoid more cuts going forward even though the credit crunch and housing woes are likely to persist. (Read More)

Open Forum: Using FHA for Stabilization

Mr. Montgomery's statement at a recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Radian Tries to Sell GSEs on Long-Term Recovery Process

Radian Group Inc. here said it presented a comprehensive business and financial plan to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae just two days after Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on the company from AA- to A. (Read More)

Green Tree to Buy Origen's Servicing Platform

Origen Financial, a manufactured housing lender, has agreed to sell its servicing platform and related assets to Green Tree Servicing. (Read More)

FDIC Plan Would Pay Down $50 Billion of Underwater Loans

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. unveiled a bold $50 billion "pay down" loan program last week to facilitate the restructuring of underwater mortgages and potentially prevent one million foreclosures. (Read More)

'HOA' Lender Finds Investors

CMG Mortgage Services here is in the process of lining up two new investors for its popular Home Ownership Accelerator loan program. (Read More)

AllRegs Buys Merit Matrix

Pricing Guidelines distributor AllRegs here has acquired Merit Matrix, a division of IntraPrise Solutions Inc. headquartered in Warminster, Pa., as part of a strategy to become the mortgage utility for pricing. (Read More)

Ross May Buy S&Ls

Now that WL Ross & Co. LLC is the proud owner of two midsized (mostly) nonprime servicing units, its next step is to buy a savings and loan -- or two, or maybe even three. (Read More)

Countrywide Hit: $3B

Countrywide Financial Corp. here took $3 billion of credit-related charges in the first quarter, widening the company's loss well above Wall Street expectations. (Read More)

GMAC Sees Some Light

GMAC Financial Services lost $589 million in the first quarter, but said that the performance of its U.S. mortgage unit actually improved. (Read More)

S&P Drops Closed 2ds

Standard & Poor's on May 1 officially halted the rating process for closed-end, second-lien mortgages and related residential mortgage-backed securities, citing the sector's inordinately poor performance. (Read More)

Top Correspondent Lenders in 2007

Correspondent Vol. % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 2007 2006 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial (1) $192,700 $211,185 -9% 21.91% +4.00% 2 CitiMortgage Inc. $94,211 $88,657 6% 10.71% +3.19% 3 Wells Fargo & Co. $81,768 $188,773 -57% 9.30% -6.71% 4 Chase Home Finance $71,090 $48,701 46% 8.08% +3.95% 5 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $46,270 $74,475 -38% 5.26% -1.06% 6 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (E) $32,030 $40,369 -21% 3.64% +0.22% 7 EMC Mortgage Corp. (2) $27,061 $63,755 -58% 3.08% -2.33% 8 Aurora Loan Services (3) $15,406 $25,244 -39% 1.75% -0.39% 9 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $13,554 $12,028 13% 1.54% +0.52% 10 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $12,175 $10,694 14% 1.38% +0.48% 11 Washington Mutual $11,575 $49,460 -77% 1.32% -2.88% 12 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker $11,404 $5,779 97% 1.30% +0.81% 13 Flagstar Bank FSB $10,799 $7,153 51% 1.23% +0.62% 14 Franklin American Mortgage $7,763 $4,929 58% 0.88% +0.46% 15 Morgan Stanley $6,595 $19,896 -67% 0.75% -0.94% Top 15 Totals: $636,407 $853,103 -25% 72.12% -0.05% Notes: Excludes subprime specialists. (1) CFC is being bought by Bank of America. (2) EMC is owned by Bear Stearns. (3) ALS is owned by Lehman Bros and has suspended originations for now. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Edtorial: Starting It Up Again

Attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Association's secondary market conference this week in Boston ought to be thinking hard about Job One for the secondary market: creating liquidity for mortgage finance. (Read More)

Investors Taking a Look at FGIC

FGIC Corp. here, the parent of troubled Financial Guaranty Insurance Co., said it has received a "significant number of indications of interest" from its request for proposals from investors as it seeks to enhance its capital position. (Read More)

FHA Rescue May Fall Short

A Federal Housing Administration bill will fall far short of its goal of helping one million at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosure mainly because it does not offer second-lien holders an incentive to permit a refinancing. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Loan-Score Decisioning Systems has named Jon McGuire as chief technology officer. (Read More)

Few Hear GSEs' Get Wrists Slapped

Besides the crowd - the announced attendance was 1,200, but it seemed like only half that actually showed up - noticeably absent from the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference here last week was Wall Street. It just wasn't here. (Read More)

No Improvement Until 2009

Lenders shouldn't expect sales to begun picking up some steam until next year at the earliest, the Mortgage Bankers Association's acting chief economist warned here last week. (Read More)

MBA to Lawmakers: 'Don't Overreact' to Housing Crisis

With Congress in crisis mode, the Mortgage Bankers Association last week called on lawmakers to take care of "unfinished business" by addressing policy issues that have, in some cases, lingered for years. (Read More)

Fitch Ratings Downgrades More Than 550 Additional Subprime Classes

More than 550 additional classes of subprime mortgage-backed securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Central Banks Adding Liquidity to Aid Banks in U.S., Europe

The European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and Swiss National Bank have expanded their liquidity measures and the Fed has added a wider range of asset-backed securities to the list of collateral types that can be pledged in one type of its term securities lending facility auctions. (Read More)

CFC Deals with Servicing Concerns

Countrywide Financial Corp. said it is improving the way it services mortgages for homeowners in bankruptcy after U.S. trustees have raised concerns about its servicing practices and the fees it charges those borrowers who are seeking to restructure their debts and avoid foreclosure. (Read More)

Top Subprime Subservicers At 12/31/07

Subservicing Volume % Rk Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change 1 Select Portfolio Servicing (E) (1) Salt Lake City, UT $13,524 $8,959 51% 2 Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC West Palm Beach, FL $10,788 $15,420 -30% 3 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) (E) Minneapolis, MN $6,465 na na 4 Litton Loan Servicing Inc. (E) (2) Houston, TX $5,460 $11,673 -53% 5 Wilshire Credit Corp. (E) Beaverton, OR $5,361 $3,500 53% 6 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA $2,133 $2,790 -24% 7 Chase Home Finance Woodcliff Lake, NJ $1,741 11,398 -85% 8 Homeq Servicing Corp. (3) North Highlands, CA $1,594 $4,959 -68% 9 Option One Mortgage Corp. (4) Irvine, CA $1,487 $5,343 -72% 10 Aurora Loan Services Inc. Aurora, CO $40 na na Totals: $48,592 $64,042 -24% Notes: Results may vary because some firms would not disclose subprime subservicing figures. (1) SPS is owned by Credit Suisse. (2) Litton is owned by Goldman Sachs. (3) Homeq is owned by Barclays. (4) OOMC was recently purchased by WL Ross & Co. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Pair Poised to be Reverse Leaders

WSFS Bank, a subsidiary of WSFS Financial Corp. here, has acquired a majority interest in 1st Reverse Mortgage Financial Services LLC, a Westmont, Ill.-based reverse mortgage wholesaler. (Read More)

Strategies to Maximize Performance

Falling house prices and a slowing economy will continue to affect default rates as well as the recession-like situation in the fourth quarter of 2007 when the market saw a further increase in defaults and foreclosures, especially in the Rust Belt states, according to panelists at SourceMedia's Mortgage Servicing Conference here. (Read More)

Vendors Adapt to Change

At the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas, panelists said the old act of providing $500 to $1,000 upfront to borrowers in default for "cash for keys" is changing. Lorenz Schwarz, president, Phoenix Asset Management, said his company finds it to be highly ineffective. (Read More)

LaSalle's Servicer Rating Upgraded

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the master servicer quality rating on LaSalle Bank National Association to SQ3+ from a previous rating of SQ3. (Read More)

Top Subservicers At 12/31/07

Subservicing Volume % Market Rk Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change Share % 1 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) Lake Zurich, IL $66,975 $62,700 7% 20.08% 2 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) (E) Minneapolis, MN $56,000 $55,400 1% 16.79% 3 Cenlar FSB Ewing, NJ $54,000 $48,000 13% 16.19% 4 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA $24,049 $18,275 32% 7.21% 5 Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco, CA $15,927 $15,573 2% 4.78% 6 LoanCare Servicing Center Inc. Norfolk, VA $12,811 $13,727 -7% 3.84% 7 EverBank/EverHome Mortgage (E) Jacksonville, FL $9,600 $9,505 1% 2.88% 8 First Horizon Home Loans Irving, TX $7,269 na na 2.18% 9 Downey Savings & Loan Assn. Newport Beach, CA $5,522 $5,995 -8% 1.66% 10 Midwest Loan Services Houghton, MI $4,375 $4,003 9% 1.31% Totals: $256,528 $233,178 10% 76.92% Notes: Subprime subservicers listed separately in this report. (E) Estimate. (Read More)

Subservicing: Rewarding Merit

In today's mortgage industry, with delinquencies and defaults rising, loan modifications being promoted, and regulators eyeing practices, sophisticated loan administration is more important than ever before. It's no time to have inexperienced staff trying to learn the ropes on the job. The learning curve is just too steep for that approach. (Read More)

RMS Sees Growth in Reverse Subservicing

With the baby boom generation starting to enter retirement, the business of making reverse mortgages is entering a growth phase. (Read More)

Hudson Realty Invests In Colorado Apartments

Hudson Realty Capital, a real estate fund manager here, has made a $6 million equity investment in a 44-unit apartment complex, known as the Marcellina, and nearly two acres of adjacent developable land located in Crested Butte, Colo. The proceeds were used to purchase the property as well as for pre-development costs. (Read More)

KBW: REITs Beat 1st Q Consensus Estimates

Keefe Bruyette & Woods released its first-quarter scorecard for equity REITs, which includes a snapshot look at first-quarter earnings results for the 25 equity REITs/REOCs that have already reported across various property sectors. (Read More)

Troubled Branch Outlet Is Bought

All Fund Mortgage here, a net branch operator that had trouble paying some of its managers last year, has new owners. (Read More)

Equity Firm Teaming Up with Triad to Build New MI Company

Triad Guaranty Inc. here is negotiating exclusively with Lightyear Capital LLC, New York, on the creation of a new monoline mortgage insurer. (Read More)

Jumbo Efforts to Be Put to the Test in Hearing

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee told the MBA's National Secondary Market Conference here last week that he plans to hold a hearing later this month that he hoped would shed light on why officials have not gotten "more bang for their buck" when it comes to the temporary conforming/government loan limit increase. When asked about the possibility of lifting restrictions posed by new, more stringent credit score requirements, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently have enacted and have added to forcing constricting lending and liquidity, Rep. Frank said, "We are working with [the government-sponsored enterprises] on that." (Read More)

Decisioning to Restore Confidence?

As the mortgage industry looks to restore investor confidence as well as its own tarnished image, Overture Technologies suggests that a concept called re-decisioning may be the answer. (Read More)

Editorial: Rating the Retreat

Standard & Poor's Corp.'s decision no longer to rate closed-end second loans or securities is another indication of a mortgage business in full retreat. Lenders are having trouble lending, Wall Street is in full retreat from securitizing (at least on the subprime side) and now a ratings agency is retreating from rating a whole product line. (Read More)

Recovery Challenged by the Need to Do More with Less

A big part of the challenge when it comes to efforts to bring buyers back to the secondary mortgage market lies not only in the fact that some loans weren't all they were cracked up to be but in that investors are no longer who they were, do not have the appetite prior investors had and so far seem to be attracted to the sector mainly on the basis of cheap prices at a time when sellers' operational expenses are increasing. (Read More)

Open Forum: Preserving Affordable Rentals

The following article written by Mr. Dugan on preserving affordable multifamily rental housing is presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Lenders Resist New Appraisal Standards

Lenders appear to be united in their opposition to the appraisal standards or code that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed to implement as part of a settlement with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. (Read More)

HUD Extends Comment Period on RESPA

Bowing to congressional pressure, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has extended the comment period on its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act reform proposal for 30 days to June 13. (Read More)

Servicers See Increase in Workouts

The Hope Now alliance estimates that mortgage servicers provided borrowers with more than a half-million loan workouts in the first quarter, bringing the total number of workouts completed since last July to 1.4 million. (Read More)

House Passes FHA Bill Despite Threat of Bush Veto

The House of Representatives passed a Federal Housing Administration refinancing bill last week by a 266 to 154 vote despite a threat by President Bush to veto the foreclosure prevention bill. (Read More)

ResCap Will Sell Assets

Facing a liquidity crunch, Residential Capital Corp. says it hopes to sell $600 million worth of assets by June 30 and is considering the auction of European MBS held on its balance sheet. (Read More)

Top Subprime Lenders In 2007

Subprime Volume % Market Rk Organization Name 2007 2006 Change Share 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $16,993 $40,596 -58% 10.22% 2 Option One Mortgage Corp. (CL) $13,985 $29,811 -53% 8.41% 3 First Franklin Financial (CL) $13,679 $27,725 -51% 8.22% 4 Wells Fargo & Co. (E) (2) $13,317 $27,869 -52% 8.01% 5 Chase Home Finance $11,458 $11,548 -1% 6.89% 6 Washington Mutual (E) (3) $9,630 $26,837 -64% 5.79% 7 CitiFinancial (E) $9,250 $23,500 -61% 5.56% 8 EMC Mortgage $7,254 $8,754 -17% 4.36% 9 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BK) $4,951 $33,162 -85% 2.98% 10 Argent/Citigroup (E) $3,852 $25,578 -85% 2.32% 11 Fremont Investment & Loan (CL) $3,727 $31,838 -88% 2.24% 12 Delta Funding Corp. (BK) $3,360 $3,938 -15% 2.02% 13 HSBC Mortgage Services (E) (4) $3,009 $20,988 -86% 1.81% 14 BNC Mortgage Inc. (CL) $3,000 $13,725 -78% 1.80% 15 Decision One Mortgage (CL) $2,891 $15,226 -81% 1.74% 16 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (5) $2,617 $2,674 -2% 1.57% 17 CIT Group Consumer Finance $2,564 $3,022 -15% 1.54% 18 Morgan Stanley (6) $2,559 $3,168 -19% 1.54% 19 NovaStar Mortgage Inc. (CL) $2,363 $10,968 -78% 1.42% 20 Nationstar Mortgage (E) (CL) $2,291 $4,620 -50% 1.38% Totals: $134,756 $367,553 -63% 78.43% Notes: Over the past nine months the subprime industry has effectively collapsed with at least 100 actual funders closing their doors or no longer originating A- to D credits. The firms appearing in this table were still in the business at some point during 2007. Market share based on estimated 2007 subprime production of $166.3 billion. (1) Countrywide no longer funds most types of subprime loans. It is in the process of being sold to Bank of America. (2) Wells has stopped funding most types of subprime loans. (3) WaMu has stopped funding most types of subprime loans and closed its B&C division, Long Beach Mortgage, last year. (4) HSBC refused to provide a subprime figure to us. This is an estimate. The bank no longer originates subprime loans through third-party channels. (5) IndyMac no longer originates subprime. (6) Morgan Stanley closed its subprime unit, Saxon Mortgage, in early 2008. (Read More)

Fannie Mae Staying the Course

Fannie Mae executives are telling investors and its customers that 2008 and 2009 will be "tough years" with falling house prices and rising credit losses but the giant mortgage company will play a major role in the recovery of the housing and mortgage markets. (Read More)

BoA Could Face $30B in CFC Hits

When Bank of America finally signs over the checks and swallows Countrywide Financial Corp. in September it may face loan writedowns of $30 billion on its new acquisition, according to a new research report from Friedman Billings Ramsey. (Read More)

Fiserv Buys Portellus

As the subprime crisis and credit crunch claimed several lender victims, origination vendor Portellus found itself without customers and closed its doors. Now Fiserv here has acquired the technology assets of Portellus. No acquisition price was disclosed. (Read More)

2007 Subprime Off 70%

There's no pretty way to state the obvious: subprime origination volumes were hammered last year after concerns about delinquencies, credit quality and declining home values ravished the market. (Read More)

Price Decline Steepest in 26 Years

Prices paid for single-family homes fell 7.7% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, the steepest decline ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors, which began tracking sales 26 years ago. (Read More)

Bill Phases Out Flood Subsidy

The Senate has passed a flood insurance reform bill by a 92-6 vote that phases out subsidized premiums on commercial properties and vacation/second homes and requires properties protected by dams and levees to have flood insurance for the first time. (Read More)

New Firm Focuses on Global Due Diligence

Finance in the mortgage market and elsewhere has become more global in many ways and the relatively more intensive style of due diligence seen commonly in the United States may follow suit, according to Scott Whipple, president of the new international affiliate of Opus Capital Markets Consultants LLC, Lincolnshire, Ill. (Read More)

People

ALABAMA Birmingham-Regions Financial Corp. said that David H. Rupp joined the company as senior executive vice president and head of consumer services. (Read More)

MBIA Sees $2.4 Billion 1st Q Loss

Mortgage-related bond insurer MBIA Inc. here took a $2.4 billion net loss for the first quarter, primarily due to a $3.6 billion unrealized, mark-to-market pretax loss on insured credit derivatives, but said it remain "adequately capitalized" to cover claims. (Read More)

New Woe for HSBC: 2nds

HSBC Finance Corp., the U.S. subprime arm of the British bank, is having major problems in its second-lien portfolio. (Read More)

UBS Writedowns Total $19 Billion

The corporate parent of Wall Street firm UBS has reported a loss of 11.5 billion Swiss francs ($10.9 billion) and suffered about $19 billion in mortgage-related writedowns in first-quarter results that were in line with an earlier April estimate. (Read More)

Wolters Kluwer Simplifies Closing by Splitting Doc Package

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services here has simplified closing by streamlining closing documentation. (Read More)

Freddie's Outlook Brightens

Freddie Mac's loss narrowed significantly in the first quarter of 2008, and the company's increasingly optimistic outlook may herald a light at the end of the tunnel for housing markets. (Read More)

Silver State Sees Surge of Red Ink

Silver State Bancorp here reported a net loss for the quarter ended March 31 of $14.4 million, compared to net income of $5.6 million reported for the first quarter of 2007, directly reflecting a significant increase in the company's loan-loss reserve resulting from the impact of the deteriorating economy in the Nevada and Arizona markets on its loan portfolio, most specifically its residential construction and land loans. "The impact of the deterioration of the Nevada and Arizona economies and real estate markets on certain segments of our loan portfolio began to be realized toward the end of the first quarter of 2008 as project delays mounted and updated appraisals showing significant lower valuations were received," said Corey L. Johnson, president and chief executive officer. "With many real estate projects requiring an extended time to market, some of our borrowers have exhausted their liquidity which requires us to place the loan into non-accrual status." (Read More)

Did Countrywide Cut 1,000 Brokers in Michigan?

Countrywide Financial Corp. - whose future as a wholesale lender is in doubt - cut 1,000 brokers working for it in Michigan from its approved list, according to a broker who has done business with the company. (Read More)

Home Prices Get New Index

A new house price index that can drill down to the neighborhood level is scheduled to go "live" in June. (Read More)

Defaults Still a Drag on Earnings of Financial Services Firms

Nonperforming assets continue to wreak havoc on the earnings of banks across the country. (Read More)

First-Quarter Results Reflect 'Ides of March'

Several Wall Street-related companies released first-quarter results last week, most of which reflected March's heightened capital markets woes. (Read More)

Open Forum: The Larger Whirlpool

Excerpts of Mr. Bernardi's remarks at the Federal Home Loan Banks' annual conference in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Realtors Want GSEs to Ease Underwriting Requirements

The National Association of Realtors is pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reconsider their lending policies NAR feels have increased the cost and availability of mortgage credit. (Read More)

Editorial: Credit Quality Is King

The old adage cash is king is still true. But for a mortgage industry looking for a way to resume its old vitality, there's another one that is almost as important: credit quality is king. (Read More)

History: Top 5 Funders In 1993

Lender Fundings Whatever Happened Name in 1993 To Them Countrywide $49.5 In process of being bought by BoA Prudential Home $43.2 Sold to Norwest (Wells) in 1996 Norwest Mortgage $33.7 Eventually merged with Wells Fargo Fleet Mortgage $22.9 Bank parent bought by BoA GMAC Mortgage $19.9 Owned by Cerberus and GM Notes: BoA = Bank of America. Wells = Wells Fargo Bank. GM = General Motors. (Read More)

Senate Close to Agreement on GSE and Foreclosure Reforms

Senate Banking Committee leaders said they are close to reaching an agreement on a GSE bill to strengthen regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a foreclosure prevention bill late last week but they will need more time. (Read More)

Delinquencies Based On Loan Balances

Servicing % Past % % % Fore- Rk Organization Name Volume Due 30-59 60-89 90+ closure 1 Ridgewood Savings Bank $1,725 0.10% 0.07% 0.00% 0.00% 0.03% 2 Thornburg Mortgage Inc. $14,691 0.14% 0.00% 0.04% 0.02% 0.08% 3 Hudson City Savings Bank $23,125 0.19% na na na 0.14% 4 Capitol FS & LA $5,366 0.19% na na na na 5 First Republic Bank $9,645 0.25% 0.07% 0.01% 0.17% 0.00% 6 American Internet Mortgage $297 0.25% 0.13% 0.06% 0.00% 0.06% 7 Guardian Mortgage Co. $1,947 0.34% 0.18% 0.04% 0.03% 0.09% 8 Banco Popular/E-Loan $11,000 0.51% na na na na 9 Sovereign Bank FSB $19,860 0.53% na na na na 10 Nara Bancorp $1,310 0.72% na na na na 11 Zions First National Bank $4,206 0.73% na na na na 12 Comerica Bank - Mortgage Dept. $1,915 0.83% na na na 0.50% 13 BOK Mortgage $4,893 0.87% na na na 0.25% 14 ING Bank FSB $20,464 0.95% 0.48% 0.17% 0.17% 0.13% 15 VNB Mortgage Services $3,188 0.96% 0.59% 0.12% 0.15% 0.11% 16 Provident Funding Associates $37,179 1.11% 0.88% 0.04% 0.05% 0.14% 17 Navy FCU $23,200 1.17% 0.80% 0.14% 0.14% 0.09% 18 Wilmington Savings Fund $453 1.72% na na na na 19 M&I Mortgage $14,158 2.00% na na na 1.08% 20 Franklin Bank Corp. $1,835 2.18% na na na 0.21% Totals: $200,457 0.80% 0.32% 0.05% 0.06% 0.06% Notes: NMN soon will publish a separate ranking by number of loans that are delinquent. For a full ranking see the QDR. (Read More)

FHA Is Going To Risk-Based

The Federal Housing Administration is moving ahead with risk-based pricing so it can refinance more subprime borrowers into safer and less expensive FHA-insured loans and attract more creditworthy borrowers. (Read More)

OpenClose Buys LION

Beanstalk Networks Acquisition LLC, a unit of Beanstalk Networks (doing business as OpenClose) here, has agreed to purchase the assets of LION Inc. (Read More)

Housing Hurting AIG

American International Group Inc., New York, took a net loss of $7.81 billion and its United Guaranty mortgage insurance subsidiary took an operating loss of $352 million in the first quarter due to housing and capital market disruptions. (Read More)

GSEs Raising $9.5B

Fannie Mae last week priced 82 million shares of new common stock at $27.50 per share as part of a combined common and preferred stock offering totaling $4.5 billion. (Read More)

IndyMac Sees Gloomy Outlook for '08

IndyMac Bancorp's first-quarter loss was much smaller than its fourth-quarter bloodletting, but the company warned investors that the bleeding isn't over. (Read More)

FBI Fraud Cases Jump 47%

At year-end, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was managing more than 1,200 mortgage fraud investigations, a 47% spike in its caseload over 12 months, according to new figures released by the government. (Read More)

Regulators Pan 'Blueprint'

The outgoing chairman of the Conference of State Bank Regulators doesn't think much of the Bush administration's plan to modernize banking regulations, calling it "a very serious threat" to the nation's dual banking system. (Read More)

10,000 E-Notes Listed on MERS

MERS, the electronic registry for tracking ownership of mortgage loans and servicing rights, said it now had registered more than 10,000 electronic mortgage notes. (Read More)

2nd Lien Residential Servicers

Avg Ln Size Avg Ln Size % Rk Organization Name Location at 12/31/07 at 12/31/06 Change 1 Central Mortgage Co. Little Rock, AR $94,668 na na 2 Morgan Stanley Glen Allen, VA $81,483 $57,281 42% 3 PFF Bank & Trust Rancho Cucamonga, CA $72,144 $67,423 7% 4 American Home Mortgage Servicing Irving, TX $63,976 $62,219 3% 5 CitiMortgage Inc. O'Fallon, MO $63,035 $59,552 6% 6 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD $59,166 $52,515 13% 7 Paul Financial San Rafael, CA $59,086 $68,224 -13% 8 LoanCare Servicing Center Inc. Norfolk, VA $58,571 $87,466 -33% 9 Cenlar FSB Ewing, NJ $55,972 $44,347 26% 10 Aurora Loan Services Inc. Aurora, CO $55,351 $53,305 4% 11 Webster Bank Cheshire, CT $51,625 $51,817 0% 12 EMC Mortgage Lewisville, TX $51,190 $50,133 2% 13 Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC (BC) West Palm Beach, FL $50,968 $52,448 -3% 14 Accredited Home Lenders (BC) San Diego, CA $49,954 $60,114 -17% 15 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA $49,710 $48,093 3% 16 Homeq Servicing Corp. (BC) North Highlands, CA $49,679 $44,150 13% 17 Provident Funding Associates Burlingame, CA $47,826 $50,716 -6% 18 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA $47,119 $47,391 -1% 19 Chase Home Finance Iselin, NJ $46,751 $44,709 5% 20 Flagstar Bank FSB Troy, MI $46,452 $39,840 17% Totals: $31,209 $28,937 8% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not provide information on the data points needed to calculate average loan size. (BC) Firm is a subprime specialist. (Read More)

Key Provisions of Housing Regulatory Reform Act

The Federal Housing Regulatory Reform Act passed by the Senate Banking Committee last week combines a GSE regulatory reform bill with an FHA foreclosure rescue bill. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Foster City-Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition said that Matthew O. Franklin will assume the role of president when Fran Wagstaff retires on July 1 after 25 years of leading the organization. (Read More)

Was Lawmaker Foreclosed On?

The Press-Telegram here said that Rep. Laura Richardson made only a few payments on the Sacramento house she bought in 2007, failed to pay property taxes, defaulted on the mortgage and lost the house to foreclosure. The Press-Telegram also reported that Rep. Richardson's lender, Washington Mutual, took a loss of nearly $200,000 when it sold the house at a public auction on May 7. (Read More)

Arkansas Construction Lender Is Closed by Regulators

Federal banking regulators have closed ANB Financial after finding the Bentonville, Ark., national bank was undercapitalized and likely to fail due to a heavy concentration of construction and development loans and a heavy dependence on brokered deposits. The $1.9-billion-asset bank had $1.6 billion in real estate loans as of March 31 and 77% of those loans were commercial and residential C&D loans. (Read More)

Lending Tight On Apartments

Demand for apartment homes remains strong, but the continued credit crunch is causing the volume of property sales to slow sharply and making it more difficult for apartment firms to access the debt and equity markets, according to the National Multi Housing Council's Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions. (Read More)

IRS Rule Aids Loan Mods

Servicers of residential mortgage-backed securities no longer have to wait for a borrower to miss a payment or even ask for help before they can offer the homeowner a loan modification, according to an Internal Revenue Service ruling. (Read More)

Originations Benefit PHH

PHH Corp.'s mortgage production revenue jumped nearly 78% in the first quarter, but the company still lost money overall from its home loan business. (Read More)

PNC Affiliates Share Servicing

PNC ARCs, a commercial mortgage lender, and Midland Loan Services, a commercial mortgage servicer and technology provider, are both members of the PNC Financial Services Group, so it's little surprise that PNC ARCS has bought into Midland's technology and shared servicing concept. (Read More)

Fox-Pitt Upgrades Its Rating on Freddie Mac's Stock

Investment banking firm Fox-Pitt Kelton has upgraded its rating on the stock of Freddie Mac to "outperform." Previously, FPK had an "in line" rating on Freddie Mac's common stock. (Read More)

Archive Offers to Assess AP

Archive Systems, which provides accounts payable automation, has launched a new Accounts Payable Process Assessment service. The paid service provides companies with an in-depth analysis of their AP procedures in order to help make the transition to an automated, paperless environment. (Read More)

Servicers Turning to REO Auctions

Fitch Ratings, estimating that the volume of real estate-owned that is managed by mortgage servicers increased by 441% between the end of 2005 and the end of 2007, says that an increasing number of lenders are turning to auctions to unload homes acquired through foreclosure. (Read More)

Kondaur's Loss Mit Experts Play Expansive Role in Servicing

Kondaur Capital Corp., a buyer of loans with regulatory, underwriting and performance issues, has formed a special team of "Combat Loss Mitigators" to meet current challenging conditions in the mortgage marketplace. (Read More)

Keystone Trains REO Sale Agents

Keystone Asset Management, which provides REO, default management and property valuation outsourcing to servicers, conducted a training program for the real estate agents and brokers who do work for the firm. (Read More)

REOTrans Sees Volume Soar

REOTrans, a firm that automates default management processes, said its electronic commerce marketplace now handles more than 100,000 transactions daily. (Read More)

Fiserv Seeing Renewed Interest in Contact Technology

With delinquencies rising and the economy slowing, it's no surprise that lenders are showing keen interest in any technology that promises to help ease the burden of default management. (Read More)

Servicing: Some Heavy Lifting

These days, servicing departments are getting it from every direction. Rising delinquencies and defaults are straining their collection and loss mitigation departments. Regulators and attorneys are zeroing in on what were once routine practices, raising questions about compliance with a host of local, state and federal standards. And parent companies, themselves reeling from fallout related to the weak housing sector, are looking to cut expenditures, not add resources. (Read More)

Ratings Roundup: Scratch-and-Dent Classes Fare Poorly

Ninety-two classes from 30 scratch-and-dent mortgage-backed securities transactions issued by Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. (Read More)

Mortgage Turmoil May Have Silver Lining for Renters

Low- and moderate-income renters appear to be both the biggest casualty and potential beneficiary of the current foreclosure crisis. (Read More)

Seamless Integration Is New Mantra for LOS Providers

As lenders press to be more efficient in a shrinking market it is even more crucial for their origination systems to have a number of integrations that eliminate rekeying and allow the lender to do more in the core system without ever leaving. (Read More)

Wanted: Broader Acceptance of E-Notes

Both the legality and continued adoption of electronic notes was stressed at the recent MBA National Secondary Market Conference here. (Read More)

Maryland Unveils Anti-Foreclosure Campaign

The state of Maryland has kicked off a multimedia advertising campaign to help tackle rising foreclosures in the state and ensure Maryland homeowners are aware of the programs available to provide assistance and relief. (Read More)

Roundup: Belgian Lender Posts Profit Despite Writedowns

KBC Group here, the corporate parent of the Melville, N.Y.-based reverse mortgage lender World Alliance Financial, ended the first quarter with a net profit of 554 million euros ($867 million) that included a 93 million euro ($146 million) after-tax markdown on its structured credit investments portfolio. The group's net profit was down 44% compared to the same period the year "mainly on the back of weak capital market conditions." (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades Subprime-Backed CDO Deals

Fitch Ratings has downgraded 133 classes of notes from 28 collateralized debt obligations backed partly by subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. (Read More)

Nearly 20,000 Join State Licensing System

More than 11,000 loan officers have already registered with the five-month-old Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. (Read More)

Fannie and Freddie Back Off 'Declining Market' Policies

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have scrapped their declining market policies after industry and housing groups complained it is contributing to declining house prices and reducing the availability of mortgage credit. (Read More)

UBS Closes on Multibillion-Dollar RMBS Sale to Fund

UBS has closed on its sale of billions of dollars of primarily subprime and alternative-A credit U.S residential mortgage-backed securities to a newly created distressed asset fund that will be managed by investment management firm BlackRock. (Read More)

Open Forum: Lessons Learned from Turmoil

Excerpts of Mr. Lockhart's remarks at the 44th annual conference on bank structure and competition in Chicago are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

American HomeVet Eyeing REO

Don Henig, former president of third-party lending at American Home Mortgage, Melville, N.Y., has found a new career after mortgages: investing in foreclosed properties at public auctions. (Read More)

Shakeup at Franklin Bank

Lewis S. Ranieri, co-inventor of the mortgage-backed security, has been named interim chief executive officer of Franklin Bank Corp. here, an institution that is struggling under the weight of bad real estate loans. (Read More)

Wachovia Splits CEO, Chair Slots

After suffering huge mortgage-related losses, Wachovia Corp. here said it has separated out its chairman and CEO functions. (Read More)

MBA: Keep the Distinction between Bankers and Brokers

The Mortgage Bankers Association has issued a policy paper backing its position that legal/regulatory efforts in the wake of the recent market crisis should make distinctions between mortgage bankers and brokers in four areas based on differences in their roles. (Read More)

Residential Servicers At 3/31/08 (Sample)

(dollars in millions) Servicing Volume % Name Location 3/31/08 3/31/07 Change Ace Mortgage Funding Inc.Indianapolis, IN $7 $62 -90% America First CURiverdale, UT $1,171 $988 19% American Internet MortgageSan Diego, CA $289 $317 -9% Bank of AmericaCharlotte, NC $529,666 $434,929 22% Carolina First Mtg. Corp.Greenville, SC $380 $391 -3% Flagstar Bank FSBTroy, MI $47,627 $29,154 63% Graystone SolutionsSudbury, MA $1,812 $2,772 -35% HSBC Mortgage Corp. USADepew, NY $66,864 $65,161 3% IndyMac Bancorp Inc.Pasadena, CA $200,696 $171,955 17% ING Bank FSBWilmington, DE $21,797 $12,140 80% LoanCare Servicing Center Inc.Norfolk, VA $13,085 $13,857 -6% Morgan StanleyNew York, NY $64,075 $52,961 21% Navy FCU Merrifield, VA $24,373 $20,798 17% Pulte Mortgage Englewood, CO $284 $336 -15% Ryland Mortgage Co. Columbia, MD $388 $566 -31% State Employees CU Raleigh, NC $9,196 $8,909 3% Thornburg Mortgage Inc. Sante Fe, NM $14,632 $12,885 14% U.S. Bank Home Mortgage Bloomington, MN $123,040 $104,753 17% VNB Mortgage Services Wayne, NJ $3,247 $3,192 2% Wachovia Mortgage FSB Charlotte, NC $197,314 $175,629 12% Totals: $1,319,942 $1,111,756 19% Notes: Firms listed alphabetically. This is a sample table ONLY. National Mortgage News is still compiling 1Q 2008 results. Want to participate in this survey? Send an e-mail to the address below. (Read More)

GSEs Tell Congress Jumbo Lending Is Gaining Steam

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been criticized for the lack of jumbo loans bought since being granted the authority in mid-February but officials from the two GSEs told Congress their companies are beginning to see significant increases in loan submissions. (Read More)

Celebs Feel Housing Pain

The word foreclosure has become common among daily news headlines around the country. Now, even celebrities are telling their stories of facing default and losing their homes to banks. (Read More)

From Subprime to Saudis

Who says there aren't any job opportunities for former subprime executives? (Read More)

Housing, GSE Bill Combo

The Senate Banking Committee has approved a GSE regulatory reform bill along with an FHA foreclosure rescue bill that could lead to passage of a landmark housing bill by the 4th of July. (Read More)

Dire Warning on Housing Spiral

Add Mark Zandi to the growing list of economists who think the housing debacle is far from over. (Read More)

Editorial: The Russian Way

At our most recent SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference in Orlando, there was no question about who came from the farthest away. It was two officials of AHML, the Moscow-based Russian secondary mortgage agency. I decided to follow up on the two visitors after they returned to Russia and to find out something about the agency they worked for. (Read More)

Impac Loses $2 Billion in 2007

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. said it lost $2 billion, or -$27.10 per share, for 2007, compared with a loss of $75.3 million, or -$1.18 per share, in 2006. The company took a $1.4 billion provision for loan losses during the year. (Read More)

Wells Gains Share Fast

Wells Fargo, which just a few years ago looked stodgy next to its bolder competitors, now finds itself benefiting from the mortgage industry's newfound conservatism in underwriting. (Read More)

Freddie Sees Opportunities to Glean Portfolio Profits

Speaking at an investors' conference here, Freddie Mac's chief financial officer, Buddy Piszel, said the company has added $100 billion of home loans to its portfolio since the beginning of the year. (Read More)

Not All Home Prices Dropping

Depreciation may well be a concern in everyone's mind right now, but the scare of vanishing home equity has not hit home in one out of three metropolitan areas in the United States where home prices increased in the first quarter, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors. (Read More)

Fitch Analyst Says Housing Decline May Extend into 2009

The managing director and lead homebuilding analyst at Fitch Ratings, Robert Curran, said during a housing teleconference that few positive signs are showing up in the housing market, which is experiencing a steep cyclical decline, and it appears the contraction will extend itself through 2008 and perhaps into 2009. (Read More)

Farmer Mac Gets New Authority

The 2008 farm bill, which was enacted after Congress overrode a veto by President Bush, includes a provision that allows Farmer Mac to purchase and guarantee securities backed by rural utility loans. (Read More)

Roundup: Canada Vows to Improve Housing for 'First Nations'

VANCOUVER, British Columbia-The government of Canada has signed an agreement with the province of British Columbia and the First Nations Leadership Council "to work together to develop a comprehensive approach to improve housing for First Nations communities, individuals and families both on and off reserve." (Read More)

JV to Develop Retail Site

Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. has entered into a joint venture with Tristate Ventures, an affiliate of the Fameco real state group, for the development of a 137,000-square-foot shopping center on 18 acres to be anchored by a 76,500-square-foot supermarket. (Read More)

Sovereign Raises $1.9 Billion

Sovereign Bancorp has completed equity and debt offerings that raised approximately $1.9 billion for the bank. (Read More)

MBA: Commercial/Multifamily Originations Hit Record in '07

The commercial/multifamily originations market grew 19% in 2007 with mortgage bankers closing $507.7 billion in commercial/multifamily loans, according the Mortgage Bankers Association's 2007 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance: Annual Origination Volume Summation. (Read More)

HELP Tries to Stem FHA Defaults

The mortgage crisis is pushing more lenders to take a long-term, preventive approach to FHA loans and assistance offered to borrowers facing default or foreclosure. (Read More)

Inspection Forms Get an Overhaul

The Mortgage Bankers Association has completed the implementation of a new commercial/multifamily real estate property inspection form for various property types including office, retail, multifamily, health care, lodging and industrial. The updated inspection form already has industrywide adoption by servicers for all funding sources including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (Read More)

S&P/GRA CRE Indices Down

Standard & Poor's released the February results for its S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices, showing the rate of increase to be down slightly. The indices measure the change in commercial real estate prices by property sector and geographic region in the U.S. (Read More)

Most Renters to Stay Put

In a sign that it might be hard for mortgage companies to find potential first-time homebuyers to be customers, two-thirds of those who currently rent say they do not plan to buy a home in the next year. (Read More)

Investors Bracing for Big Thornburg Loss

Thornburg Mortgage, which plans to file first-quarter earnings results by June 2, said it is likely to report "a substantial net loss" once it finalizes its accounting for the first three months of 2008. (Read More)

Capmark Does $45MM in Financing

Capmark Finance Inc. recently originated a total of $45 million in financing for two projects. (Read More)

Roundup: Outlook Mixed for GSEs

An analyst at Zacks Investment Research says that while Freddie Mac's first-quarter results were "better than expected," she is concerned by the company's "increasing risk profile." (Read More)

Banks Continue to Feel Pressure from Housing Downturn

First-quarter performance for many lenders continues to reflect the challenges of managing credit weakness, resulting from exposure to the downturn in the residential real estate construction cycle. (Read More)

States Are Taking a Hard Look at Reverse Mortgage Lending

State banking regulators are moving to get in front of the anticipated rush to reverse mortgages before the backwards loans become a headache, both for consumers and the regulators senior homeowners depend upon to protect them. (Read More)

Inflation Signs Spur Yield Rise, MBS Extension Risk Concern

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield had risen above 4% to 4.10% at press time last Thursday, raising extension risk concerns in the mortgage-backed securities sector. (Read More)

Open Forum: Implications of the Housing Bust

Excerpts of Mr. Pollock's recent testimony before the Joint Economic Committee are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Clarification

Portellus Still For Sale In the May 12 issue, NMN reported that Fiserv bought LOS Portellus, but has learned from the agent representing Portellus that the technology is still for sale as Fiserv merely bought a license to use the technology, but not the technology itself. Bob Sullivan of eApproval, which is brokering the sale of Portellus, said that the technology company is still selling "non-exclusive" licenses to the technology to anyone interested in licensing the software. However, at present, the technology assets are still for sale as well, but no buyer has been named at press time. (Read More)

MBS Giant Bear Stearns Becomes JPMorgan Subsidiary

Stockholders of Wall Street firm Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. approved its merger with JPMorgan Chase on May 29 with approximately 84% of shares voted in favor of the deal. (Read More)

Impac Exchanges Preferred Shares

In an effort to improve liquidity, Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a real estate investment trust headquartered here, is making an offer to the holders of its Series B and Series C preferred stock to exchange those shares for common stock in the company. (Read More)

Editorial: Good News, Bad News

There's good news and bad news from an address given by the director of OFHEO to the annual meeting of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The good news is that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have raised enough capital to bankroll the entire $2 trillion of mortgages expected to be made this year. The bad news is that they and the other federal mortgage enterprises may actually do nearly all of the total. (Read More)

Chase's Housing Target on Track

In the first four years of its 10-year, $800 billion commitment to invest in affordable housing and small business development in underserved communities, Chase said it has already invested $338 billion. (Read More)

Bank United of Florida Scaling Back Pay-Option Lending

BankUnited Financial Corp. here, a major player in the payment-option ARM market, is scaling back its production of these somewhat controversial loans. (Read More)

Pica to Buy CO Thrift

Businessman R. Craig Pica, a principal in one of the largest remaining non-depository mortgage banking firms in the U.S., has filed a change of control application to purchase the privately held Colorado Federal Savings of Greenwood Village. (Read More)

Servicers And Their Yields At 4q 07

Average Yield Portfolio Size Organization Name Location in 4Q 07 12/31/07 Paul Financial San Rafael, CA 9.40% $164 EMC Mortgage Lewisville, TX 8.06% $83,500 American Home Mortgage Servicing Irving, TX 7.41% $44,291 PFF Bank & Trust Rancho Cucamonga, CA 7.32% $2,365 M&T Mortgage Buffalo, NY 7.26% $25,266 Banco Popular/E-Loan Pleasanton, CA 7.08% $11,000 Aurora Loan Services Inc. Aurora, CO 6.90% $114,045 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD 6.89% $21,184 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. Pasadena, CA 6.89% $198,170 Webster Bank Waterbury, CT 6.73% $3,887 Carolina First Mtg. Corp. Greenville, SC 6.62% $391 Flagstar Bank FSB Troy, MI 6.61% $42,289 Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco, CA 6.53% $1,473,178 Central Mortgage Co. Little Rock, AR 6.52% $24,878 Downey Savings & Loan Assn. Newport Beach, CA 6.51% $16,620 Washington Federal Savings Seattle, WA 6.49% $8,799 Nationwide Advantage Mortgage West Des Moines, IA 6.40% $6,980 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Ocala, FL 6.36% $59,954 Fidelity Bank Wichita, KS 6.32% $2,329 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 6.31% $623,365 Notes: Based on an exclusive survey conducted by National Mortgage News. Results may be incomplete because some servicers would not provide this data point. (Read More)

GSEs Continue to Grow Assets

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to grew their book of loan guarantees and loans held in portfolio, according to April data recently released for both firms. (Read More)

19 of 20 Markets Fall

Recent data on home sales and prices continue to paint a disturbing picture of the housing sector, with prices continuing to decline in much of the country. (Read More)

BoA Will Stay in TPO

Once Bank of America closes on its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. here, the combined mortgage operation will "selectively" continue to originate loans through brokers, according to a company official. (Read More)

FGIC Writeoff Hurts PMI

The PMI Group here lost $274 million for the first quarter of 2008, because of a net loss of $172.5 million in its U.S. mortgage insurance operations. (Read More)

Texas Bank Is Recapitalized

Guaranty Financial Group Inc. here has completed a $38.4 million recapitalization transaction through a private placement to Robert Rowling, who is the chairman of an investment company TRT Holdings. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Beverly Hills-Kennedy Wilson said that Zazell V. Dudley has joined Kennedy Wilson's Fund Management Group as managing director for the Northwest Louisiana Community Development Fund I. (Read More)

Prices Still Falling in Most Areas

Global Insight, an economic forecasting and analysis firm, says that home values fell in 84% of the nation's housing markets during the first quarter of 2008, but the firm's analysts say that the market correction may be laying the foundation for a turnaround. (Read More)

Roundup: Fitch Provides Outlooks for U.S. Single-Family MBS

Fitch Ratings plans to provide rating outlooks on U.S. structured finance bonds in response to a positive reception to its rating outlooks for European structured transactions. (Read More)

S&P Cuts Rating on Ambac, MBIA

Standard & Poor's Rating Services has lowered its financial strength ratings on Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. to AA from AAA, and placed them on CreditWatch with negative implications. (Read More)

Cuomo Pressures Rating Agencies

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has reached agreements with Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Fitch Inc. that change, among other things, how the three ratings agencies are compensated by investment banks for providing ratings on mortgage pools, according to the NY AG's office. (Read More)

Fitch Downgrades CIFG's Ratings for Europe and America

The London office of Fitch Ratings here has downgraded the insurer financial strength ratings of CIFG Guaranty and its affiliates CIFG Assurance North America Inc. and CIFG Europe from A- to CCC. (Read More)

Preston Confirmed as HUD Secretary

The Senate has confirmed Steven Preston to be the new housing secretary and to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the last seven months of the Bush administration. (Read More)

OCC Dislikes New Appraisal Policy

The chief supervisor of national banks is urging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's regulator to scrap a set of appraisal reforms the two GSEs have agreed to implement as part of a settlement with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. (Read More)

Providing Stable Footing for Borrowers, Loan Value

Stable Footing here has begun offering a patented, voluntary homeowner protection plan as a marketing product to mortgage lenders with the aim of respectively better protecting the value of lenders' loans and borrowers' credit in the event of what otherwise might be a foreclosure situation. (Read More)

Technology Provides One Route to Appraisal Independence

Given recent happenings around the Home Valuation Protection Program and the proposed Code of Conduct, it is becoming increasingly important to prove that lenders have a system in place that allows for appraisal independence. Technology is one answer. (Read More)

Fraud Seen Playing Large Role in Loan Contract Breaches

Risk mitigation firm Digital Risk LLC, Maitland, Fla., has found 50% to 60% of the subprime and alternative-A mortgages from the last few years that it has examined due to contract breaches contain significant misrepresentation or fraud, according to Bruce Miller, who was recently named to head the company's New York-based structured finance consultancy practice. (Read More)

Appraising/Valuing Assets: A Closer Look

The business of appraising and valuing mortgage-related assets these days is all about taking a closer look at things. This is true not only in the sense that the business is all about scrutinizing loans and the properties securing them but also in that the practices used to do so are themselves under scrutiny. (Read More)

Grapeviners Discuss What Originators Must Do to Survive

JustplainMarvin: Your ideas to survive. My first: Make fliers with your info and cut half-inch strips at the bottom with your phone number. Most supermarkets have pinup board areas, especially near the bathroom areas. I have actually received loans by doing this. (Read More)

Builders Are Still Facing Headwinds

First-quarter results reflect that homebuilder margins and earnings remain under pressure. (Read More)

Roundup: MFA Plans to Raise $278 Million with Latest Offer

MFA Mortgage Investments here has priced a new public offering of 40 million of its common shares at $6.95 per share. (Read More)

Survey Finds Americans Financially Illiterate

Recent survey findings highlight a growing need for financial education and credit counseling that helps customers avoid default and foreclosure, which in a backhanded manner also helps financial institutions survive in a challenging marketplace. (Read More)

Reverse Mortgages Are Hot, but There Are Some Alternatives

Reverse mortgages are being held out as an excellent way for house-rich but cash-poor seniors to tap into their equity without having to sell and move to another place. And they may well be a good choice for some people. But there are other options that elder owners might want to consider. (Read More)

Indianapolis Is Affordable

At the top in the first quarter and for the 11th consecutive time, Indianapolis maintained the "most affordable major U.S. housing market" title according to the National Association of Home Builders & Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. (Read More)

Senior Housing Properties Selling Shares

Senior Housing Properties Trust here has priced a public offering of 17 million common shares at $21.09 per share. Settlement of the share offering was scheduled to occur late last week. (Read More)

Illinois Testing Loan Database

The Illinois House bill that established an anti-predatory lending database and pilot program for residential mortgage loans in Cook County, Ill., is back, but slightly revised with new anti-predatory lending standards. (Read More)

CIT Group Disputes Rationale for Recent Ratings Downgrade

Citing issues with its home lending business, CIT Group Inc. here has had its senior unsecured rating cut from A3 down to Baa1. CIT issued its own rebuttal to the downgrade, touting the liquidity the company has raised. (Read More)

Mission Capital Acts as Advisor

Mission Capital Advisors LLC, a commercial, residential and consumer loan and asset sale advisor here, is accepting bids for a $108 million portfolio of 20 subperforming and nonperforming commercial mortgage loans that are secured by commercial and residential real estate in Florida and Minnesota. (Read More)

Staff Wear Jeans for Charity

Employees of WCS Lending LLC are taking the time to give back to their community and to help others across the country by raising money for local and national charities. (Read More)

HECM Letter Specifies What Lenders Should Not Do

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a Mortgagee Letter regarding the use of non-Federal Housing Administration approved mortgage originators to participate in the origination of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. While not a formal change in policy, HUD noted that this letter covers some things that originators were doing that they should not have been. The letter spells out specifically that they should not have been doing these things. (Read More)

HUD: Closing Costs Too High

Looking to bolster its case for Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act reform, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is promoting a study done by the Urban Institute, which said many Americans overpay by thousands of dollars in closing costs when they purchase a home. (Read More)

S&P Eyes Street Post-Bear as Well as Some Large Banks

In the wake of Bear Stearns' woes, Standard & Poor's financial institutions analysts are looking at some other Street firms with increased concern and also are worried about a few large banks given what S&P sees as unusual recent-vintage mortgage performance extending into the prime sector. (Read More)

Open Forum: Prospects for Recovery

Excerpts of Mr. Kroszner's remarks at the recent Conference of State Bank Supervisors Annual Conference in Amelia Island, Fla., are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Editorial: Troubling Numbers

The ratio of mortgage insurance cures to defaults decreased to 53.6% for April, the second time it has dropped so low this year, according to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America. Having a default number nearly twice as high as the number of cures is a troubling sign of the bad times in the MI industry. (Read More)

Cutbacks at Accredited Home Lenders

Subprime wholesale lender Accredited Home Lenders here has laid off an untold number of workers, National Mortgage News has learned. (Read More)

Detwiler Returns to Old Role

Mike Detwiler will be returning to the role of CEO at LOS vendor Mortgage Cadence here, replacing Michael Hammond. (Read More)

Thornburg Delays Financials Again

Thornburg Mortgage Inc. here, a troubled real estate investment trust based here, said it needs more time to file its first-quarter earnings report with the Securities and Exchange Commission and estimated that it will do so by June 12. (Read More)

Triad Appeals to Keep GSE Approval

If its appeal is denied, Triad Guaranty Inc.'s mortgage insurance subsidiary would be suspended as an approved mortgage insurer by Freddie Mac. The appeal had to be made in writing by May 29; it has been filed but no decision has been made. During the appeals process, Freddie Mac will continue to purchase loans insured by Triad. (Read More)

Bad Loans Rise Fast at Banks

Banks and thrifts posted $19.3 billion in earnings for the first quarter, down 46% from a year ago, as rising levels of troubled real estate loans forced the depositories to set aside $18.5 billion for expected loan losses, the largest loan-loss reserve increase in 20 years. (Read More)

MetLife Buys FHNC Assets

Thirteen years ago insurance giant MetLife said goodbye to mortgage banking. Last week it re-entered the business by agreeing to purchase the national lending business of First Horizon National Corp. of Memphis. (Read More)

BeckmannOut at Citi

Bill Beckmann, president of CitiMortgage, will leave the unit by the end of June, National Mortgage News has learned. (Read More)

Top Residential Servicers At 3/31/2008

Servicing Volume % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 3/31/08 3/31/07 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $1,484,157 $1,351,598 10% 15.58% +0.33% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $1,482,466 $1,377,049 8% 15.57% +0.03% 3 CitiMortgage Inc. $798,761 $763,699 5% 8.39% -0.23% 4 Chase $794,706 $689,850 15% 8.34% +0.56% 5 Washington Mutual $615,988 $628,199 -2% 6.47% -0.62% 6 Bank of America (1) $529,666 $434,929 22% 5.56% +0.65% 7 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $449,002 $497,209 -10% 4.71% -0.90% 8 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $200,696 $171,955 17% 2.11% +0.17% 9 Wachovia Mortgage FSB $197,314 $175,629 12% 2.07% +0.09% 10 National City Mortgage $192,359 $174,030 11% 2.02% +0.06% 11 PHH Mortgage $161,236 $161,870 0% 1.69% -0.13% 12 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $155,449 $138,619 12% 1.63% +0.07% 13 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $123,040 $104,753 17% 1.29% +0.11% 14 Aurora Loan Services Inc. (2) $109,667 $91,277 20% 1.15% +0.12% 15 First Horizon Home Loans $106,836 $103,215 4% 1.12% -0.04% 16 EMC Mortgage (3) $86,407 $78,847 10% 0.91% +0.02% 17 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) (SS) $71,125 $68,000 5% 0.75% -0.02% 18 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $67,648 $60,212 12% 0.71% +0.03% 19 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $66,864 $65,161 3% 0.70% -0.03% 20 Morgan Stanley $64,075 $52,961 21% 0.67% +0.08% Totals: $7,757,463 $7,189,063 8% 77.89% 0.52% Notes: Includes subservicing contracts. Results may be incomplete because some servicers would not provide numbers. Subprime servicers excluded from this table but are listed separately in this report. Also, some firms listed here include subprime in with their total numbers. Market share cut based on outstanding U.S. housing debt of $9.524 trillion at March 31, 2008. (1) BoA is buying Countrywide. (2) ALS is owned by Lehman Bros. (3) EMC is owned by Bear Stearns/JPMorgan. (E) Estimate. (SS) Firm is mostly engaged in subservicing. (Read More)

ResCap Refis $60B Debt

Trying to maintain liquidity as the mortgage industry continues to struggle, Residential Capital Corp. late last week completed a $60 billion restructuring of its debt and credit facilities. (Read More)

Overdues Hit Record

The delinquency and foreclosure rates on home loans soared to new highs in the first quarter in yet another sign that the housing market's woes may be far from over. (Read More)

CRE/MF Volumes Crash

Commercial and multifamily loan originations plummeted 53% in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More)

Chair/CEO Split at WaMu

If the actions taken by Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C., are any harbinger, Washington Mutual chief executive Kerry Killinger may need to watch his back. (Read More)

REIT Gets $75MM Credit

Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I Inc. here has obtained a $75 million secured credit facility to be used for ongoing acquisitions, capital improvement and development activities. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Real Estate Disposition Corp. named Chris Alcedo as vice president in the client management division. (Read More)

Home Equity Borrowers Express Higher Customer Satisfaction

An annual study finds that the current market crisis and decreasing home values have not affected customers overall who appear to be more satisfied with the mortgage process when it comes to home equity lines of credit and loan origination. (Read More)

Xerox Advances Hybrid E-Loans

As lenders focus more and more on efficiency, Xerox Mortgage Services here has added electronic signature and electronic vaulting capabilities to its BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite, an e-sharing network, to help its lender clients realize the benefits of the hybrid e-mortgage. (Read More)

Roundup: Lehman Disappoints

Noting that Lehman Brothers' first-quarter loss was much steeper than analysts had estimated, Sandler O'Neill saw only a "modest silver lining" in Lehman's $2.9 billion loss. (Read More)

Equifax and Fair Isaac Make Peace

Equifax here and Fair Isaac have ended their war over FICO 08 and VantageScore by forming a partnership to develop and sell advanced analytics and scoring solutions for businesses and consumers. (Read More)

Roundup: Study Finds High Subprime Exposure in Europe

Direct exposure to subprime lending is higher in Europe than in the United States, according to a survey by The Atradius Group, a global credit insurance, surety and collections services provider here. (Read More)

FHA Relaxes Anti-Flipping Stance

The Federal Housing Administration has temporarily expanded an exemption to its 90-day "anti-flipping" rule to allow quick financing of sales of foreclosed properties by mortgage banking and servicing firms. (Read More)

Mortgage Grader's Online Loan Shopping Site Gets Patent

Mortgage Grader here has been issued a patent by the United States Patent and Trade Office that describes various features of Mortgage Grader's current and upcoming online shopping service. (Read More)

Study: Recovery Requires Fixing Mortgage Lending Process

While market conditions remain bleak, a research report done by Mark Dangelo, managing principal at Innovative Relevance here called "Mastering Survival Integration for the Mortgage Industry," points to problems in the process that if fixed, could lead to a healthy mortgage market again. (Read More)

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades 250+ Ameriquest Classes

The ratings of 259 certificates from 50 subprime mortgage-backed securities deals backed by Ameriquest collateral have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. (Read More)

Topdot Capitalizes on Resurgence of FHA Lending

Largely by leveraging Federal Housing Administration programs, Topdot Mortgage here has managed to grow through selective recruiting and acquisitions despite what has been in some respects a challenging market, according to Adam Brown, a senior vice president at the company. (Read More)

Merrill: Banks in 'Uncharted Territory'

Economists at Merrill Lynch, reacting to news that home loan delinquencies and foreclosures reached record highs in the first quarter, say that the banking industry is far from finished with bad-debt write-offs. (Read More)

Fidelity Sells Sedgwick Stake

Fidelity National Financial Inc. here has sold 20% of its stake in Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. to UnitedHealth Group. (Read More)

Montgomery Pushes for Risk-Based Premiums

Federal Housing Administration single-family loan endorsements are up substantially this year, delinquencies and foreclosure starts have declined slightly and Congress is close to passing an FHA modernization bill that housing commissioner Brian Montgomery has been seeking for two years. (Read More)

Connecticut Realtors Target Non-English Speakers for Sales

The Eastern Connecticut Association of Realtors has partnered with LLE Language Services to provide interpretation and translation to homebuyers and home sellers in 150 languages "to respond to this increasing demographic." (Read More)

Syron Foresees the Best of Times

Freddie Mac's chairman and CEO told the company's shareholders that its current situation might be described as "A Tale of Two Freddie Macs" during the company's annual meeting in early June. (Read More)

Hovnanian Loses $341 Million

For the second quarter of fiscal 2008, Hovnanian Enterprises here reported an after-tax loss of $340.7 million compared with a net loss of $30.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2007. For the six-month period, the company reported a net loss of $471.7 million compared to an $88 million net loss in the same period a year ago. (Read More)

Rates and Rate-Indicative Bond Yields Spike During Week

The long-term rate-indicative Treasury yield was back above 4.10% and approaching 4.20% as of press time last Thursday, the same week average fixed mortgage rates jumped to their highest level in nearly eight months. (Read More)

Senate May Vote This Week On Landmark FHA-GSE Bill

The chances the Senate will vote on a landmark housing bill this week seem to be improving even though major issues still have to be worked out between House and Senate Banking Committee leaders. (Read More)

Editorial: Signs of Spring

The bad news for the mortgage business just keeps coming. Commercial and multifamily mortgages have joined the subprime, alt-A and jumbo niches in crashing. The latest employment figures, at 356,800 for the mortgage banking/broker industry in April, mean that fully 30% of all jobs in the industry have been lost in the last two years. The latest delinquency numbers, which we will look at more closely next week, can gently be called terrible. The 2007 book of business for mortgage insurers may well be worse than the awful 2005 and 2006 books. (Read More)

Open Forum: Financial Education Is the Key

Mr. Steel's recent remarks on subprime lending and financial literacy before the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy are presented as our Open Forum. (Read More)

Chase Rewards Checking Customers

Checking account customers of Chase will receive breaks on the interest rate of their new mortgage or home-equity loan or line of credit under a new rewards program designed for them to expand their relationship with the bank. (Read More)

Cutbacks at Accredited, New CEO Named

Subprime lender Accredited Home Lenders here has laid off an untold number of workers, National Mortgage NewsOnline has learned. (Read More)

MI Firms Face More Woe

Last year, Fitch Ratings here declared, "will likely prove to be one of the worst underwriting years in the modern history of the U.S. mortgage industry." The company made the statement in a report where it downgraded the insurer financial strength ratings of a pair of mortgage insurers. (Read More)

Ginnie May Break MBS Record

With the resurgence in government-backed mortgage lending, Ginnie Mae is on course to issue some $200 billion in securities in fiscal 2008, and might even surpass its previous record of $216 billion. (Read More)

Top Residential Originators In 1Q 08

Origination Vol. % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 1Q 08 1Q 07 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $73,013 $114,964 -36% 13.90% -2.62% 2 Wells Fargo & Co. $65,991 $67,860 -3% 12.56% +2.81% 3 Chase $54,299 $49,291 10% 10.34% +3.25% 4 CitiMortgage Inc. $40,878 $54,513 -25% 7.78% -0.05% 5 Bank of America (1) $38,380 $44,954 -15% 7.31% +0.85% 6 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) $20,899 $37,514 -44% 3.98% -1.41% 7 Wachovia Mortgage FSB $19,586 $26,452 -26% 3.73% -0.07% 8 Washington Mutual $19,169 $40,420 -53% 3.65% -2.16% 9 SunTrust Mortgage Inc. $11,971 $15,095 -21% 2.28% +0.11% 10 PHH Mortgage $9,950 $9,350 6% 1.89% +0.55% 11 IndyMac Bancorp Inc. $9,591 $25,569 -62% 1.83% -1.85% 12 U.S. Bank Home Mortgage $9,326 $5,077 84% 1.78% +1.05% 13 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker $8,937 $7,534 19% 1.70% +0.62% 14 Flagstar Bank FSB $7,830 $4,224 85% 1.49% +0.88% 15 First Horizon Home Loans $7,618 $7,047 8% 1.45% +0.44% 16 National City Mortgage $7,393 $11,833 -38% 1.41% -0.29% 17 Amtrust Bank $6,938 $5,975 16% 1.32% +0.46% 18 Branch Banking & Trust Co. $5,172 $3,357 54% 0.98% +0.50% 19 Provident Funding Associates $4,806 $5,702 -16% 0.91% +0.10% 20 Franklin American Mortgage $4,311 $2,416 78% 0.82% +0.47% 21 Quicken Loans Inc. $4,190 $5,785 -28% 0.80% -0.03% 22 Fifth Third Mortgage $3,852 $2,767 39% 0.73% +0.34% 23 HSBC Mortgage Corp. USA $3,655 $3,387 8% 0.70% +0.21% 24 ING Bank FSB $2,552 $2,357 8% 0.49% +0.15% 25 PNC Consumer Services $2,440 $1,781 37% 0.46% +0.21% Total: $442,748 $555,223 -20% 84.28% 4.49% Notes: Results may be incomplete because some firms would not disclose their production figures. Production volumes can include first and second liens and all loan types. Market share cut based on estimated first quarter production of $525.3 billion. (1) Countrywide is in the process of being bought by Bank of America. (Read More)

Thornburg Loses $3.3B

Thornburg Mortgage here, reeling from mark-to-market and impairment charges, reported a $3.3 billion first-quarter loss. (Read More)

'Pare Down RESPA Rule'

If the Department of Housing and Urban Development really wants to finalize a RESPA rule by year-end, it should pare down the proposal and focus solely on improving the good-faith estimate, according to industry groups. (Read More)

SEC Raps Ratings Agencies

The Securities and Exchange Commission wants the credit rating agencies, accused of conflicts of interest that exacerbated the subprime mortgage mess, to publicly disclose how they rate mortgage-backed securities, including information about the underlying assets. (Read More)

First Quarter Volume Falls 30%, B/C 95%

Thanks to refinancings, residential lenders funded $525 billion worth of loans in the first quarter, a slight increase from the previous period but a 30% decline from the same quarter a year ago. Subprime production was almost non-existent, down a stunning 95%. (Read More)

Genworth Reorganized

Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va., has made an organizational chart change that shifts where the head of its U.S. mortgage insurance business, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp. here, reports. (Read More)

Downturn May Last to '09

House prices are going to continue to fall into 2009 and losses from defaults and foreclosures may not reach their peak until next year as well, according to some observers. (Read More)

People

CALIFORNIA Irvine-Thompson National Properties said that Greg Genovese has joined the company as president of the securities division. (Read More)

CapitalSource Sees CA Opportunity

The FDIC has approved the application for a newly formed California-chartered industrial bank subsidiary of CapitalSource Inc., Chevy Chase, Md., to receive deposit insurance. (Read More)

MIs Boost Capital with Reinsurance

A pair of the nation's largest mortgage insurance companies have entered into reinsurance arrangements which will have the effect of benefiting their capital, albeit in different ways. (Read More)

Dallas FHLB Can Buy Back Shares

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has received regulatory approval to amend its capital plans so it doesn't run into a problem in repurchasing membership stock when a bank or thrift fails and goes in receivership. (Read More)

Indices Aim to Help NPL Buyers Home in on Collateral Value

Integrated Asset Services LLC joined the ranks of home price index producers recently, saying it provides "more granular data" that demonstrate "pockets of opportunity" for nonperforming loan buyers. (Read More)

German NPL Buys Seen Slowing

Investors have bought at least €45 billion ($70 billion) of nonperforming loans from German banks since 2003, but the market has been slow through March of this year, according a European nonperforming loan report by Ernst & Young's office here. (Read More)

Philippines Pols Eye Loan Troubles

Subperforming low-cost and socialized housing loans have been mounting in the Philippines due to the "escalating costs of goods and services worldwide" and officials there have been looking to address the concern, according to a recent report from the Congress of the Philippines' House of Representatives. (Read More)

Pricing Gap Remains Wide

When it comes to purchases of nonperforming loans, "pricing between buyers and sellers is still far apart," said Jim Beatty, senior vice president and chief valuation officer at Fiserv. (Read More)

Buying Nonperforming Loans: Take Your Pick

With nonperforming loans, one knows going in that they are problematic. But at the right price, they may be worth buying. And given the volume of product on the market recently, prices can be quite attractive. (Read More)

Skepticism about Thornburg

Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey remain skeptical about Thornburg Mortgage's turnaround plans, maintaining an "underperform" rating on the company's stock despite its low price. FBR gives Thornburg's shares a $0.50 price target. (Read More)

ASF Supports Loss Mitigation