Just when Redwood Trust was starting to look a bit like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market, we began to hear reports this week that two top 10 ranked banks are working on jumbo deals—for later in the year. From what we're told these banks don't necessarily want to securitize, but feel like they need to pull the old jumbo MBS machine out of the garage to make sure it still works. For a complete update on why more firms aren't issuing jumbo bonds read the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809…
Meanwhile, are more depositories funding jumbo loans and keeping them on their books? It appears that way. U.S. Bancorp and ING Bank are two such institutions, we're told…
If you need a list of the nation's top ranked jumbo funders check out the Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report. For a sample of this Excel spreadsheet drop a line to
On Friday NMN broke a big story about B of A exiting the cash-out refi market. The memo announcing the move was penned by sales executive Matt Vernon and mentions “capacity” issues at the bank. One thought occurred to me: why don't you just go out and hire more people? With unemployment at 8.5% (nationally) you would figure plenty of good help is available at a decent price. And maybe they'll even turn around and buy a new home or refi—but will they chose B of A?...
On the other hand, B of A is apparently advertising heavily in Oregon for retail LOs…
Congrats to NMN's Brian Collins for breaking a big development this week on the robo-signing settlement. Brian can be emailed at
We understand Greenlight Financial Services in Irvine, Calif., is expanding quite a bit and recently hired Bob Fulton. Greenlight's street address is quite familiar: 18200 Von Karman Ave. Hmmm. Which subprime lender used to occupy that space? If you have any more information, drop me a line at
Also, Banc of Manhattan Capital is becoming more active in the warehouse lending space…
THIS COLUMN IS FOR SALE: NMN breaks more stories than any other mortgage trade publication by far and our Web traffic is up handsomely. If you're looking for advertising opportunities drop a note to
Are things looking up in the housing market? Consider this: Sales of existing single-family homes rose in December for the third straight month. The National Association of Realtors hopes it could be the start of a long-awaited recovery in the housing market. "The pattern of home sales in recent months demonstrates a market in recovery," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. Rates of course won't rise until 2013—so we hear…
WASHINGTON NEWS: If lenders didn't have enough to worry about with the GSEs continuing to crack the buyback whip. Now this: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finalized a rule to clarify and strengthen its authority to seek indemnification from its largest lenders for making bad loans. In general the rule requires lenders to reimburse the Federal Housing Administration insurance fund for losses on defaulted loans. (Reporting by NMN's Brian Collins. For more, visit the NMN website at
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Scott Stern who founded Lenders One and put the cooperative on the map is stepping down in March. Altisource owns Lenders One.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The Federal Housing Finance Agency has relocated to 400 Seventh St. in Washington, D.C. 20024.
DATA STUFF: If you need a list of the nation's top wholesale and correspondent funders drop an email to
MUST ATTEND MORTGAGE SHOWS: From April 17-19 National Mortgage News and SourceMedia will hold their annual Mortgage Servicing Conference at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, Texas. For more information see the ads on our website or click here
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LAST WORD: I'm both a Giants and Ravens fan so I hope to be torn about who to root for in the Super Bowl. At least one reader owes me a Dogfish because of the Giants win over the Packers last week. I was wrong about the points, though. Happily.
