Paul Muolo

By now, all the pundits and most of the analysts on Wall Street believe a debt deal will get done by Monday morning, so the next question is the most obvious: where do we go economically from here? Politically, blood is in the water and voters from both parties (and independents) will pull the lever accordingly in November 2012.

A Texas investment firm has launched a new fund to invest in subordinated debt and take mezzanine stakes in what it calls "carefully selected" mortgage banking firms.

Ron Millar, a trader and senior associate in the capital markets group of Arch Bay Capital, Irvine, Calif., has left the nonperforming loan investing company, according to co-workers and others who do business with the firm.

BB&T's warehouse lending commitments rose 28% in the second quarter to $1.76 billion as the bank increased its nonbank customer base to 160 institutions.

Yes, I know most of the housing market looks ugly, but consider the latest news out of Denver where our Evan Nemeroff reports that apartment vacancies reached a 10-year low last quarter: 4.8%. Anyone who’s ever sought a decent apartment rental in the greater New York metro area knows how tight that market is as well (has been for several decades.)

Mortgage technology and service provider Lender Processing Services earned $21.4 million in the second quarter, a 73% decline from the same period a year earlier, citing restructuring charges and lower revenue.

In January all the mortgage industry was aflutter with talk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—under the tutelage of their regulator—were weighing a change to minimum servicing fees. Almost seven months later no change has come and most servicers are working under the proposition that the whole idea is pretty much forgotten. Except that it’s not.

It appears that a mini land rush into correspondent lending is occurring. But not all mortgage bankers are enamored with the idea. Dave Zitting, CEO of Primary Residential Mortgage Inc., tells us that some lenders are rushing into correspondent “without properly building out their channel operations.”

Total Mortgage Services, a nonbank mortgage lender based in Milford, Conn., on Monday said it plans to hire 50 new loan officers as it expands its retail presence in the U.S.

I want you to remember this number: 778. Got it? That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell in late September 2008 when the GOP defied a Republican president (George W. Bush) and killed the TARP bill which was designed to save our nation’s financial system.

Is MetLife’s decision to exit the banking sector but remain in residential mortgages a trend or just an aberration? Time will tell, but with all the new rules and regulations (Dodd-Frank, Basel III capital rules and MSRs) for the past year we’ve been hearing from industry officials who believe nonbanks may be the net winners here, at least when it comes to mortgage banking.

Whole Loan Capital, LLC, is auctioning off a $553 million portfolio of GSE and bank residential servicing rights.

A funny thing happened on the way to the mortgage banking sector being restructured: everyone and their brother is now eyeing the concept of correspondent lending.

Thursday morning House Speaker John Boehner basically told President Obama to stuff it, which means the chances of Congress averting a default just went up. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rose to just shy of 3%, which means mortgage money will get more expensive too.

Loan brokers and correspondents that live in fear of mortgage buy back requests from secondary market investors may have a new nemesis to worry about: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

By now you’ve heard the stories and seen the evidence yourself: mortgage credit standards are much too tight. Over the past year a handful of jumbo lenders and brokers have told me about applicants who could not verify all their income, but had plenty of money in the bank to cover the payments. What happened to these applicants?

Flagstar Bank had $1.7 billion of warehouse commitments at the end of June, a 28% jump from the same period a year ago, and a sign that originations in the primary market might be healthier than some people anticipate.

Mortgage applications increased by almost 16% for the week ending July 15 with interest in refinancings at their highest level of the year, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

One major belief of ultra right (Tea Party) politicians is that the federal government is too big and that rules and regs need to be cut to spur private sector job growth. On paper that sounds nice, but mortgage servicers from coast to coast surely are nervous about layoffs in both the private and public sectors because almost every mortgagor without a job is potentially a customer who might default in the months ahead.

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest residential originator, funded $64 billion of new home loans in the second quarter, a 31% decline from 1Q and a sign that mortgage bankers are in for some tough sledding in the months ahead.