Loan Think

One of the joys of living in South Florida is spending New Year's Day at the beach. This year when walking along the shore I came across a sand crab making its way toward the water. My grandchildren were fascinated by the fact that the crab didn't walk forward, but sideways. Every time my grandchildren got close, the crab stuck its head into its shell, thereby making no progress at all.

So you've written this really cool article. You want to world to know about it. But just the thought of "getting it out there" is overwhelming.

As Wells Fargo goes, so goes the mortgage industry. Well, not exactly, but it needs to be pointed out once in a while just how much of a dominant player this megabank is in mortgage finance. In the third quarter it ranked first among all lenders, which is no secret, but in the correspondent channel it bought $41.1 billion of loans from other firms - almost triple its next closest competitor, Bank of America.

The real estate industry's data standards organization embarks on a new chapter as a standalone group.

Most Americans are probably glad to see 2011 slip into the past, or at least those who own homes are. 2012 may hold the promise of a return to rising home values, something that didn’t happen last year.

The number of words written about the REO industry in 2011 makes 'War and Peace' seem like a Reader's Digest short story. So what's new for 2012? Good question ... tough answer.

Oh the indignity of it all: On Tuesday afternoon insurance giant MetLife -- the folks who market their business using Snoopy, Linus and Charlie Brown -- told 4,300 mortgage workers to take a hike. Then, the very next morning it publishes a statement saying another unit of the company bought a luxury rental apartment building in Chicago's North River neighborhood.

According to a new national report released a few weeks ago by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs homelessness among veterans decreased 12% between January 2010 and January 2011. And while these decreasing numbers are encouraging, the number of homeless veterans remains astounding - and to me - heartbreaking.

National Mortgage News (December 19) asks, “Can Regulators Prevent the Next Systemic Risk Crisis?” Probably not.

Bank of America's share price climbed to just over $6.50 Tuesday, a sign that investors somewhere are bottom feeding on this once proud banking franchise, one that shot itself in the foot (or is it head?) when it bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008.