Loan Think

Wednesday morning we were greeted with the news that an affiliate of Newcastle Investment Corp. – a publicly traded REIT – has agreed to pay almost $44 million to Nationstar Mortgage in exchange for receiving 65% of the interest payments on a $9.9 billion pool of MSRs.

In case you missed the story broken by National Mortgage News on Monday here's the summary: FHFA's Office of Inspector General is looking for a firm to evaluate mortgage servicing rights. It won't give a reason but industry advisors familiar with the issue say the IG's office is investigating Fannie's purchase of $74 billion of MSRs from Bank of America. (A spokeswoman for the FHFA IG had no comment.)

As we wrap up another year, we look for innovative and fun ways to wish our clients, friends, referral partners, others we do business with, others we want to do business with, et al, a happy holiday season.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had so far limited its complaint process to just credit cards. But CFPB began taking complaints related to home mortgages as of Dec. 1.

By now most American investors have tired of the market whiplash caused by the Euro crisis. One day there's a deal, the next day there's not and Great Britain wants a say even though they're not on the Euro and forever glad they didn't join. Mortgage bankers are probably looking at the mess and wondering what it all means for them.

The Federal Housing Administration is on everybody's mind recently. With new jumbo lending authority it is poised to take even more share away from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. But will FHA mortgagors refinance? Our Nov. 21 article sparked a number of replies about why it is hard to refi an FHA loan.

Late this week we were hearing reports that the Treasury Department might be looking for outside help on evaluating servicing rights. The question, of course, is why?…

Yes, I know: Fannie Mae isn’t really in the servicing business even though it bought $74 billion of MSRs from Bank of America in the third quarter. The news of the deal – published by National Mortgage News and at least one other media outlet – is starting to sink in.

"Don't mess with Texas" is one popular bumper sticker I used to see, but not so much anymore. But one thing is for certain: Texas has one of the best housing and mortgage markets in the nation. Why? One word: oil.

Think about it - there are very few occupations where you are all things to all people.