In Monday's National Mortgage News we have a story about some of the top residential producers that Bank of America is losing to competitors. By now, you've already viewed our stories about Kevin Budde and David Macke. But we understand that yet one more top LO is departing—for Wells Fargo. At press time we could not confirm the LO's name but she was being courted by several lenders and decided on Wells because she supposedly didn't want the hassle of doing all the licensing and testing involved with working for a nonbank. One executive familiar with the situation told us the LO in question could've earned $300,000 more a year if she had accepted an offer from one of her nonbank suitors. “Her commission split would've been higher,” he told us. He added that too many good LOs are scared of working for nonbanks, but believes the situation will eventually change. To subscribe to NMN call 800-221-1809. A sub gets you complete access to all the news content on our website…
According to new research from Morgan Stanley, the U.S. homeownership rate may be greatly inflated. In an interview this past week, Oliver Chang, a housing analyst at the investment banker, said delinquent borrowers who ultimately will lose their homes are being factored into the numbers. He said when they are taken out of the equation the HO rate is really closer to 59.7%, a reading not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Census Bureau this month said the rate is now at 65% down from a peak of 69% during the Bush II years…
Remember when George W. Bush talked about having an “ownership society”? It was a nice idea, in theory, but the president didn't want lenders to make a mortgage to just anybody just so they could have a house only to lose it later on.
Morgan, by the way, believes that private equity money is eager to buy rental properties in bulk, and that the golden days of homeownership may be behind us. According to Chang, one of the biggest problems with the housing market is the inability of consumers to obtain a mortgage…
The Obama “Refi” Plan was huge news this week, but was plenty short on details. The fine print on the plan is coming by mid-November. Loan brokers believe they can play a major role in this effort, but feel left out. Or are they? What's to stop aggressive wholesalers from stealing business away from B of A, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan? If the buyback risk has been eliminated by the FHFA, that means competition could be stiff. Or will it?...
Meanwhile, NMN is in the process of collecting its third-quarter surveys and the early results (compared to 3Q 2010) are not pretty. But when compared to 2Q, the numbers look good. It's all relative, I guess. If you would like to participate in our survey, send an email to
Congrats to NMN's Lew Sichelman for breaking another development in the ongoing B of A saga. Lew's Friday scoop touched on the bank's efforts to get a short sale-to-lease program for distressed borrowers off the ground. If you missed the story visit
Is investor demand for commercial real estate loan portfolios picking up steam? Apparently so. See Bonnie Sinnock's story on the NMN website…
Firming Up: the market for bank preferred stock…
WASHINGTON NEWS No. 1: The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week released new estimates on the ultimate cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cutting its worst-case scenario projection to $311 billion from $363 billion. Now, if only the Treasury Department would waive the 10% dividend and let the GSEs lobby Congress again. I understand Frank Raines and Leland Brendsel have plenty of free time on their hands.
WASHINGTON NEWS No. 2: Rep. Garrett of New Jersey this week introduced the Private Mortgage Market Investment Act, which would accomplish a number of things, including repealing the risk-retention provision in Dodd-Frank, which requires a securitization sponsor to retain a portion of the risk at 5%, along with a special exemption for a "qualified residential mortgage." Oh, and the bill also would kill the GSEs.
ANOTHER WORD ABOUT THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS: What are their demands exactly? Have they read Dodd-Frank? Bankers hate it, which means lefties must love it.
IMPORTANT DATA STUFF: MortgageStats.com is alive and well. This exclusive data website soon will be updated with new HMDA information. MortgageStats boasts the nation's top 8,000 lenders and 400 servicers, including hard-volume numbers and contact information. It also includes exclusive monthly analysis from me. (You can't get this information anywhere else.) For more information drop an email to
I'm
LAST WORD: Are loan processing times getting any better? Drop me a line at
