THIS JUST IN: One trade group official working on the regulatory reform bill passed on this piece of intel about Section 1403 of the base text yet: "If you read it carefully you realize that it mandates that all lenders now have to offer no fees, no points loans, or they cannot pay their origination personnel. An originator can be paid by the borrower or he/she can be paid by another party. However if they are paid by another party, the borrower cannot pay any fees or points, except fees paid to bonafide third parties. The creditor, i.e. the lender making the loan, is not considered a bonafide third party. Hence the lender cannot collect any fees or points if they pay their loan officer or if they pay the broker!" More on this early next week...
If the economy and the employment situation are really improving there's hope that jumbo loan production will revive. Exclusive survey figures that appear in the Monday edition of National Mortgage News reveal which firms have ramped up jumbo originations significantly. Hint: one is Chase. (A certain Maine-based bank appears to be rocking and rolling too.) To get complete jumbo rankings drop an email to:
It should be noted that the profit margins on jumbo loans are the fattest they've been in years, and yes, I've heard stories of millionaires with plenty of cash in the bank being turned down for loans because he/she does not want to make the required 20% down payment. (It's tough being rich.) That could be changing soon, I'm told. Some lenders are seriously considering offering 'pledged asset' jumbos but likely will still want 10% down. Over the past six months some once red hot jumbo markets like San Diego and San Francisco have shown strong signs of stabilizing. As for the jumbo securitization market taking off in earnest, early reports of a revival are premature. Redwood Trust came to market with its jumbo MBS deal two months ago with the offering being over-subscribed by five-fold. (Redwood is actively buying loans on a flow basis, hoping to do another deal.) For more details see the Monday edition of NMN. Don't subscribe? Call: (800) 221-1809...
And while we're on the subject of the MBS market, it's likely that the future of residential securitization in America will be decided next Tuesday by our elected readers in Washington. As we noted in our web report: House/Senate conferees are leaning toward adopting risk retention language requiring issuers of residential MBS to hold a "vertical" slice of securitized assets, which means mortgage bankers will be affected by losses on all tranches, not just one. Of course, such a compromise could blow apart at any moment. Or not...
I understand former Washington Mutual multifamily warehouse chief Frances Hattemer is back in the business, working as a consultant, helping banks raise capital. Frank, drop me a line at:
In last week's column/blog I asked for foreclosure horror stories. I received several replies so thanks for that. Of the many noteworthy stories, this one caught my attention. (Response edited by me): "A special real estate services company in Michigan, received a group of properties from a Texas (vulture) firm to manage and list for sale. Within six months, the portfolio manager received a call from the local taxing authority indicating that the property taxes weren't paid. Here's a company in Texas spending investor (someone else's) money and not even checking if the taxes are being foreclosed on before buying the property? This isn't the first time we've seen this"...
A year ago we broke the news that Taylor Bean & Whitaker's attempted takeover of Colonial Bank looked -- to say the least -- questionable. This past week the Department of Justice indicted TBW owner Lee Farkas for orchestrating a massive loan fraud (just shy of $2 billion.) According to one analyst I know, the name Farkas is Hungarian and translates into "Wolf." Folks, you can't get this type of information from any other website...
Two months ago rumors were circulating that GMAC/Residential Capital Corp. might pull the plug on its national retail telemarketing unit, Ditech Funding. (The talk followed a reshuffling of offices and personnel.) But it appears that all is alive and well at Ditech and it's still advertising its residential loans like crazy on CNBC...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: CWCapital, Boston, a national multifamily and healthcare real estate lender, has named David Lundin senior vice president and production manager for its Northeast FHA lending unit. Lundin is a 20 year industry veteran who has underwritten in excess of $500 million of HUD insured loans.
OUR RESEARCH REVEALS: Residential lending at MetLife Home Loans fell by 50% in the first quarter. MetLife is a top ten ranked lender and its production decline one was of the largest among the big boys. Figures courtesy of the Quarterly Data Report.
DATA STUFF: The brand new edition of NMN's Annual Data Report is out. In the ADR you can find rankings on the top 100 lenders and servicers in 2009 with complete breakdowns on production channels and subservicing and subprime servicing. To order the ADR drop a line to:
SURVEY NOTICE No. 1: Our annual "Top Producer Survey" (aka LO survey) is still available at
SURVEY NOTICE No. 2: It's survey time once again for sellers and servicers. Look for our annual survey in your computer mailbox or email:
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DATA NOTICE: National Mortgage News has all different data sets available for purchase including rankings and contact lists on the nation's top lenders and servicers. Send your requests for information to
THE LAST WORD: What was Ed DeMarco thinking when he pulled Fannie and Freddie off the NYSE? Drop me a line if you have an opinion.
