THIS JUST IN: LoanMarket.net, the fledgling loan auction bulletin board based in Irvine, hired Jeff Haar who used to run Saxon Mortgage's correspondent program. More to come on what it all means…
Also, more to come: Two regional wholesalers have suspended their programs for now. We're working on confirming the identity of these firms…
Believe it or not, the future suddenly looks bright for nonbanks who want to have a future in residential lending and servicing. It all has to do with the new Basel III accords on bank capital and MSRs. See the Monday edition of National Mortgage News for details. Don't subscribe? Call: 800-221-1809…
Two servicing advisors told us this past week that the days of buyers paying six-times the servicing fee for newly originated MSRs are over. Or is it?...
You're on notice: In 12 months the GSE loan cap of $729,750 will be no more. We have seen our last extension…
Want to find out who the nation's top 100 residential servicers are? The top 25 subprime servicers? And their delinquency rates? It's all in the 2Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report. To order, drop a line to
THE BIG PICTURE: Here comes the foreclosure flood. Yes, I know what you're thinking: Paul, haven't you been reading the foreclosure news this week? Well, I've been both reading and writing it. National Mortgage News and our sister publication American Banker broke key developments on the mess this week…
But everyone, for a minute, take a deep breath and step back. I know “Foreclosure-gate” looks bad from a publicity standpoint, but no one in the mainstream media has pointed out this pertinent fact: most people are in foreclosure not by accident or chance. They're losing their homes because they could not keep up on the payments. And it's sad that people are losing their homes. Very sad—and I could blog all day long about which political parties are responsible for the mortgage crisis/U.S. financial meltdown/foreclosure mess/high unemployment (both), but you don't want to hear it from me and you have your own well defined opinions. Expect a few things: more servicers to come clean about how they're reviewing their policies and procedures, and so on. But in the end—and there will be an end to this—foreclosures will start up again—at Ally Financial and Chase, and so on and so on. The foreclosure train is not stopping for long…
And why isn't the foreclosure train stopping for long? Answer: Because Fannie and Freddie's management (and regulator) have finally woken up. They're running the GSEs like a real business which means no or limited forbearance for home owners. The GOP may soon be in power anyway…
Ally Financial may have certain foreclosure problems, but that hasn't stopped the company from shedding assets. On Friday it completed the sale of its European mortgage assets and operations to funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC. Hey, wait a second. Isn't that Dan Mudd's company? Mudd was the guy who helped drive Fannie Mae into a ditch. Under Mudd's stewardship, the GSE fell in love with alt-A loans…
And while we're on the subject of alt-A: Moody's took ratings action on $2.9 billion of Alt-A RMBS issued by Merrill Lynch in 2006 and 2007, downgrading 67 tranches. Merrill is now owned by Bank of America…
WASHINGTON NEWS: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has introduced legislation that prohibits covenants on residential mortgages entitling investors to receive transfer fees every time a certain property is sold. Reporting by NMN's Brian Collins.
MUST ATTEND MEETINGS & CONFERENCE: If you have a vested interest in foreclosures you will want to attend SourceMedia's “Best Practices in Short Sales and REO” conference on Nov. 9 and 10 in San Diego. For more info visit this link
DATA ANNOUNCEMENT: As we noted earlier, the new 2Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report is indeed out. The QDR provides industrywide composite data on loan production and servicing and specific figures on the top 100, including wholesale. A new feature for the QDR is our ranking of the nation's top FHA lenders. If you're looking for jumbo production numbers try the Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report. For more info on both drop an e-mail to
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THE LAST WORD: Michael Vick and the Iggles will soundly beat the Redskins on Sunday. And Go Bears!
