THIS JUST IN: A top-ranked residential servicer, whose platform is in located in the middle of the country (that narrows it down), is on the auction block again, or so we hear. But this firm is also hiring some LOs and retail managers, including Orange County, Calif. Sounds confusing, but maybe it's not. For the full story see the Monday paper edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809…
And what does FHA chief David Stevens think about the government mortgage insurer's upcoming audit of its capital reserves? Is he feeling lucky this fiscal year? See Brian Collins' story, also in Monday's NMN…
Meanwhile, the "Big Show" starts this weekend in Atlanta. That would be the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Angelo Mozilo will be the key note speaker and sources tell us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are spending $100,000 each on parties for the industry. Top executives from Argent and Ameriquest will also be in attendance. (Race car driver Danica Patrick, too.) Also, one top industry official told us that the FHA commissioner wasn't invited to speak because the agency's market share has fallen to just 2.5%! (There's been talk MBS might build its own headquarters.) And of course housing prices are zooming upwards and onwards all over the country. Oops, sorry. That was my column from five years ago…
Meanwhile, I keep getting requests for lists of the nation's top FHA lenders and servicers. All that would be in the Quarterly Data Report. Just drop a line to Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com. She can also give you information about our MortgageStats.com data Web product and our new white paper on "Ten Things Mortgage Related You Need to Know Now." One key part of MStats is its online database of all 8,000 mortgage lenders in the U.S. with complete rankings on the top funders in all 323 MSAs…
THE VERY BIG PICTURE: Voters are outraged! They're sick and tired and won't take it anymore. The government may have to shell out an additional $73 billion to $215 billion to keep the capital positions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from going negative. (The figures are courtesy of the government-run companies, which were told to come up with loss assumption numbers from their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.) As we all know, Uncle Sam has pumped $148 billion into the two GSEs—money that has bolstered their capital positions, but also has filtered back to the government in the form of dividend payments. In fact, some of the cash Uncle put into Fannie and Freddie went right back to Treasury via dividends, which leads many of us to ask this simple question: What's the point, guys? There's talk around Washington that top officials at the GSEs have made the same point, and would like to be relieved of their dividend obligations to Treasury. If Republicans—Tea Party candidates in particular—get elected to the House and the GOP takes the chamber, will there be a fast push to liquidate the two? The short answer is yes, but any effort to kill them will be met with stiff resistance from the White House and many Democrats. Without Fannie and Freddie there would/will be no housing recovery. Though it should be pointed out that if it weren't for FHA, first-time homebuyers would be hurting. Keep this in mind, mortgage bankers: If you eliminate Fannie and Freddie there will be no 30-year fixed-rate loans left in America. Then again, MORTECH chief Jeff Lebowitz—whose been issuing his annual MORTECH research tome for 22 years now—assures me that Congress will not kill the GSEs. "It's not going to happen," he said. Others tell me that as soon as the Tea Party/GOP hardliners get elected, they will be co-opted, and convinced (rather quickly) that without the GSEs, housing values will plunge. For mortgage pros who want to vote for Tea People this might present a conundrum: Well, if I vote them, they will move to kill Fan/Fred and if F/F dies there will be no 30-year FRMs, and without that loan, the mortgage business will tank and I'll lose my job. But don't worry. Vote your conscience. And remember it's not who you vote for (since most of them are worthless and won't stick to their campaign promises anyway). Pull that lever. And me? I'm starting to miss both Nixon and Ross Perot…
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: MountainView Capital Holdings of Denver has launched a new business unit that will specialize in the valuation of residential whole loans, securitized loans and REO. Sean Rowland was hired to run the unit, which is called MountainView Portfolio Analysis…
Meanwhile, NMN's top researcher Deartra Todd is busy collecting 3Q lending and servicing surveys. We've seen some interesting numbers come in so far. Cherry Creek Mortgage of Colorado, for example, funded $957 million in the third quarter, a handsome 40% gain from the year ago quarter. All that info, too, is in the QDR…
Love and money have always made good song topics. Now add to that list foreclosures. Our sister publication American Banker reports that a new YouTube video circulating the Internet features a rap by "ForeclosureMom," a 58-year-old woman in a sideways baseball cap, sunglasses and gold chains. Standing in front of images of bank branches and the New York Stock Exchange, she laments about being steered into an adjustable-rate mortgage and later trying unsuccessfully to get a modification. Blaming the rise of securitization for the housing market's woes, ForeclosureMom concludes: "Investors got paid and no one disputed, homeowners speak up and we get prosecuted." OK, so it's not exactly Bob Dylan or Patti Smith. Or Jay-Z…
By the way, I now have a complete list of the subservicers that are known as "Fannie's Fabulous Five." These companies are specialty servicers to the GSE and are given portfolios to service when the current servicer fails to live up to Fannie's standards. More coming on this issue…
WASHINGTON NEWS: If you're a lender that relies on insurance from the Rural Housing Service, take note. The agency is preparing to start guaranteeing single-family loans again, and sources expect the agency to make an announcement next week. As the National Mortgage News website went to press, RHS officials did not return telephone calls and e-mails about their funding situation. In fact, RHS official rarely return phone calls.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Industry veteran Tom Wind, who has headed such mortgage powerhouses as Chase Home Finance and Aurora Loan Services, has been named managing director of J.I. Kislak Mortgage LLC, Miami Lakes, Fla. NMN broke the story on its website earlier this week.
MUST ATTEND MEETINGS AND 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: The new 3Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report will be out in about seven weeks. As noted, Ms. Todd is busy sending out surveys to lender/servicers. Keep in mind that the 1Q and 2Q editions of the QDR are still available. 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: Whatever happened to all those firms working on jumbo conduits? It's been very quiet lately. Drop me a line at
