What We're Hearing

Lost among all the hoopla this past week of Washington Mutual buying HomeSide (sans its $187 billion in servicing) is the potential leverage it gives the nation's number three lender (soon to be number one) over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Fannie's average guarantee fee is 19 basis points or so, how much of a discount do you think WaMu's chairman Kerry Killinger will ask for&

The warehouse lending business is booming. The big "Kahuna" of warehousing, Residential Funding Corp ., Bethesda, Md., has commitments of almost $11 billion. It has a client base of 153 mortgage firms, compared to 130 a year ago. RFC also is taking an equity stake in some of the firms it is lending to&

Last week we told you that Residential Mortgage Services of Texas was leaving the warehouse arena. This week, we're hearing that both Union Planters and Sterling Bank are throwing in the towel&

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is beefing up its home equity division and plans to add 200 full-timers to it come January. This is good news for the unemployed looking for work&

And in somewhat of a sadder note, Whitewater figure Linda Tripp, who is unemployed, is facing foreclosure on her Howard County, Md., home. The lender? Citicorp Mortgage. Ms. Tripp recorded telephone conversations she had with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the home.