Something to think about: If Federal law prohibits any one bank/thrift from having a deposit market share of more than 10% why are bank/thrifts/others allowed to have a housing receivables (mortgage servicing rights) market share north of 10%? If Bank of America 's acquisition of FleetBoston goes forward as planned, it will have a deposit market share of 9.8% which gives it 0.2% room to grow, which doesn't appear to be much. Among residential servicers, Washington Mutual has a servicing market share (according to National Mortgage News' Quarterly Data Report ) of 10.85%. The WaMu share is based on June 30 figures. Third quarter rankings will be ready shortly. It's very possible that at least two firms have servicing market shares north of 10%...
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It's Halloween weekend and the scariest thing to hit the mortgage market this past week was Fannie Mae's $1 billion "computational error," which affects mark-to-market treatment for (among other things) its mortgage commitments. Ironic: A few weeks back Fannie had a live demonstration/tutorial on hedge accounting which covered, in part, its company controls...
A tale of two Countrywide analysts: Mike McMahon of Sandler O'Neill rates the company a 'buy' and says the best is yet to come. Sandler's price target is $145. (Last week it was trading at $103.) But Smith Barney analyst Matt Vetto says Countrywide is a "sell." He notes that the sharp run up in its stock over the past month "adequately discounts even the heightened expectations." SB's price target is a meager $100...
Astoria Federal, one of the larger independent thrifts left in the Long Island/New York City area, funded $555 million in apartment/commercial loans in the third quarter alone. Year to date it has funded $1.2 billion in such product, a 58% gain compared to the same period a year ago...
Shareholders of New York Community Bancorp and Roslyn Bancorp have approved the $2 billion merger of the two companies. Both operate in the New York/Long Island market where home prices have been on a tear the past three years...
WaMu Capital Corp., a fixed-income broker/dealer affiliate of Washington Mutual, has opened a new mid-town Manhattan facility that boasts 14,000 square-feet of space at 623 Fifth Avenue. The site includes trading, compliance and support functions, and employs 90 trading and sales professionals...
E-Loan recently ended its eighth consecutive profitable quarter. The online only lender reported third quarter revenues of $43.8 million, a 54% gain from the year ago quarter. It earned $8 million in the third quarter, compared to $3.1 million in the year ago quarter. The company, whose forte is mortgages, home equities and autos, is forecasting net earnings of $16 million next year...
According to Greenwich Capital analyst Steve Stanley , existing home sales continued to defy expectations in September, shattering the previous all-time record for the third consecutive month. The pace of existing home sales, at 6.69 million units, is almost 20% higher than the average for 2002, which was the best year in history (up to now of course). He writes in a recent note: "Will housing ever slow down? Probably. Will home sales fall precipitously any time soon? I doubt it."...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Federal Reserve to the rescue once again: On Tuesday the central bank signaled its intention to leave interest rates unchanged, but said spending was strengthening and the labor market was stabilizing. The Fed said economic policy would remain accommodative for a "considerable period" as economic risks remained balanced between signs of a strengthening economy and continued worries over deflationary pressures.
Four more years for President Bush ? GDP was 7.2% in the third quarter, its highest level since 1984. If things keep up, the race will be over by June.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Wachovia Mortgage of North Carolina has named C.D. Davies as its new president. He succeeds Debra Warren, who retired in May.
Dick Gravino, president of PCFS Mortgage Resources and executive vice president of The Provident Bank, will retire at the end of the year.
WATCH ON THE 10-YEAR: As we went to press, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.34%, compared to 4.22% a week ago.
CORRECTION: Kevin Shannon, a keynote speaker at the Thomson Media Mortgage Technology Conference in January, is president of consumer real estate at Bank of America. Last week we had his title wrong.
MORTGAGE DATA: Need data and addresses on the top 7,600 residential lenders in the U.S.? Contact Deartra Todd at (202) 434-0320. Also, The Quarterly Data Report, as it does every quarter, will rank the top 100 lenders and servicers in the prime and subprime arenas. The third quarter report will be available in mid-November. For more information contact: Deartra.Todd@ThomsonMedia.com.
