Interviews with mortgage executives indicate that the mortgage "slowdown" started in November and continued through December. It appears that applications picked up in January and have been holding steady of late. But there have been casualties. The latest is BridgeSpan Inc. , a title and technology company based in Texas. This past week BridgeSpan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means it hopes to reorganize someday. The company bills itself as "a leading provider of mortgage processing solutions for lenders and settlement service providers." It also claims that it introduced the industry's first electronic mortgage technology platform. Its CEO is Larry Walker, a former EDS executive. Another potential casualty is E-Loan of California. The chief operating officer of E-Loan resigned on Thursday, a day in which the company revealed that fourth-quarter earnings plunged 95% and its stock skidded by as much as 20%. To boot, Sandler O'Neill downgraded it to "sell" and set a price target of $2 a share. On Friday it was trading at $2.60 a share. It has a market cap $161 million. See National Mortgage News on Monday for full details...
Processing Content
Is the Federal Reserve ready to hike rates big time? Don't bet on it. In fact, betting on rates is trickier than betting on stocks -- but people still do it. This past week the market went wacko after the Fed abandoned its pledge to keep rates low for a "considerable period" and instead promised to be "patient" on rake hikes. This minor, midweek, change in wording caused rates to spike a bit, but by Friday the yield on the 10-year was at 4.132%. Some economists now think the Fed will begin hiking rates in June. Earlier predictions had the hikes coming in the fall...
The production margin on conforming originations at NetBank dropped 76 bps to 37 bps in the fourth quarter. Over at Countrywide the margin dropped 39 basis points to 86 basis points...
C. Paul Sandifur Jr. has resigned as chairman, president and chief executive of Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Inc. , Spokane, Wash., citing a desire to help the company put recent controversies behind it. Metropolitan is in a fight for survival as a going entity...
The Society of Industry Realtors says the office vacancy rate in San Jose (formerly known as dot-com central) hit 40% in December. The figure is for the city and suburbs of San Jose, said one official.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION '04: It's little early for National Mortgage News to start talking about the presidential race. And of course, most of our readers tend to vote Republican because of, well, the obvious reasons. But there is a mortgage angle to talk about: Democrat front runner John Kerry took out a $6 million mortgage on his Boston townhouse to help fund his campaign. Question: which one of our readers made this "jumbo" loan?
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's "pre-emption" plans came under attack at a congressional hearing this past week, but key Republicans defended the rules, which exempt national banks and their mortgage subsidiaries from state predatory lending laws. State banking and law enforcement authorities, along with consumer groups, complained that the OCC has exceeded its authority by blocking states from enforcing their consumer protection laws. (See NMN's Monday edition.)
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Marangal "Marito" Domingo has been named president and chief executive officer of Downey Financial Corp. and Downey Savings and Loan. Financial Title Co. has hired Vicki Gardea as executive vice president and Bay Area regional manager. Milestone Merchant Partners has hired Erik N. van Nispen and David E. Jones.
'FEATHER GATE' CONTINUED: Former Fannie Mae president Larry Small (current secretary of the Smithsonian) has copped a plea for the purchase and possession of 206 art objects made with the feathers of protected bird species. He will receive two years probation and 100 hours of community service. Maybe he can counsel low-income homebuyers on the ins and outs of the mortgage process? (Just a suggestion.)
MORTGAGE DATA NOTICE: National Mortgage News has just published the "Transactional Retail Mortgage Website Report." The TRMWR provides detailed information on how lenders can integrate their websites with LOS and back-office systems. It also provides information on what features are offered on "best-of-breed mortgage" websites -- and much, much more. For more information or a sample of this report contact: Elizabeth.Washington@ThomsonMedia.com or call (202) 434-0328. Also, the residential finance industry funded $3.8 trillion in 2003. For fourth-quarter rankings and results (top 100) see the upcoming issue of the Quarterly Data Report. For information contact Deartra Todd at: Deartra.Todd@ThomsonMedia.com.
