The sale of Cendant Mortgage to a top ranked mortgage banker fell apart last weekend.
There are several "back" stories to the Bush Administration's RESPA debacle. One
Federal Housing Finance Board spokesman Carter Wood thinks departing agencychairman John Korsmo (April 13 is his going away party) should receive the Congressional Medal of Honorfor his service to the agency. That's all Mr. Wood -- as well as Mr. Korsmo -- have to say about the resignationand the pending criminal probe into allegations that Mr. Korsmo obstructed justice in regard to an earlier investigationinto his fund raising activities for a North Dakotan Republican. One FHLB attorney told us that Mr. Korsmo, "wasnot wise to the ways of Washington," adding that he got the job because of his political fund raising skills. The attorney, requesting anonymity, noted that Mr. Korsmo forgot to stop raising funds after he got to Washington,a big no-no. One public relations official noted that Mr. Korsmo's downfall began when he fired almost his entirecommunications staff of eight back in August of 2002. He said Korsmo's management of the agency, "is a textbook case of everything you can do wrong." As for him getting a Congressional Medal of Honor, maybe the Tigerswill win the series this year...
Morgan Stanley this past week raised its price targets on Fannie Mae and FreddieMac, citing low interest rates and other factors. But Morgan cut estimates on publicly-traded mortgage insurers. The investment banker remains "equal weight" on Washington Mutual, but thinks investors should be aware of issues surrounding "Ginnie Mae Pool Buy-out Income." This government loophole helped WaMuboost earnings in 2003 by 12% -- and now the loophole appears to have been closed...
MortgageIT Holdings Inc., New York, has filed a registration statement with theSecurities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. MortgageIT Holdings will be the parent companyof MortgageIT Inc., a New York-based mortgage banker. Again, see Monday's NMN...
There are "three troubling themes" that are affecting the mortgage industry, MortgageBankers Association chairman Rob Couch told the Northeast Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associationsin Atlantic City on Wednesday. Again, see Monday's NMN....
The California Mortgage Bankers Association said the delinquency rate on one- to four-unitresidential properties in the state declined 13 basis points to 2.68% in the fourth quarter. The percentage ofloans in foreclosure fell one basis point to 0.18%...
The outsourcing of white collar jobs to India and elsewhere could be an interesting issuein this year's presidential election. As reported in NMN, mortgage firms are now outsourcing jobs. Theoutsourcing issue is expected to hurt President Bush, but consider this: one person raising funds for DemocratJohn Kerry is E-Loan's Chris Larsen who is using Indian workers to process home equity loans-- and bragging about it a press release. Meanwhile, India's National Association of Software and Service Companiesestimates that more than 300,000 white collar jobs have been created there since 2000 to serve overseas clients,many of them U.S. companies. (This fact comes from the Wall Street Journal.)
WASHINGTON NEWS: Look for a markup on a GSE regulatory bill to happen on Tuesday orWednesday of next week. Late on Friday Senate staffers were holding a "backgrounder" on GSE legislationwith members of the press. On Friday, on the campaign stump in Florida president Bush said Congress should passlegislation to allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure zero down payment mortgages. The president repeatedearlier forecasts that a zero down FHA loan would create 150,000 new home owners in the first year alone. Thispast week the housing subcommittee of the House held a hearing on zero down FHA loans. Some critics fear thatonce closing costs are rolled into the loan the actual LTVs on these mortgages could be as high as 105%. One suchcritic was Basel Petrou of Federal Financial Analytics. In a recent visit to OMB Mr. Petrou waslisted as a "consultant" to the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America. Could it be that mortgageinsurers will lose business because of a zero down FHA loan?
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: GHR Systems has named Ted Morse senior vice presidentof sales and business development for its mortgage automation solutions division. Mr. Morse joins GHR from Fiserv,where he spent the past five years as senior vice president of sales and marketing. In case you missed it: formerFederal Housing Finance Board member Timothy O'Neill is serving as a special advisor to FHA commissionerJohn Weicher. And in New York ValueExpress, a commercial mortgage banker, has hired Noah Cutleras a senior underwriter.
MORTGAGE DATA NOTICE: Full-year production rankings (top 100 for prime and top 50 for
MORTGAGE SURVEY NOTICE: NMN is still conducting its full-year 2003 production
