As most of the mortgage world already knows, Cendant Mortgage is up for grabs but apparently,according to one source close to Nexstar, Cendant is "losing private-label clients to Nexstar."Nexstar, based in St. Louis, is owned by KKR...
Fannie Mae has been accepting AVM appraisals from some of its best seller/servicerclients, including Countrywide and Bank of America. (AVM stands for automated valuation model.) Seereporter Tony Garritano's story in Monday's edition of National Mortgage News...
Also in Monday's edition, a report on one big Wall Street conduit that is funding loans directlythrough loan brokers...
And also in Monday's edition, the news that mortgage bankers funded $820 billion in mortgagesin 2Q, the industry's best showing in three quarters. For a complete ranking of the top 100 purchase the QuarterlyData Report. To order the QDR call Deartra Todd at (202) 434-0320...
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has yet to conclude its investigationof investment banking firms that were involved in counter party risk transactions integral to Freddie Mac's $5billion accounting scandal...
In the first quarter Washington Mutual stopped disclosing to the trade press its subprimeservicing volumes. In 2Q it stopped disclosing its subprime loan production...
Forget the fact (for a minute) that the Federal Reserve last week hiked short-termrates by 25 basis points, a move that will force mortgage lenders to do one of two things: hike their rates toconsumers by 25 basis points (to maintain profit margins) or eat that 25 basis points and become less profitable.The mortgage industry knew the Fed hike was coming so it likely isn't that big of a deal. The big financial newslast week was the less-than-stellar technology and economic outlooks issued by Cisco and Hewlett-Packard.What does this mean for mortgages? Well, the overall stock market looks ugly which means investors will continueto flock to bonds which means the yield on the 10-year should remain low. Right?
Mortgage surf's up: Bank of Hawaii reports that home sales on the islands have grownat annual rates of 15% since 1997 and record volumes are expected this summer. Sounds like a good place to starta mortgage office...
From "You're fired" to "You're bankrupt"? This past week Trump Hotels& Casino Resorts Inc. (which owns commercial real estate, by the sea no less) said it plans to reorganizeunder Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law. At last check the company was trading for a mere 36 cents on the "pinksheets." It's a good thing for Donald Trump that the "entertainment" and "news"divisions of NBC are managed separately...
The Washtenaw Group is blaming the residential mortgage business for its second-quarterwoes. The company said in a statement: "Mortgage origination volume fell 70% for the second quarter and 64%for the first half of 2004, from the continued industrywide slump in mortgage-refinance activity and softness innew mortgage originations." Of course, nonconforming lenders are doing fine...
UBS Securities this past week downgraded Countrywide to "neutral" from "buy"...
WASHINGTON/ELECTION COVERAGE: Presidential candidate John Kerry says in a positionpaper that the government can save money by dismantling the Office of Thrift Supervision and handing itsworkload over to other regulators. But the Kerry campaign, perhaps, overlooked one fine detail: OTS is not fundedby taxpayer money. Another fact overlooked is that even if OTS' chores are done by other regulators it won't befor free -- right?
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Industry veteran Art Ringwald has been named president of loanproduction at Metrocities Mortgage, Sherman Oaks, Calif. Mr. Ringwald was most recently president and chiefexecutive officer of Ocwen Technology Xchange. He also has worked at Ellie Mae, Bank of Americaand Sears Mortgage. DebtX, a Boston-based loan sale adviser, has announced that former Freddie Macchief executive officer Greg Parseghian has joined the company's advisory board. Bank of Hawaii has namedAllan R. Landon chairman and chief executive.
MORTGAGE DATA/RESEARCH NOTICE: The new NMN Loan Broker Database, recentlyupdated, is now available. The new LBD has rankings on the top loan brokerage firms in 2003 -- plus top producers,including contact information. Roughly 3,200 active and confirmed mortgage brokers are in the database. For moreinformation contact:
@ThomsonMedia.com
