THIS JUST IN: The Bush administration may try to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction. Well,maybe not. But maybe. One thing is for certain: The president wants to rewrite the tax code and a "flat tax"is a possibility. Mortgage lobbyists believe this means the mortgage interest deduction could be in trouble. Whatdefinitely is in trouble is any legislation that would make mortgage insurance payments tax deductible...
There are just eight weeks left in 2004, a year in which lenders will have funded $2.6 trillion in home mortgages(according to NMN's Quarterly Data Report). As things stand, 2004 will be the third-best year everfor the industry. But which privately held firms likely will be the "movers and shakers" of 2005? NMNhas just released a new white paper, "20 (Mostly) Private Mortgage Firms to Keep an Eye in 2005."To get a copy contact
@ThomsonMedia.com
According to the new, soon-to-be-released issue of the QDR, there is now $7.5 trillion worth of outstandingresidential debt in the U.S. And the nation's No. 1 servicer is Countrywide Home Loans. Countrywide hasnot been No. 1 since 1995. See Monday's edition of NMN for the rankings...
Bank of America, which lost $250 million on its mortgage operation in the third quarter, is experiencingeven more bad, mortgage-related news. The mega-bank last week decided to close Framework, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-basedmortgage technology company that it acquired in 2003. Framework provided an e-business platform in the form ofits configurable enterprise software called LendWare. For the full story see Monday's story by NMN reporterTony Garritano...
Yet another Wall Street firm, Merrill Lynch, is sticking its toe in the subprime mortgage business. Butin Merrill's case, it's targeting the subprime business over in the U.K. The company has inked a deal to buy Mortgagesplc for about £88 million...
North Fork Bancorp is carrying the mortgage servicing rights for GreenPoint's $40 billion servicingportfolio at a very conservative 93 bps. This intelligence comes from Sandler O'Neill...
The board of Golden West Financial, parent of ARM giant World Savings, has approved a two-for-onestock split. In the second quarter Golden/World was one of just two lenders among the top 15 producers to showa production gain...
Jefferies & Co. has upgraded subprime lender Saxon Capital to "buy" from a "hold"...
Subprime lender NovaStar Financial has priced a $1.1 billion asset-backed deal...
MORTGAGE STATS: According to the QDR, 25% of all residential loans funded in 2003 were ARMs. In the firsthalf of 2004, 45% of all residential loans funded were ARMs...
BUSH (W.) II AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR MORTGAGES: What does a second Bush White House mean for mortgage bankers?It's a bit too early to say. Killing the mortgage interest deduction is a possibility (see first item). Such aproposal would be fiercely opposed by the National Association of Home Builders, as well as every mortgage-relatedtrade group. Meanwhile, now that the election is over, mortgage industry "insiders" can stop jabberingabout which job Fannie Mae's Franklin Raines might land in a Kerry administration. Ditto for formerFannie Mae chairman James Johnson, an advisor to Sen. Kerry. As reported on MortgageWire on Wednesday,former Housing secretary Mel Martinez is on his way back to Power City USA (that would be Washington). Mr.Martinez, a Republican, won the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Bob Graham of Florida. Before headingHUD, Mr. Martinez was (gasp!) a trial attorney! We're sure Karl Rove and the president overlooked this sin.When Mr. Martinez comes to town will he crackdown on all those frivolous shareholder lawsuits being filed againstpublicly traded subprime firms (NovaStar, ABFI and the like) as well against Fannie and Freddie?Hmmm...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Washington Mutual has named Taj Bindra executive vice president, financeand servicing operations of its mortgage division. Mr. Bindra joins WaMu from Chase Home Finance where heserved as chief financial officer and EVP.
UPCOMING CONFERENCE: On Dec. 6 and 7 ThomsonMedia will hold its sixth annual "MortgageEC" conference. The meeting be held at the Mandalay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
MORTGAGE DATA/RESEARCH NOTICE: NMN has just released a brand new white paper, "Doc Prepon the Net." Also available: NMN's "LOS Report" which offers in-depth research on loan originationsystems. For more information contact:
@ThomsonMedia.com
@ThomsonMedia.com
