This coming week National Mortgage News, Origination News and BrokerUniversewill jointly launch its first-ever "loan officer" survey for 2004. The aim of the survey is to get abetter handle on the LO market. Rankings on the nation's top LOs will appear later this year in these publications.If you're an LO for a mortgage banker, broker, or even a wholesale account executive, contact
@ThomsonMedia.com
Is Fannie Mae cutting its minimum servicing fee from the current 25 basis points? See Monday's editionof National Mortgage News to read the full story...
On Thursday George W. Bush was sworn in for a second term and the stock market took a bit of a tumble.(These two events, of course, were not related). Stocks have performed poorly since the beginning of the year withno end in sight. And some equities analysts are down right bearish about stocks this year. So, what does all thismean for the bond market and mortgage rates? At press time, the yield on the 10-year was at 4.17% and falling...
Meanwhile, some of the nation's largest subprime lenders made sizeable donations to President Bush's inauguralcelebration. Ameriquest Mortgage of California and its wholesale arm, Argent Mortgage, combined,donated at least $500,000. New Century Financial, Irvine, Calif., donated $100,000. Ameriquest, as reportedby NMN several weeks ago, is once again contemplating going public, possibly this spring...
Lime Financial president Mike Baldwin told us recently that despite the hike in short-term rates,few lenders appear to be raising their (long-term) mortgage rates. This has benefited consumers, but it has causedprofit margins at lending shops to get squeezed. When all this will end is hard to say, but commenting on its fourthquarter, NetBank's management noted that its earnings were under pressure due to "pricing pressurein the conforming mortgage segment" and "the potential for a significant negative impact on net servicinghedges." Sandler O'Neill has a "hold" rating on the stock...
Subprime lender New Century is rebranding its 74-branch retail division as Home123, hiring homeimprovement icon Bob Vila to star in its advertisements. To me, "This Old House" hasn't been thesame since Bob left. Norm Abrams, though, is a nice guy...
And while we're on the subject of TV and housing, this humble columnist could be seen for a split second ina cut-away shot of the new cable show "Garage Makeover." It wasn't my garage but a neighbor's...
According to Standard & Poor's, U.S. CMBS performed brilliantly in 2004, scoring an unprecedented508 credit-rating upgrades amid improving real estate fundamentals...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Ronald Rosenfeld, the new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, toldNMN that the agency will review the "mortgage partnership finance" program to see if the FederalHome Loan Bank System is taking on excessive risk by purchasing residential loans from its members and thenkeeping those assets in portfolio. "If we find that these assets create an overwhelming problem, then we haveto do something about it," he told NMN's Brian Collins. Senate Banking Committee chairmanRichard Shelby, R-Ala., plans to start hearings on GSE regulatory reform in February, but he has not seta timetable for action on a bill.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Thomas Wind and Scott Powell have been named co-chief executives of ChaseHome Finance, a J.P. Morgan Chase company. Mr. Wind, who had been head of capital markets at Chase HomeFinance, now has responsibility for the company's prime mortgage business. Chase mortgage chief Steve Rotellarecently departed for Washington Mutual. First American Real Estate Information Services hasnamed Anthony Merlo president of eAppraiseIT. In his new position, he will oversee eAppraiseIT'sgrowth in the property valuation market.
DATA NOTICE: NMN is still offering research reports on "LOS Systems," "D2CInternet Lending" and "Retail Lending Over the Internet." For more information contact:
@ThomsonMedia.com
@ThomsonMedia.com
