According to National Mortgage News' brand new Loan Officer Report (LOR) the top LO inMaryland is Tomeka Harris of Metropolis Funding in Baltimore. Tomeka originated $53 million in loanslast year. The LOR has details on the nation's top LOs. For more information on the product contact:
The day after President Bush won re-election last year he confidently boasted that he had earned "politicalcapital" and intended to spend it. At the time, former Housing and Urban Development counsel HowardGlaser, an industry consultant, predicted that Bush might go after the nation's beloved mortgage interest deduction.Few in the industry took Mr. Glaser seriously. Jump ahead a year and what do we see? The president's tax panel-- which includes a few Democrats -- last week unveiled its formal proposal to simplify the U.S. tax code. Amongthe ideas is to whittle the mortgage interest deduction down to about $300,000 (even less in some locales), eliminatetax breaks for HELOCs and second homes, and kill deductions for real estate taxes paid. (See the full story inMonday's National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: 800-221-1809.) Will the Republicancontrolled House and Senate go along with the panel's ideas? We shall see. The mid-term elections are a year away.If mortgage professionals vote with their wallets things could get interesting in Washington
Meanwhile, the immediate future for interest rates looks horrible. (At press time the yield on the 10-year Treasurywas 4.67%.) Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who believes in housing bubbles, is obviouslyhell bent on taking the "irrational exuberance" out of homes prices. When it comes to reducing assetvalues we've seen this movie before, notably during the tech boom which ended in 2000 when the "dot-com"bubble burst. In retrospect Mr. Greenspan's take on stock prices was right on the money. But is he right abouthome prices? Last week the Fed hiked the overnight Fed funds rate to 4%. Two short years ago it was 1%. If you'veread any of the recent earnings reports of publicly traded mortgage firms you surely will see the phrase "reducedprofit margins" among the explanations for lower earnings
Morgan Stanley on the third quarter results of subprime lender New Century Financial: "Netgain on sale margin came in at 1.48%, down 50 basis points. Non-interest expenses increased 6% from 2Q05, despitevolume growth of 18%, and were $2.5 million lower than our estimate." New Century recently announced a 5 millionshare repurchase program
Analyst David Hendler of CreditSights on Countrywide Financial: "The company remainsvulnerable to a mortgage market that seems, at least when measured by stock market sentiment, shaky at best. CEO[Angelo] Mozilo said he finds it 'encouraging' that he’s 'never seen such pessimism by the investing communityrelative to the industry.' The company did acknowledge that it expects continued pressure on lower-tier mortgageplayers, but stressed it stands to benefit from industry fallout/consolidation through market-share gains." Countrywide has become a large funder of payment option ARMs and interest-only mortgages. Mr. Hendler questionswhether these products have been "effectively tested" by the market...
Remember when Cendant Corp. tossed its mortgage company -- now called PHH Mortgage -- overboard?Well guess what? Cendant last week said it is buying a handful of title firms, including American Title Companyof Houston. So, how's PHH's done since being spun off by Cendant? It's trading at $28 compared to an IPO pricein the low 20s. Not bad
FlexPoint Funding, a subprime lender, is advertising on ESPN. Its pitchman? None other than formerChicago Bear Dick Butkus. Remember when the Money Store used former baseball players JimPalmer and Phil "The Scooter" Rizzuto for their ads? Remember Dan Marino hawking loansfor high LTV lender FirstPlus? As one of our readers wrote: "Is this 1998 all over again?"Let's hope not. It was in that year that the B&C industry crashed and burned
You've heard of Fannie Mae, Ellie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac, LuxMac, FarmerMac,and now there's NattyMac. Natty, according to an advertisement in National Mortgage News,is a warehouse lender
Fieldstone Mortgage, a REIT, has inked a master repurchase agreement with Lehman Brothers. Underthe deal Fieldstone (from time to time) will sell subprime loans to the investment banking firm
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Washington Mutual has named Ronald Cathcart EVP and chief enterprise riskofficer, effective Dec. 1. He replaces the retiring James Vanasek. Mr. Cathcart joins WaMu from CanadianImperial Bank of Commerce. Multifamily lender Commercial Capital Bancorp said EVP and CFO ChristopherG. Hagerty will retire effective November 15. Freddie Mac has named CIT CEO Jeffrey M. Peek toits board. CIT is a subprime lender.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES: If Hurricane Wilma caused you to miss the annual MBA show try Vegas. Check outthe LoanToolbox and SourceMedia conference on "Business Plan 2006." (SourceMediapublishes NMN.) The meeting will be held Dec. 6-9 in Las Vegas where no hurricanes are expected -- or everstrike. For more information
DATA NOTICE: Don't forget the brand new "eMortgage Industry Directory" is now available.This online, web friendly product features three modules -- one each for lenders, servicers, and commercial mortgagebankers. Key features include rankings and profiles on the top 400 firms plus an exclusive ranking of the nation'stop loan brokers and loan officers. For more information contact
