What is it with Southern California and nonprime mortgage bankers anyway? Take a look at the top five subprimefirms. According to the Quarterly Data Report, all five are based in SoCal. And 10 of the top 15 are inCalifornia, with the northern part of the state claiming a few HQs as well. As one California executive opined-- the big draw is the weather. "I can play golf in the morning and hit the beach in the afternoon."Now, for the bad news, it appears SoCal-based mortgage firms are shedding not only jobs but office space -- bigtime. For the full story see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. (Don't subscribe? Call:(800) 221-1809.) Grubb & Ellis executive Oliver Fleener has been witnessing lender afterlender looking to unload their office space via a sublease arrangement. He said that mortgage firms suffering themost are young, net branch operations. He also had this to say about the companies: "It seems all these executivesknow each other"...
And in case you missed it -- Washington Mutual slashed 2,500 mortgage jobs last week, mostly in operations.No AEs or sales people were let go...
In Monday's National Mortgage News two stories that loan brokers will want to read -- Brian Collins'story on the Department of Housing and Urban Development revisiting RESPA and an effort by one advocacygroup to license loan officers...
The cost of repairing the 95,000 properties in New Orleans damaged by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina willtotal between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to a new MBA study released last week...
Ocwen Financial Corp., which claims it is "the largest global outsourcing provider of transactionprocessing solutions for the mortgage industry," has formed the Ocwen School of Mortgage Origination (OSMO)and will graduate its first class of 50 underwriters this month...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Office of Thrift Supervision director John Reich, says adjustable-ratemortgage products with negative amortization features are "not appropriate for unsophisticated borrowers orthose with weaker credit capacities." Mr. Reich told the Exchequer Club that there is a market forpayment-option ARMs and some thrifts have successfully offered this product for 20 years. However, the regulatorsare worried about the sudden growth in option ARM originations by institutions with limited experience in managingthe risks of these loans.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Paragon Financial of Florida has signed All-Star second baseman Davey Johnson(and former Mets manager) to a multiyear deal under which he will be involved in teaching the mortgage businessto current and former athletes. Mr. Johnson, now the coach of the U.S. Olympic baseball team, will operate fromParagon's Orlando office. It appears that former mortgage PR executive John Lewis, ex of Campbell-LewisCommunications, has landed on his feet. John is now director of marketing for PRA International, whichhas nothing to do with mortgages. (John still has family in the industry and reads this column religiously.) AmericanHome Bank NA has named Grant Spurrell national director of its correspondent lending division.American Home Bank is a national bank specializing in construction-to-perm loans.
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