This coming Wednesday two Senate subcommittees will tackle the sticky issue of "exotic" mortgages,or as they like to call them, "nontraditional" loans. (Leave it to those button-downed senators not touse such a sexy word as exotic.) At a hearing this past week, payment-option ARMs took it on the chin, sharingsome of the blame for home prices soaring into the stratosphere. (Most of the soaring has been on the coasts andin resort areas.) According to the just-released 2Q issue of the Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report,POAs now account for about 10% of all originations. To order the AP-QDR, e-mail
In its Monday edition, National Mortgage News ranks the nation's top POA funders. In case you'rewondering, Countrywide Home Loans and Washington Mutual rank first and second, respectively...
Meanwhile, we're hearing that one large POA funder selling billions of dollars of these loans to Wall Streethas been -- in the words of one source -- "screwing up" the index on the mortgages, and may be forcedto buy back mortgages. The problem, said the source, has been going on for two years...
LowerMyBills.com is advertising on YahooFinance.com, telling consumers it can deliver a $510,000mortgage with a monthly payment of under $1,688. We assume that doesn't include the real estate tax payment...
NMN’s research staff is almost done crunching the newly released Home Mortgage Disclosure Actdatabase, which includes production details on some 8,800 mortgage lenders. Among the rankings is a table on all"high cost" mortgage funders. To pre-order the database e-mail
The new Mortgage Industry Directory is out and one new feature of the electronic version is theuser's ability to search news stories on lenders and servicers appearing in the book. For more details e-mail
As we all know by now, Countrywide president Stan Kurland departed the company about a week ago after28 years of service. What hasn't been publicized is that two days before the news broke he was exercising options,and selling shares in the company -- a lot of shares. According to trading records, he sold $51 million worth ofstock on Sept. 6. The company put out a press release on his departure Friday, Sept. 8. Of course, a bunch of Countrywideinsiders have been selling a bunch of shares for quite some time...
After reviewing its investment portfolio, PNC Financial Services has decided to sell $6 billionof MBS at a loss of $200 million, before taxes...
Merrill Lynch analyst David Rosenberg on housing: "We know that the housing boom willinevitably be followed by a bust, and from previous work, we know that leaves the consumer exposed to perhaps along period of balance sheet repair. We believe that home prices have become so far out of whack that it couldtake several years before prices realign themselves"...
Roughly 18% of the mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers in New York state have not yet paid their general assessmentand are in immediate suspension, according to a New York Banking Department official...
MORTGAGE WEDDING NEWS: Come next May, Darryl Hicks, associate director of the National ReverseMortgage Lenders Association will no longer be the mortgage industry's most eligible bachelor. In other words,he's getting hitched. Mr. Hicks is also a former NMN reporter. Two years ago Darryl inherited the MEB titlewhen former Freddie Mac/Pedestal official John Lewis got hitched...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Former Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Andrew Cuomorevived his political career last Tuesday with a victory in the New York State Democratic primary for attorneygeneral. Mr. Cuomo beat his nearest challenger, former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green (the brotherof real estate developer Stephen Green), by a margin of 53% to 33%.
WASHINGTON NEWS: Originations of Federal Housing Administration reverse mortgages are on a tearthis year, but lenders are worried that election politics could lead to a shutdown in the first quarter and disruptthe program designed to help seniors tap the equity in their homes. Lenders are expected to bump up against a capon FHA home-equity conversion mortgages by February or March, according to the National Reverse Mortgage LendersAssociation.
DATA NEWS: NMN recently updated its Mortgage Broker Database product which tracks the nation'stop loan brokerage firms, including top producers at those shops. For more info e-mail
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