When Ownit Mortgage went bust in early December, all eyes looked to its warehouse lender: MerrillLynch. Last week, Mortgage Lenders Network signaled a near-collapse by closing its wholesale division,which accounts for 90% of its production. And just who was warehousing to MLN? We're told that Merrill was there,too (among others). Of course, the collapse of two midsize nonprime players will only help First Franklin FinancialCorp., Merrill's newly acquired subprime unit. By eliminating two competitors, there will be, well, less competition.Now, I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but folks in the industry are talking. And it's a good thing forMerrill that new Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank is too busy with GSE legislationto notice that Wall Street (Merrill, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, among others) now controls asignificant portion of the nation's subprime industry. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but Wall Street willbe dictating the terms of foreclosures for thousands upon thousands of subprime borrowers who are predicted togo delinquent in the coming 24 months. And some subprime borrowers vote, but they don't donate the kind of moneyto Congress that the Street does
Meanwhile, we're told that come Tuesday MLN will be auctioning off one of its assets. To find out which asset,read the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Telephone: (800) 221-1809.(Lehman Brothers may take over some of MLN's wholesale offices or staff. Lehman had no comment.)Also, in regard to MLN, one source told us the company had a subsidiary headquartered in the Virgin Islands.For what purpose, we don't know. MLN isn't talking
With many thinly capitalized nonprime firms folding their tents, gallows humor is starting to set in. One lendersent us an e-mail, reportedly from a Countrywide official named Tad Dalke. Mr. Dalke recently sentout an e-mail promising a free lunch to the three people who correctly pick the next shop to fail
George Ostendorf -- arguably, one of the nicest guys in the mortgage industry -- has resigned from REITHanover Capital Mortgage Holdings. Mr. Ostendorf left on good terms, and will still have a business relationshipwith the firm but is looking at other opportunities
About three weeks ago Mandalay Mortgage of California laid off an untold number or workers. One sourcethere told us it was the second round of layoffs for the company. Account executives and operations personnel wereaffected
RBC Capital Markets has upgraded New York Mortgage Trust to "outperform" from "sectorperform." NYMT is a residential lender and REIT. In the fall, the company hired Milestone Advisorsto assist it in reviewing "strategic alternatives" which is code for, "Hey, everyone: we're forsale"
How's the housing "recovery" going? Not so good according to homebuilder Lennar Corp. of Miami."Market conditions continued to weaken throughout the fourth quarter and we have not yet seen tangible evidenceof a market recovery," said company CEO Stuart Miller. Early this past week, Lennar said it could loseas much as $1.28 a share in its fiscal fourth quarter which ended Nov. 30. On Friday, a surprising surge in jobcreation and wages sent stock and Treasury prices falling. Apparently, investors now believe a rate cut is no longerso imminent
Commercial mortgage bankers take note: the office vacancy rate in once red-hot Las Vegas climbed to 14.6% inthe third quarter, compared to 13.7% a year earlier. And The New York Times is reportingthat Newark, N.J., is beginning to see a revival in its inner-city housing market
Freddie Mac expects to post a loss for the third and fourth quarters of 2006 despite strong results inthe first half of the year. The GSE estimates it will report a loss of about $550 million for the third quarterof 2006.
WASHINGTON NEWS: Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive Richard Syron says a more accommodativestance by the Bush administration has created "some movement" toward a compromise on GSE regulatory reformlegislation. For the full story see Brian Collins' story on NMN’s website.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: American Brokers Conduit, the wholesale arm of American Home Mortgage Investment,has hired Robert Meyer to manage its new Cranford, N.J., office. Deutsche Bank said Doug Naidus,chairman and CEO of MortgageIT Holdings Inc., will become head of mortgage originations for the bank's residentialMBS Group. Deutsche recently closed on its acquisition of MortgageIT. John A. Ward has resigned as chairmanof Doral Financial of Puerto Rico. Dennis Buchert, an independent director, was named non-executivechairman. Alan Fishman has resigned as president and chief operating officer of Sovereign Bank andchairman and CEO of the depository's New York division. Mr. Fishman previously was CEO of Independence CommunityBank, which Sovereign bought in June.
DATA NEWS: NMN is about to raise prices on its popular Quarterly Data Report and AlternativeProducts Quarterly Data Report. The QDR tracks the nation's top lenders with breakouts on subprime and servicing.The AP-QDR focuses on second-lien funders, alt-A lenders, payment-option funders and more. For more info contact
