If it looks like a refi boom and quacks like a refi boom, then it must be one. Correct? Not so fast. One thing's for certain: loan applications are swelling the inboxes of brokers and LOs. But how many of these loans will actually close, given declining home values and the absolutely horrible job picture? One broker told us he's getting two to three referrals a day but notes that wholesale underwriters are telling him it now takes almost two weeks to complete and approve a file. "It used to be 24 hours," he said...
In Monday's edition National Mortgage News will publish an exclusive story about Fannie Mae's new "adverse delivery charges" which are causing tongues to wag in the industry. The "adder" fees are making loan closings much more expensive - LOs and brokers argue - at a time when elected officials are trying to work the nation through the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression. Are the GSE "adder" fees too tough? This is what Federal Housing Finance Agency director James Lockhart told us: "When the enterprises review their pricing, we expect them to make sure it is adequate for the risk but not excessive." For the full story read NMN. To subscribe call 800-221-1809...
Believe it or not, there are still wholesale and correspondent lenders out there. For a complete ranking see the Quarterly Data Report. To order the QDR drop a line to
As (almost) first reported on National Mortgage News Online on Friday, Fannie Mae has laid off hundreds of full-timers over the past few weeks. Freddie Mac has laid off an untold number of workers, too...
Greenwich Capital, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland, is peddling a $90 million portfolio of mostly performing loans, according to one investor. He said that early on Greenwich was asking 80 cents on the dollar for the portfolio. Its asking price has since fallen to about 50 cents. Meanwhile RBS is (more or less) owned by the British government. Earlier this past week the U.K. central bank agreed to buy £50 billion ($69 billion) of assets from RBS. Greenwich now employs a bunch of traders who used to work for Bear Stearns. And it was Greenwich that provided warehouse financing and securitized subprime mortgages for both Ameriquest and Argent Mortgage, two now-defunct subprime lenders controlled by the late Roland Arnall...
Ken Lewis is putting his money where his mouth is. This past week Mr. Lewis bought $1.2 million of BoA stock. BoA now owns Countrywide, Merrill Lynch and controls well over $100 billion in subprime servicing rights. Maybe he knows something the rest of us don't...
Kondaur Capital, a purchaser of residential mortgage loans with regulatory, underwriting or performance issues, said it completed 18 months of operation in December with the purchase of nearly 2,000 distressed loans that month, totaling $378 million in unpaid balances...
As if you need more depressing news here's a few tidbits from the past week: housing starts fell 15.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 550,000 units, the lowest since records were kept. The number of people continuing to seek benefits rose by 97,000 to 4.6 million, above analysts' expectations of 4.55 million. A year ago 2.7 million people were receiving unemployment checks. Heck, even Microsoft is cutting workers: 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. When will the housing market stabilize? Answer: as soon as the job picture improves. Until then, reach for the Dramamine...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Adding its voice to the forthcoming debate on the future of housing finance, the politically powerful National Association of Home Builders this past week adopted a five-point policy statement that calls for continued federal support of both the primary and secondary mortgage markets. NAHB wants lenders to share the rate and credit risk investors in mortgages now shoulder alone. As envisioned by the NAHB, the sharing concept would be a "cooperative structure" loosely based on the Federal Home Loan Bank model, and lenders would be liable for a "significant portion of the risk" in direct proportion to the volume of loans they sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
MUST ATTEND CONFERENCE: National Mortgage News/SourceMedia's third annual servicing conference. The show will be held April 6 and 7 at the Marriott Dallas/Fort Worth. (Believe it or not, I'm speaking, among others.) Topics include REO, loss mitigation and much more. For more information call 800-803-3424.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, named Ari Monkarsh vice president of business development. K&L Gates LLP hired Thomas J. Lyden as an attorney in its Washington office.
DATA NOTICE: The Mortgage Industry Directory is still available as well as the online version of the book, the eMID. If you need rankings on the top 400 lenders and servicers, loan brokers and much more this could be your product. Order the MID and receive a free Quarterly Data Report too. The MID/eMID also provides executive names and telephone numbers, mailing addresses, delinquency info - and news updates (the eMID only). Buy the book and receive a free Quarterly Data Report. For more information e-mail
