THIS JUST IN: Bank of America is continuing to trim its broker rolls. For the full story see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: (800)221-1809...
In this season of Easter and Passover the temptation to use religious metaphors to discuss the future of the mortgage industry was quite strong but one of my editorial advisors (a source close to the Treasury Department) talked me out of it. What follows this week is a more tepid column. I'll save the cutting edge humor for my personal website -- as soon as I get one...
I finally got out of the office and attended and spoke at the National Mortgage News/SourceMedia servicing show in Dallas. Here's a few tidbits from the field: former mortgage banker/broker Jeff Freud and his partners have launched a new website called LoanMarket.net to sell delinquent and subperforming loans to investors of all stripes, including mom and pops. The site is now live and according to Jeff (who I'm told is in fact, a distant relative of Sigmund Freud) a few deals are now in escrow. The site not only offers the address, loan amount (etc...) on loans for sale but also shows a picture of the house...
At the NMN/SM show there was also talk among some attendees that the stated-income market would one day return. Given the current state of mortgage banking and housing values I found this hard to believe, but the inference is that when stated-income does come back it likely will not be securitized. The loans will be held by private investors -- which is sort of what the business started out as...
Something odd also struck me while I was at the show: why do so many servicers -- especially 'scratch and dent' firms -- have their platforms in Texas? Is it because it's so cheap to do business there? Perhaps this is a seismic shift in mortgage banking: the power base of the industry is shifting from Southern California (so long Angelo Mozilo) to Texas (hello Wilbur Ross). But let me ask you executives this: where would you rather live? SoCal or Texas? And don't get me started on the Dallas Cowboys...
I continue to hear stories from servicers about consumers who are current on their mortgages but who want their loans modified because their neighbor just got a "deal". One scratch and dent investor told me: "We are seeing more of our borrowers requesting help -- just because Mr. Obama says to ask. They have jobs, and can make the payments but would rather not do so if the neighbor down the street is getting help. I would like to think that I am being facetious but our new governing folks are creating a climate of just such requests"...
Here's an interesting tidbit I picked up in Dallas: former vice president Dan Quayle played a behind-the-scenes role in GMAC getting its TARP money. (When George H. W. Bush was president, a friend of Quayle's -- Dan Evans -- ran the Federal Housing Finance Board.) At the show there was also talk that several large banks are having undue influence on the government's loan modification program. In other words: who do you think put the idea in Treasury's head to give servicers $1,000 for participating in loan mods? Stay tuned...
This is what happens when the world's largest consumer nation (that would be us here in America) stops buying so much stuff from the world's biggest exporter of stuff (China): home prices in that once booming nation are expected to be stagnant until 2010. I would assume the reason is this: as Americans and Europeans buy less goods from China, Chinese factories suffer which means the workers and management there suffer, which means they have less money to spend. Less money to spend includes less money to buy houses. Let's just hope that Chinese mortgage firms haven't been originating an Asian version of the payment option ARM. Now let us pray...
THIS COLUMN IS FOR SALE: At the servicing show some of you who read this column were not fully aware that it is the property of National Mortgage News. Note: this column has only ties to NMN and its affiliates. I'm told you can even buy an ad on it if you're bossy enough. For info email: Steven.Schloss@SourceMedia.com...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Federal Reserve expanded its purchases of GSE mortgage-backed securities by $750 billion in March to sustain the refinancing boom and keep mortgage rates low, according to the minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting. When the committee met in mid-March, the Fed was already on track to reach its initial target of purchasing $500 billion in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS and $100 billion in GSE debt by the end of June. (Reporting on this story by Brian Collins. To email Brian drop a line to: Brian.Collins@SourceMedia.com.)
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Javid Jaberi, a former senior vice president of servicing in charge of loss mitigation for Residential Capital Corp., has joined Fannie Mae. Dallas-based Mortgage Search & Acquisition said Chris Meyer will be joining the company as managing director of its new Phoenix office.
DATA STUFF: Need a list of delinquencies ranked by servicer? What about top jumbo lenders and alt-A servicers? See the new Quarterly Data Report. To order email: Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com
SURVEY NOTICE: Responses are pouring in for the annual National Mortgage News/American Banker residential lending and servicing survey ritual. Results will wind up in the eMortgage Industry Directory as well as the two newspapers. There is still time to give us your numbers. If you're a mortgage lender/servicer send an email to: Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com. If you work as a retail loan officer or broker visit: http://mortgagestats.com/surveys/lo/
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 email: Delores.Stokes@SourceMedia.com
