There could be a quiet little revolution going on among small- to medium-sized mortgage originators that have been selling their servicing rights on a "released" basis in the secondary market. The revolution is this: more firms are thinking of keeping their SRPs - either in-house or assigning them to a subservicer. Why are they keeping the SRP? The short answer is that the price being paid by the mortgage cartel (we all know who they are) for SRPs stinks. For full analysis see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News and Mortgage Servicing News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809...
Meanwhile, the new mortgage employment numbers came out just before the weekend started. For what it's worth, it looks like broker employment actually rose. The full story was on the NMN website Friday. Comments? Drop an e-mail to
We continue to hear nothing but bad news about the jumbo market - that firms playing in that space want hefty downpayments even if the applicants are earning huge salaries. It would stand to reason that if any private label market returns it would be the jumbo sector where (presumably) the applicants would be in strong shape financially. However, I see nothing on the horizon whatsoever in regard to jumbo securitizations returning any time soon...
In case you missed it, Cenlar of Ewing, N.J., is now the nation's largest subservicer. For a complete ranking of these third-party service providers, try the Quarterly Data Report. For info e-mail
This past week we broke the news on the NMN website that Wilbur Ross won't be buying mortgage insurer United Guaranty after all. Maybe former company chief Bill Nutt will buy it? Probably not...
MACRO ECONOMIC ISSUES: Without a doubt, the biggest financial story of the past week was the jobs number that came out Friday. In case you missed it, employers cut 85,000 jobs last month. Some analysts (so I heard on CNBC) were looking for a gain with one unnamed economist predicting 100,000 new jobs. So much for that daydream. Mortgage lenders know that employment is the stick that stirs the drink in this industry. Without jobs, applicants won't refi or buy a new home. It's as simple as that. (Low rates help, too.) At the same time, we have to ask if we are ever going to see real (and sustained) job creation or are we stuck in a situation where the only "good" news for employment is that the baby boomers start retiring this year and leave the work force? If you're a Republican you might favor cuts in government spending and tax credits for new job creation. But in the short term "cuts" means government workers will be thrown out of work and tax credits means less revenue for the Treasury - and higher deficits. If you're a Democrat you're banking on the president's stimulus plan working. And then there's this issue: we've been shipping both blue and white collar jobs oversees for 10 years now, rationalizing that it's cheaper and that American workers really don't want these menial jobs anyway. Well guess what? I'm sure some of the unemployed wouldn't mind a menial job right now. Construction jobs are in the tank for at least two more years. It's a conundrum and I don't see a way out of it any time soon. Maybe there's something coming out of left field to save us all...
There was one positive job note I heard this past week: Essent Guaranty, a new mortgage insurer that is forming, is reportedly hiring like crazy. The company hopes to write its first policy soon...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Fannie Mae has streamlined the process for approving condominiums in Florida through the creation of a "Special Approval" designation. Until now, the GSE had been granting exceptions to its condo eligibility guidelines for loans on units in those projects not eligible on a case-by-case basis. With the new program, there is a dedicated team that is reviewing condo projects in the state that do not currently meet Fannie Mae's standard eligibility criteria. In case you've been living in a cave, the Florida condo market is (to put in nicely) in the tank.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: From Fannie Mae to retail drugs: Chuck Greener, the GSE's senior vice president of communications, has left the company to take a position with Walgreen Co. in Chicago.
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITY: SourceMedia, the folks that own NMN, American Banker, Credit Union Journal and other publications, is looking for topics and speakers for its fourth annual mortgage servicing conference in Dallas. We already have some "topics and talkers" but continue to look for more. For more information contact
DATA NOTICE No. 1: Planning for 2010 and need soup-to-nuts statistics on the nation's top residential (and commercial) lenders and servicers? The new MortgageStats.com data product might be what you're looking for. The user-friendly M-Stats is Web-based and incorporates both the Quarterly Data Report and our annual Mortgage Industry Directory. Among other things, it has annual rankings on the top 400 lenders and servicers, including breakdowns on retail, wholesale and correspondent - and news archives. There's contact info, too, and plenty of data on servicing. And here's the best part: you get quarterly updates. To see a sample send an e-mail to
DATA NOTICE No. 2: Even though we offer MortgageStats.com you can still subscribe to the Quarterly Data Report and Alternative Products QDR, spreadsheet products that provide readers with quarterly rankings on the nation's top lenders and servicers. The new 3Q edition of both is now available. For more info shoot an e-mail to
THE LAST WORD: If Elvis were alive he would be 75 this weekend. Go Jets. Go Ravens. Go Cardinals.
