What We're Hearing

A few weeks back I filed a story about how prices for Government National Mortgage Association servicing rights are firming up. Let me clarify: the "asking price" for government servicing has increased but it's hard to tell what the final settlement prices are. One observer of the market told me recently: "GNMA servicing is in huge demand? There's a huge demand to sell it in a traditional co-issue structure, although I think that means there's a huge supply -- not a huge demand. The reports that Ocwen would be out there buying servicing are true (I've checked), if overdone in their implication that there would be a high-paying buyer entering the market. Strong and good to deal with, yes. Highly-priced? Uhhhh, not so much." He added that "vultures are out there," bidding and "are fine to deal with, but don't expect them to be white knights to bail you out on price"…