Origination

Fannie Mae is forecasting an additional $200-$300 billion in refinancings this year from the HARP program, but that won't be enough to offset what should be a tepid $1 trillion year in originations.

What does the NLRB have in common with Lady Gaga? Overtime. And a lot of it. While Lady Gaga is being sued by a single personal assistant for almost $400,000 of overtime, the National Labor Relations Board is throwing out agreements designed to protect businesses from class action overtime suits.

Who says retail lending is more expensive than wholesale production? Well, actually, JPMorgan Chase does. In its new earnings statement JPM notes that it spent an additional $82 million in 4Q (compared to 3Q) due to higher residential production costs: increased retail expenses and "enhanced" loan underwriting. JPM has been out of wholesale for two years now.

It's exhausting reading all those articles about marketing, product development, public relations, motivation and every business discipline one can imagine. Every so often there's an article that discusses sales or something relative to selling. All of these authors and motivators have their priorities backward.

Due to more stringent government loan requirements and increased oversight by regulators, small servicers have experienced problems with traditional subservicers. These problems include high delinquency ratios under Ginnie Mae, high FHA curtailments, low loss mitigation workout ratios and challenges with conveying properties to FHA.

Low-ball appraisals are having a dramatic impact on housing sales. But they are hitting veterans who want to use GI home loans particularly hard, according to a survey of 188 home building executives by John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Although insurance conglomerate MetLife failed to unload its residential mortgage banking business, it is moving forward with a plan to sell its profitable warehouse lending division, according to industry officials briefed on the matter.

When Bank of America and Wells Fargo exited the reverse lending space last year there were concerns that liquidity might dry up, but don't tell that to the sector's "survivors" who are now feasting on all the market share the two banking giants ceded.

JPMorgan Chase suffered a residential repurchase loss of $390 million in the fourth quarter, a 17% increase from the year earlier period, and a sign that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other secondary market investors are not easing up on their buyback demands.

Insiders who see a housing market rebound ahead are not equally optimistic about delinquencies and foreclosure rates in a market that at best will be flat.