Originations

The causes of the mortgage meltdown were widespread. Repeatedly identifying one group, like brokers, may be politically expedient, but it isn’t honest.

The American Bankers Association has renewed its secondary market relationship with Freddie Mac.

Just eight months ago Southwest Bank had no warehouse lending commitments on its books, but today that figure stands at $80 million and growing.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans have a favorable perception of the U.S. housing market, up four percentage points from the first quarter, and 12 percentage points over the first quarter of 2011.

Now we’re told (but unconfirmed) that many large buyers of closed mortgages (correspondent purchasers, that is) have similar exclusionary lists, though they may call it something else.

Even though there were continued declines in mortgage interest rates to new record-low levels, total loan application volume continued to fall, this time by 2.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended July 6.

A true bottom has formed under house prices but that assumption could be challenged later this year as the share of distressed sales once again outpaces home sales during the fall and winter months.

One effect of the current default crisis is that servicers are squeezed for fees. To compete, they need to differentiate their offerings by providing more value than their competitors. How can servicers add value?

With more activity and more investor interest in the nonperforming loan market recently, it's a good idea to know what steps should be taken to protect your interests when buying or selling these assets.

If there is anything all players in the reverse mortgage lending arena agree upon—trade group, regulator and consumer advocate—is the need for more education about this product, especially if it starts getting the market share that has been long predicted.

Here's a strategy I've been using with my coaching clients that aren't happy with their current pipeline. Ask for referrals four times a day.

Through the end of May, Wells Fargo said it had 771,757 mortgage modifications completed or in the process of getting finalized.

With more than a third of mortgage originations in the first quarter of 2012 and a strategy targeting 40% down the road, Wells Fargo has benefited from solid if not always stellar execution in mortgage production and servicing as well as from the stumbles of key competitors, leaving it well out in front of the pack.

Amalgamated Bank has started a full-service home mortgage division that will originate loans, not only on one-to-four family properties, but also condominiums and co-ops.

CitiMortgage, a top 10 ranked correspondent buyer of mortgages, has an “exclusionary” list of lenders that it will no longer conduct business with.

Lenders facing legal challenges with respect to possible violations of the “ability to repay” standards in the qualified mortgage rule likely will face significant loan repurchase requests from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as rescissions in coverage by mortgage insurers.

Fidelity National Financial’s ServiceLink division acquired DRI Management Systems, while simultaneously rebranding DRI’s default servicing workflow platform.

CoreLogic and FICO jointly created a new consumer credit risk score that is expected to enable growth in the mortgage lending market.

If you’re wondering why there haven’t been more jumbo MBS deals this year just look at the math. Wells Fargo, for instance, has an average cost of funds of 50 basis points.

First Tennessee Bank, Memphis, ended June with $2.7 billion of warehouse lending commitments on its books, an all-time high for the bank.