Originations

Taking a trip? Most prudent travelers create some sort of plan before venturing on any type of journey. Where to begin the trip, what items to pack and what markers you'll encounter to aid in getting to your destination are just a few of the details to be addressed.

Has home building finally turned the corner? On Thursday morning the U.S. government will release housing starts figures for January with the expectation that the industry is on the mend.

While the housing sector remains "depressed," some Federal Reserve officials have spotted areas of improvement.

CitiMortgage has agreed to pay the Federal Housing Administration $158 million for submitting bad loans to the mortgage insurance agency for endorsement.

Carver Bancorp Inc. in New York reported a loss of $700,000 for its fiscal third quarter, as the recapitalized company took steps to mark down its problem assets.

BlackRock Inc., the investment firm headed by MBS veteran Larry Fink, recently increased its position in PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust to 5.48%, more than double its last recorded stake.

The single-family housing market has yet to recover in Southern California but regional opportunities are sprouting up in multifamily, according to a new forecast from Wells Fargo chief economist John Silvia.

Last summer when MetLife revealed that it would sell its "forward" mortgage business the company did something smart for its workers: it paid for its loan officers to take classes and obtain their state licenses.

ATLANTA - Loan originations on income-producing properties will rise 17% this year to nearly $230 billion, the Mortgage Bankers Association is projecting in its first-ever nonresidential lending forecast.

Mortgage applications declined 1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending February 10, driven by an almost 9% seasonally adjusted drop in purchase applications, according to figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Last week I wrote about the need for marketing to connect with the consumer on an emotional level. This is especially true if the product you are selling is or nearly is a commodity.

Boxing reminds me a lot of today's lenders. Most lenders get into the ring every day, fighting until someone drops. The reason however is not to win a match, but to prevent a repurchase.

The $77.6 million HomeStreet Inc. expects to raise in its initial public offering would go a long way toward improving its capital levels but not far enough to satisfy a regulatory order.

The bankruptcy trustee for Thornburg Mortgage this week agreed to settle for $6.5 million a lawsuit against the company's former executives and legal counsel to settle charges that they engaged in a conspiracy to secretly use the failed jumbo lender's employees and assets to launch a new company.

Roughly 43% of borrowers with 30-year loans who refinanced into a new product during the fourth quarter chose shorter maturities, the highest reading since 2003.

Word is that initial fair lending exams underway under the auspices of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, some passed on from their original regulator, are largely focused on pricing.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week shut the door on Farm Credit System lending institutions entering the Federal Housing Administration program, following stiff opposition from the American Bankers Association.

Politicians - including those in the White House - continue to jawbone about how the private sector needs to step up and create a whole new securitization market that some day will replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This effort - supposedly - starts with the safest non GSE product out there: jumbo loans where well-heeled borrowers put down (say) 10% and are so filthy rich that their chance of default is next to nil.

I've lived (and originated loans) in three states over the last 10 years and an interesting thing happen one day. I got a call on my home phone from an old client. This was a client I had helped a numbers of years earlier, in another state.

Radian Guaranty's delinquent loan inventory grew by 500 loans in December, but then fell by 1,000 units during January.