Originations

Most Americans are likely to cringe at the thought of accelerating the pace of foreclosures. Steep drops in home prices and property values, along with uncertainty about the exact number of homes in foreclosure, continue to stifle consumer confidence.

Hudson City Bancorp this week reported that net income fell 11% in the fourth quarter as record low interest rates cut into yields it earns on mortgage-related assets — a condition the lender anticipates will continue throughout 2011.

Mortgage bankers funded $28.1 billion of Federal Housing Administration-backed single-family loans in December, a slight gain from the previous month.

Bank of America Friday morning reported a fourth quarter loss of $5 billion on its residential finance and insurance unit, citing $4.1 billion in representation and warranty costs tied to buybacks from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the year ago quarter its mortgage loss was $1 billion.

Existing home sales in Florida increased 4% in December on a year-over-year basis although the median sales price decreased by 5% in the same period.

Investors overreacted to the fourth quarter loss posted by MGIC Investor Corp., a report from FBR Capital Markets implies.

Gains related to principal investments held by certain consolidated real estate funds contributed to relative improvement in Morgan Stanley’s earnings for the fourth quarter and the full year in 2010.

Lower loan sales revenues and fewer originations helped to drive down the earnings posted by PNC Financial Services Group's residential mortgage banking segment from $435 million in 2009 to $275 million for 2010.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage inched up a little in Freddie Mac’s latest survey, but other rates in the weekly report were mixed.

Single-family existing home sales jumped by almost 12% in December after rising 6.7% in November to end the year with a "strong finish," according to new figures released by the National Association of Realtors.

Origination technology developer Calyx Software acquired Loan-Score Decisioning Systems Inc., a technology provider whose offerings include a product and pricing engine, an automated underwriting system and eligibility decisioning for Federal Housing Administration mortgages.

The Federal Housing Administration has stopped allowing lenders to use appraisals of model homes in a subdivision or condominium project to value units under construction.

Here is a script for mortgage brokers to sell against bank loan officers.Now don’t get me wrong; I’m sharing this script (written by a mortgage broker) because brokers need all the help they can get to sell against loan officers who work at traditional banks.

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp had nearly $20 billion in mortgage loan production during the fourth quarter, which led to an almost 15% increase in mortgage banking revenue over the same period in 2009.

Quality-wise originations after the downturn are generally said to be relatively good credits, but beyond that let’s take a closer look at what could shape the 2011 vintage this year.

Housing starts fell to a new yearly low in December with builders breaking ground on just 417,000 single-family units annualized, according to new government figures released Wednesday morning.

Sales were down 3.9% in the Houston area in December, the sixth straight month of declining sales, the local real estate association reports.

MGIC Investment Corp., Milwaukee, posted a loss of $187 million for the fourth quarter, an improvement over the $280 million loss for the same period in 2009, but worse than the $52 million in the third quarter of 2010. Company executives had previously warned the fourth quarter would see a higher loss than the third, however these losses are even higher than what analysts had expected.

Wells Fargo & Co. in the fourth quarter solidified its position as the nation's largest funder of home mortgages, originating $128 billion of loans during the period, its best showing since the second quarter of 2009.

Last week we spoke about our No. 1 marketing strategy (go back to see last week’s article if you missed it) and we told you how dangerous it is to only have one way of generating business. In fact, we even proved it to you.