Mortgages

Every sales person has his or her own technique, or method. That's a good thing. Selling techniques are the result of numerous forms of input that eventually became a technique. A sales manager may instruct their minions that this is the way their product or service needs to be sold.

U.S. Bancorp has moved all its home appraisals to an in-house unit overseen by a senior risk officer, breaking from the way most banks handle valuations of residential properties.

When faced with a national issue like the housing crisis, there are times we need to put aside the arguments about who to blame and who should bear the cost so that we can focus on an immediate issue that must be addressed soon in order to help maintain the recovery from the negative impacts the crisis has imparted on all participants.

Industry veteran Luke Hayden, who took over as president of PHH Mortgage less than two years ago, resigned from the firm this week to pursue what the company calls "other interests."

Stonegate Mortgage, a fast growing nonbank lender based in Indianapolis, has received a $25 million investment form private equity fund, Long Ridge Equity Partners, and plans to use the money to grow both its servicing portfolio and third-party lending channels.

A Maryland real estate investment trust plans to raise up to $1.8 billion in a secondary stock offering, using the proceeds to buy agency MBS.

Posters at our discussion board at www.mortgagegrapevine.com aren't shy about expressing their opinions. Here's what they think about the FHA's premium hike.

Everyone knows that if you are looking to purchase a home, the time has never been better than right now. Tenacious builders that survived the housing market plunge are gearing up; they are building new homes and remodeling existing ones at a rate that we have not seen for many years.

Members of the industry gathered at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Mortgage Servicing Conference in Orlando, Fla., expressed concern about the uncertain future of the mortgage industry during a roundtable discussion with Mortgage Servicing News editors.

The departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, along with 49 state attorneys general, filed their joint $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers in court Monday.

Fannie Mae is making progress on cleaning up its massive alt-A portfolio, but the $182 billion of guarantees had an average LTV ratio of 101% at yearend, according to supplemental documents the GSE filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nationstar Mortgage, Lewisville, Texas, is the newest preferred mortgage lender for KB Home, after two other relationships fizzled in the past year.

A fourth quarter decline in applications among the nation's top lenders will result in weaker first quarter origination volume. But there has been a pick-up in application volume in the current quarter, which will result in more interest rate locks for the period, a report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods notes.

While Fitch's February CMBS delinquency data showed relative stability overall compared to the previous month and a year ago, there were some variations in sub-markets such as a high level of 60-day late payments in Atlanta office loans.

The struggling housing market needs to look to every possible financing source. So, how are housing bonds doing? According to our sister publication, The Bond Buyer, housing bonds were off last year. But in a small victory, they were not off as much as the entire market.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday released details on steps three more mortgage servicers are taking to correct deficiencies in their foreclosure practices.

Protestors interrupted Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive Brian Moynihan during an investor presentation Thursday, shouting "Bust Up Bank of America!" and, curiously, "It's International Women's Day."

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.

Sustained low interest rates will continue to erode U.S. state housing finance agencies' excess capital and put further downward credit pressure on the agencies, according to a report published Tuesday by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.