Mortgages

Any individual or company who has a social media presence should do an annual review of their activities in order to increase its power, a Canadian social media consultant advised.

As Wells Fargo goes, so goes the mortgage industry. Well, not exactly, but it needs to be pointed out once in a while just how much of a dominant player this megabank is in mortgage finance. In the third quarter it ranked first among all lenders, which is no secret, but in the correspondent channel it bought $41.1 billion of loans from other firms - almost triple its next closest competitor, Bank of America.

Capital Markets Cooperative, a secondary market specialist, is continuing to look at possible acquisitions, but is in no rush to sign on the dotted line.

Recent recommendations of the Federal Reserve provide guidance that may benefit the private-label residential mortgage-backed securities sector, according to Fitch Ratings.

RealtyTrac said foreclosure filings reached the lowest level in four years, as there were nearly 1.9 million default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions nationwide in 2011.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group PLC, a London-based insurance brokerage, has been named by the Home Builders Federation, a U.K. trade group, to manage and develop a mortgage indemnification program designed to allow buyers in that nation to purchase a home with as little as 5% down.

The Federal Reserve's Beige Book Wednesday afternoon indicated there were some slight improvements in real estate and lending as 2011 drew to a close, but generally the level of business in these areas remains relatively low.

Most Americans are probably glad to see 2011 slip into the past, or at least those who own homes are. 2012 may hold the promise of a return to rising home values, something that didn’t happen last year.

MetLife is continuing to stonewall on the future of its $1 billion warehouse lending business, leading to speculation in the market that the insurance company may wind up keeping the business after all.

After investing $1.3 billion into rental housing in the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2011, NeighborWorks America, one of the country's largest network providers of affordable housing and community development training, expects more growth this year.

The number of words written about the REO industry in 2011 makes 'War and Peace' seem like a Reader's Digest short story. So what's new for 2012? Good question ... tough answer.

Real estate agents and brokers should evaluate the portals where they place their home listings to maximize their effectiveness, said Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of home listing portal and mortgage rate search marketplace Zillow.

PHH Corp. has upsized its debt offering to $220 million and has priced it at 6%. The underwriters have a 30-day over-allotment allowance of $30 million.

Valuations are the No. 1 problem facing the reverse mortgage lending community, much in the same way they are impacting the forward mortgage business, the head of the nation's largest mortgage cooperative warned.

According to a new national report released a few weeks ago by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs homelessness among veterans decreased 12% between January 2010 and January 2011. And while these decreasing numbers are encouraging, the number of homeless veterans remains astounding - and to me - heartbreaking.

Stonegate Mortgage Corp. has hired former Irwin Mortgage Corp. executive John F. Macke as EVP of capital markets in line with growth plans that include the introduction of nonagency jumbos this year.

After slowing for the end-of-year holidays, application volume increased by 4.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Jan. 6, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The results for the current survey as well as the previous survey include adjustments to account for the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays.

Although the final numbers have yet to be tallied for 2011, it appears that Hope Now servicers modified roughly 1 million loans for the year just ended - a huge decline from 2010 when 1.76 million mortgages were restructured.

Total Mortgage Services, Milford, Conn., Wednesday named Neil Bader as its new national retail sales manager.

Banks and thrifts that play in the warehouse lending space had $29.8 billion of commitments on their books at the end of September, a 26% decline from the same period a year ago, according to new survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News.