Mortgages

The Occupy Wall Street movement may still be amorphous, but it is making clear that awareness about lack of basic understanding of the financial markets and homeownership is proliferating education efforts most likely to prevail for years to come and regardless of the outcome of the movement it helped set off.

If the Federal Reserve launches a new round of MBS buying it could cause spreads between mortgages and Treasuries to tighten — as would be expected — but it also would spur returns for broker/dealers.

A group of 14 mortgage loan servicers that entered into the April settlement with the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have set up the independent foreclosure review mechanism the agreement calls for.

The new-issue private label commercial mortgage-backed securities market has been taking a breather, and how long it will last depends on what happens as far as international financial concerns and other events that have roiled U.S. and world markets.

Statistics have long shown a personal financial crisis may lead to depression that breaks families apart. Add to that mortgage default, foreclosure and the so-called midlife crisis known to affect many people over 50 years old, and a new problem emerges. New data are linking mortgage default to “substantially increased risk” of depression among this particular group of homeowners.

Fannie Mae acquired $55.3 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in September, its best purchase month since March, and a sign that loan production is gaining traction in the primary market.

Radian Group, which controls the nation's third largest mortgage insurance company, posted strong third quarter earnings of $183.6 million, but attributed those gains to changes in the "fair value" of "derivatives and other financial instruments" —- to the tune of almost $207 million.

In marketing your company, like any sport, there is offense and defense. Defense means not giving your competition any ammunition to use in their marketing campaigns.

MountainView Servicing Group said it has completed the sale of a $442 million package of Fannie Mae bulk servicing rights.

Hudson City Bancorp Inc., Paramus, N.J., earned $84 million in the third quarter, in what its top executive called a “difficult environment facing portfolio lenders."

The bankruptcy of MF Global Holdings Ltd. and its ensuing suspension as a primary dealer shook the larger market Monday morning, putting downward pressure on rate-indicative bond yields.

Bank of America opened a customer assistance center last week in Warwick, R.I., to assist its struggling mortgage customers in this region.

With most banks still flush with deposits and reluctant to lend, the need for advances from the Federal Home Loan Banks continued to drop sharply during the third quarter, according to a report released Friday by the Office of Finance.

Life insurers had a 107 basis point improvement in the returns on their commercial mortgage loan investments in the second quarter over the first quarter, according to the LifeComps Commercial Mortgage Performance Index.

A Realtor's attempt to defraud a Midwest Bank of $60,000 was thwarted with the assistance of a Web-based offer-processing service that eliminates the possibility of foreclosure fraud.

It could well be that the new government refinancing program announced last week will turn out to be the turning point in the recovery of the home loan industry.

The mortgage insurance industry wrote $4.9 billion of new coverage in September, down $700 million from August, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America. However, two private MIs—Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. and PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.—were ordered by their respective regulators to stop writing new business during August.

Bill McCue has run his family's mortgage banking shop for 35 years, but he says the best days are yet to come.

Last week I delivered a presentation to a mortgage lender group in Nashville, Tenn. As I scanned the audience I noticed something I have seen in nearly every group of mortgage professionals I have addressed lately; people are stressed, they are tired—and they aren't getting any younger.

Among the implications of litigation related to pay-option ARMs as of press time were potential liabilities that could affect how disclosure documents are drawn up, not only at the originator level but also for investors who buy loans through the correspondent channel.