National Mortgage News articles from December 2005

National Mortgage News archives from December 2005

Inside Track.
December 5, 2005... EDITRIAL Best And The Brightest 4 OPEN FORUM OFHEO Perspective On GSES 4 STREET SMARTS Rate Hikes Slowing Down 5 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Website For Hispanic Borrowers 8 ...

Option ARMs in Sevenfold Rise.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage bankers funded almost $73 billion in payment-option ARMs in the third quarter, a more than sevenfold increase from the same period last year, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News. ...

Residential Option ARM Lenders in Q3 '05.
December 5, 2005... ($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. 3 Golden West Financial Corp./World (E) 4 GreenPoint Mortgage Funding 5 NovaStar...

Loan Limit Hike to $417,000 is Record.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The conforming loan limit will jump nearly 16% in 2006 to $417,000. The 15.9%, $57,350 increase from $359,650 is the largest on record, and will allow as many as a half-a-million more borrowers to cash in on to rates that are...

Freddie Storm Hit $190MM.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Flush with "excess" capital, Freddie Mac last week increased its dividend by 34% and reported estimated third-quarter income of $600 million. The company, which holds thousands of mortgages affected by Hurricanes Katrina and...

OSB Loses Another Executive.
December 5, 2005... CLEVELAND -- Phil Laren, director of capital markets for Ohio Savings Bank here, has left the company, the second top executive to depart the mortgage lender this fall. Option One Mortgage, Irvine, Calif., a top five ranked subprime...

DOJ Asks HMDA Data.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice has sent letters to "numerous" lenders whose 2004 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data show wide disparities in the pricing of subprime loans to minorities compared to whites. The Department of Justice...

Guaranty to Shed Wholesale.
December 5, 2005... AUSTIN, TX -- When the going gets tough the tough start selling their wholesale divisions. A year after shedding its non-bank retail branches, Guaranty Residential Lending here is now lopping off its wholesale network as well. The...

Lime Hopes to Double Production.
December 5, 2005... LAKE OSWEGO, OR -- Lime Financial here, which doubled loan production this year, is hoping for a repeat performance in 2006. A nonconforming wholesaler that focuses on purchase money loans - in particular interest-only mortgages - the...

GAO: Ginnie Mae's MBS Drop Could Pose Problem in Long Run.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Ginnie Mae continues to serve as a strong secondary market outlet for Federal Housing Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs loans, according to the Government Accountability Office. However, continued declines in...

Fed Sees More Signs of Slowdown.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve Board is picking up more signs that home sales and construction activity has "moderated" in many parts of the country. Last week, the Fed released its Beige Book, which includes reports of slowing home...

Editorial: The Best and the Brightest.(Editorial)
December 5, 2005... This week, the best and the brightest in the mortgage technology field are gathering in Las Vegas for the SourceMedia annual Mortgage Electronic Commerce conference. We are happy to be chairing the seventh annual holding of the MEC, which...

Open Forum: Regulating Fannie and Freddie.
December 5, 2005... Mr. Blumenthal's keynote address at the Second Annual Global Bond Summit in Hong Kong, sponsored by The Bond Market Association, is presented as our Open Forum. (Second of two parts.) In the wake of the Freddie Mac accounting scandal in the...

Long-Term Mortgage Rate Rise Ends, Future Direction Uncertain.
December 5, 2005... The fairly long upward trend in long-term mortgage rates seen in recent months appears to have ceased and rates seemed relatively stable as of this column's deadline last Thursday morning. But it was difficult to tell at press time whether this...

Congress Caps Most Housing Programs in Tight 2006 Budget.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Congress has passed the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget for fiscal year 2006, which maintains loan commitment and guarantee authority for the department's housing finance programs at FY 2005 levels. The...

Gruenberg Takes Top Post at FDIC.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has a new chairman following Donald Powell's resignation to coordinate the Bush administration's effort to rebuild the hurricane-stricken areas of the Gulf Coast. FDIC vice chairman Martin...

Internet Site Strives to Reach Under-Served Hispanic Home Buyers.
December 5, 2005... DALLAS -- HispanicLending.com, a housing marketing company launched in September to cater to the needs of undocumented, unbanked Hispanic immigrant markets nationwide, has fast attracted buyers proving what experts have been saying all along:...

Credit Unions Pledge Funds.
December 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO -- Credit unions nationwide have joined into a $1 billion affordable housing partnership that is expected to further expand reaching anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion as new unions join in. Several Bay Area credit unions...

New Orleans Focuses on Housing Needs.
December 5, 2005... NEW ORLEANS -- Following the president's request for an additional $17.1 billion for the long-term recovery effort on the Gulf Coast, including over $1.8 billion in HUD assistance, the Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to...

InterFirst Revamps Product Aimed at Small Firms.
December 5, 2005... DETROIT -- ABN Amro-owned InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending is remarketing one of its products to community banks and other financial institutions that could help the smaller lenders gain more business from low- to moderate-income...

Study Finds Majority of Americans Don't Understand Housing Finance.
December 5, 2005... PHILADELPHIA -- Over half of all American homeowners are not well educated in housing finance indicating the mortgage industry has to address their financial education needs by focusing on how to promote and sustain homeownership especially...

HUD Considers RESPA Website.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering a new process to supplement its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act enforcement efforts. To better ensure that consumers are protected from abusive settlement...

Roundup: Wachovia CMBS Deal Weakened by New Orleans Exposure.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- Two classes of Wachovia Bank Commercial Mortgage Trust commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2004-WHALE 4, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. Class K was downgraded from Baa3 to Ba2, and class RC...

Bear Stearns Deal Downgraded.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- Class B-4 of Bear Stearns Mortgage Securities Inc. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-4, has been downgraded from CCC to CC by Fitch Ratings. The rating agency also upgraded eight classes and affirmed the ratings...

Lehman Home Equity Deal Hurt.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- Two classes of Lehman HEL Trust 1998-1 securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. Class M-1 was downgraded from BBB to CCC, and class M-2 was downgraded from CCC to C. Fitch also affirmed the rating on one other class in...

Pacific Coast Classes 'Deteriorate'.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- Five classes of notes issued by Pacific Coast CDO Ltd. have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: class A, from AAA to AA; class B, from BBB-minus to B; class C-1, from B-minus to C; class C-2, from...

Solstice ABS Deal Downgraded.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- Three tranches of Solstice ABS CDO Ltd. have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades in the collateralized debt obligation were as follows: class B notes, from AA-minus to BB-plus; class C notes, from BBB to CC; and...

United Guaranty Enters Mexican Market.
December 5, 2005... GREENSBORO, NC -- AIG United Guaranty here has finalized an agreement with Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal to provide mortgage guaranty products and services to the Mexican housing finance market. AIG United Guaranty, an entity comprised of...

GE Unit Serves Latin America.(Company Profile)
December 5, 2005... STAMFORD, CT -- GE Commercial Finance Real Estate, headquartered here in the United States, has formed a new subsidiary in Mexico and completed one of the largest commercial RE transactions in Latin America with a recent $450 million...

NAR to Track CRE Market.
December 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO -- The National Association of Realtors is launching a leading index for the commercial real estate market, which it expects to introduce in early 2006. At the trade group's annual conference here, David Lereah, the NAR's...

Rockpoint Raises $1.7 Billion for Realty Investment.
December 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO -- Rockpoint Group, a real estate investment management firm, has closed $1.7 billion in equity commitments for Rockpoint Real Estate Fund II, its third real estate investment fund. The investors include public and corporate...

Chase Beefs Up Michigan Mortgage Operations.
December 5, 2005... DETROIT -- J.P. Morgan Chase is beefing up its Michigan operations by increasing its mortgage loan officers and small business initiatives. By the end of 2006, the bank will add 21 new mortgage loan officers and increase its outreach to...

Appraisal Quality Called a Concern.
December 5, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- Charlie Elliott, president of Elliott & Co., a national real estate appraisal company, helped brokers gain new understanding about appraisals and their impact on the loan process at the recent Western Regional Mortgage Brokers...

Stated-Income Loans Can Haunt Lenders.
December 5, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- At the Western Regional Mortgage Brokers Conference here, Bob Simpson, president of IMARC, an Irvine, Calif.-based company that recovers loan fraud losses on a contingency basis throughout the U.S., told originators how important...

Brainiacs Are Set To Gather Again.
December 5, 2005... FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- National Mortgage News again will co-sposor The sixth edition of the Turn on Your Million Dollar Brain seminars, which will be held at the Bahia Mar Resort here starting with a management session on Feb. 8. The main...

USFN Focuses on Bankruptcy.
December 5, 2005... TUSTIN, CA -- USFN, America's Mortgage Banking Attorneys, has published a new report focused on recently enacted changes in federal bankruptcy laws. The autumn 2005 USFN report focuses on proper payment application under the new law,...

Chase Leaning toward Fiserv.
December 5, 2005... NEW YORK -- J.P. Morgan Chase has selected Fiserv's mortgage servicing platform, MortgageServ, for formal due diligence to replace and upgrade multiple legacy systems for servicing the banking giant's $515 billion mortgage portfolio, the...

Higher Rates Worry Owners.
December 5, 2005... SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA -- Most homeowners are not worried about a housing bubble's impact on them, but they are concerned about rising interest rates, according to a survey conducted by Roper Public Affairs and TrueCredit, a provider of credit...

Dissident Shareholders Perplexed by NYSE Ruling.
December 5, 2005... PHILADELPHIA -- Investors already unhappy over the three-way deal between Sovereign Bancorp here, international banking power Grupo Santander, Madrid, and mortgage warehouse and commercial mortgage lender Independence Community Bank Corp.,...

Sunset's Net Slides On Problem Loan.
December 5, 2005... JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Mortgage investor and real estate investment trust Sunset Financial Resources Inc. here saw a net loss of $1.4 million in the third quarter, compared to net income of $1.4 million during the same period last year. The...

Countrywide Bank Gets Credit Rating.
December 5, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Countrywide Financial Corp., has received credit ratings from two rating agencies. Standard & Poor's rated Countrywide Bank A/A-1 for counterparty credit. S&P said the rating...

REITs Post Strong Rise in November.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- After some tough sledding in recent months, REIT stocks regained some ground in November, boosting their total returns year-to-date. The REIT sector posted a 4.3% gain in November, doubling the industry's year-to-date total...

Dynex's Loss Rises as Volatility Hits Mortgage Performance.
December 5, 2005... GLEN ALLEN, VA -- Mortgage investor and real estate investment trust Dynex Capital Inc. here took a net loss of $1.9 million for the third quarter vs. a net loss of $56,000 during the same period a year ago. Dynex chairman Thomas B. Akin...

People.
December 5, 2005... CONNECTICUT Shelton-Clayton Holdings Inc. said that Frank L. Raiter has joined its board of directors. Mr. Raiter served at Standard & Poor's as the managing director of the residential mortgage ratings group before retiring earlier...

OCC: 'Responsible' Option ARMs.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The new comptroller of the currency believes payment-option ARMs with negative-amortization features should only be made to borrowers who can clearly handle the payment shock. Comptroller John Dugan noted in a speech to the...

Small Lender Predicts Big Growth.
December 5, 2005... WALNUT CREEK, CA -- Merit Mortgage Funding, a small retail lender based here, has ambitious growth plans for the new year, including an expansion into the wholesale market. William Stock, Merit's newly recruited director of mortgage...

REIT Reports Several Suitors.
December 5, 2005... SEATTLE -- Shurgard Storage Centers is exploring how best to take the company forward, including the possibility of a sale, and is reporting interest from several parties. In this connection, the self-storage real estate investment trust...

Fannie Mislabeled $10.3B Purchases.
December 5, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae said it misclassified $10.3 billion in loan purchases over the past two years, counting single-family acquisitions as multifamily and vice versa. The government-sponsored enterprise, which is working its way...

Publicly traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
December 5, 2005... B&C Stock Price Index: 197.0 Change: -4.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 12/1/200 Aames (AIC) 5.36 12.00 6.35 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) ...

Ocwen Faces $11.5MM Verdict.
December 5, 2005... GALVESTON, TX -- A county jury here has slammed Ocwen Federal Bank with an $11.5 million verdict based on alleged predatory servicing practices involving a single home-equity loan customer. The judgment in the wrongful foreclosure case...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
December 5, 2005... MIEC Index: 160.0 Change: -1.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 11/22/2005 12/1/2005 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 28.83 ...

Inside Track.
December 12, 2005... TECHONLOGY Automation's Application To The New Bankruptcy Law 10 COMMERCIAL MORTGAGES Roundup: Boesky Stepping Down At Charter Mac 12 SECURITIZATION Roundup: Downgrades Seen In Two Metropolitan Transactions 13 ...

IO Loan Volumes Remain Red Hot.
December 12, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage bankers funded $240 billion worth of interest-only loans in the third quarter, more than doubling their volume from the year-ago period. According to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News,...

Residential Interest-Only Lenders in Q3.
December 12, 2005... ($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage 2 Countrywide Financial Corp. 3 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. (AA) 4 CitiMortgage, Inc. 5 Bank of America 6...

Tax, MID Moves See Slowdown.
December 12, 2005... WASHINGTON -- There's an old saying regarding Social Security - that it's the "third rail" of American politics: touch it and you die. It also might be said that the mortgage interest deduction is a close second to Social Security - monkey...

FHA Tallies Hurricane Delinquencies.
December 12, 2005... WASHINGTON -- More than 52,000 residential loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration are now delinquent due to storm damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, agency officials said last week. The affected loans are...

CFC Closing Two 'Processing' Units.
December 12, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Home Loans here, the nation's largest mortgage banking firm, plans to close two "central processing units," cutting about 300 jobs in the process. The company labeled the moves as "strategic" but also cited a...

Addressing the Damage.
December 12, 2005... BILOXI, MS -- Disaster preparedness is Chuck Wachter's job but even he indicated that what he saw here and in Gulfport, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina wasn't something he was prepared for. Mr. Wachter, who is Minneapolis-based...

GMAC Deal Questioned.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Bank of America appears to be out of the running in the General Motors Acceptance Corp. sweepstakes, investment banking sources said last week. Meanwhile, a GMAC spokeswoman said there is a possibility the company - which...

House and Senate Face Deadline for Consensus on TRIA Bill.
December 12, 2005... WASHINGTON -- With time running out, House and Senate Banking Committee leaders are expected to meet this week to iron out a final bill that extends the federal terrorism re-insurance program for two years. The House passed its version of...

'Disaster Insurance Gap May Challenge Lenders'.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- At a time when home values are rising on both coasts and the population is growing fast in areas vulnerable to natural disasters, a top insurance industry executive warns that the nation faces a growing insurance coverage gap. ...

J.P. Morgan Chase Moving Toward a Single-Platform Philosophy.
December 12, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- At its height, J.P. Morgan Chase supported 12 different loan origination systems. Efforts are currently underway to eliminate the unnecessary redundancy and more toward a single platform. "We had up to 12 LOS systems and I was...

Imaging Now the Rage As Affordability Grows.
December 12, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- Imaging has long been viewed merely as an attractive - but costly - way of archiving documents in a paperless environment. However, as optical scanners get cheaper and paperless processes prove their worth with workflow tools that...

Food for Thought.
December 12, 2005... Next year won't be so bad for the mortgage business, attendees at last week's Mortgage EC Conference heard. According to Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, originations will total about $2.5 or $2.6 trillion (down about 5%...

Changes in Household Finances.
December 12, 2005... Mr. Ferguson recently addressed the monthly meeting of the Epsilon Boule Fraternity for African-American Leaders in Washington. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. First, let me set the broad economic background. After...

Average 2005 Rates Looked Much Like '04, '03.
December 12, 2005... Every year in recent years there has been a lot of speculation about how long the 30-year mortgage rate can remain relatively low or whether it will rise - and the verdict that came in last week on 2005 as a whole is that ultimately the average...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
December 12, 2005... The average 30-year mortgage rate as tracked by Freddie Mac remained relatively stable during the business week ended Dec. 2 compared to the previous week, falling slightly to 6.26% from 6.28%. The average Freddie Mac 30-year rate for the Dec....

SEC Registration Process Moves Ahead at FHLBank of Cincinnati.
December 12, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati made significant headway in registering its stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The FHLBank resubmitted an application for registering its stock after...

BoA's Prospects Appear Mixed.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- CreditSights sees strong domestic and retail banking prospects for Bank of America, but also believes that big banks' appetite for acquisitions creates potential challenges. CreditSights initiated coverage of Bank of America...

Merrill Lynch Analysts: First Horizon National Rated a 'Sell'.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Analysts at Merrill Lynch have given First Horizon National Corp. a "sell" rating, saying that the banking company's stock price is "not sustainable" after a recent rally. Merrill also said that First Horizon's fundamentals in...

Mixed '06 Seen For Banking.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- There's good news and bad news as the banking industry heads into 2006. And both relate to the industry's asset-liability management. Banks with the most "strategic options" and experience managing higher-yielding assets are...

Need Seen for Incorporating SOA, Not Just Letting It Stand Alone.
December 12, 2005... CONSHOHOCKEN, PA -- The term service-oriented architecture has been bandied about of late as a way of solving all of a lender's technology problems, but in practice the saving grace that will allow lenders to use their technology as a...

Tech to Ease New Bankruptcy Law Problems.
December 12, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- The new bankruptcy law passed this year makes it harder to file, which has caused those who may have been on the boarder line to hurry up and file before the law goes into effect new year. The result is that with the huge number of...

Kroll Factual Data Buys Franchisee.
December 12, 2005... LOVELAND, CO -- Kroll Factual Data Inc., a provider of customized mortgage services based here, has acquired its franchisee D, D & C Inc. (d/b/a Factual Data of the Carolinas) for an undisclosed amount. D, D & C, a franchisee since 1991,...

Roundup: Boesky Stepping Down at CharterMac.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Stuart J. Boesky is stepping down as CEO of CharterMac, a multifamily finance company, and as chairman, CEO and president of American Mortgage Acceptance Co., an affiliate company that provides commercial mortgage financing. ...

Lane allies with Morgan Stanley.
December 12, 2005... ATLANTA -- Lane Co., a multifamily real estate company based here, has entered into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley Real Estate to invest in multifamily properties. The $150 million joint venture seeks to invest in apartment...

KIMCO buying atlantic.
December 12, 2005... NEW HYDE PARK, NY -- Kimco Realty Corp., a retail real estate investment trust, is acquiring Atlantic Realty Trust, a Maryland retail REIT, that owns a single retail property. The merger consideration is $82.5 million in Kimco shares as...

Capital Trust's Net income rises.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Capital Trust Inc., a company that to date has invested primarily in the U.S. commercial real estate subordinate debt markets, saw its net income in the third quarter increase 28% to $0.64 per share, compared to $0.50 per share...

Multifamily Transactions.
December 12, 2005... * Silver-McCann Apartment Group, a joint venture between McCann Realty and Silver Capital, has acquired two Raleigh, N.C., apartment properties, one with 122 units and another with 164 units, funded partly with a 10-year Fannie Mae fixed-rate...

Roundup: Downgrades Seen in Two Metropolitan Transactions.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Three subordinate tranches from two subprime mortgage transactions issued by Metropolitan Asset Funding Inc. in 1999 and 2000 have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: series 1999-B,...

Trio Of UCFC Classes Ratings Slip.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Three classes of United Companies Financial Corp. manufactured housing transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: series 1998-2, class M-1, from B to B-minus, and class M-2, from B-minus...

LB Certificate Ratings Slide.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Two home-equity loan pass-through certificates from a deal issued by Long Beach Mortgage Co. in 2000 have been placed under review for possible downgrade by Moody's Investors Service. The affected securities are classes M2V and...

Two CSFB Deals See Downgrades.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Two classes from two mortgage-backed deals issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. Class B-3 of series 2001-2 was downgraded from Baa2 to Ba1 and class...

Some Lehman Ratings Changed.
December 12, 2005... NEW YORK -- Three classes of mortgage-backed securities from various transactions aggregated by Lehman Brothers Inc. have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: Structured Asset Securities Corp....