National Mortgage News articles from February 2005

National Mortgage News archives from February 2005

Inside Track.
February 7, 2005... COMMERCIAL MORTGAGES Moody's: $1 Bil In Cmbs In '05 6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Fannie Deal Is A First-ever In Indian Lending 10 TECHNOLOGY Del Mar Adds New Feature To Documenttrac 13 NEW HOME SALES SET RECORD ...

Bill Could Regulate GSEs' AU.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's use of their automated underwriting systems could come under regulatory review if Congress passes a tough GSE bill introduced by three Senate Banking Committee Republicans, further analysis confirmed...

'AU Used, Models For Risk, Less So'.
February 7, 2005... MIAMI -- The digital divide is closing between U.S. households with Internet access and those without. Similarly, most mortgage originators have websites and ready access to automated underwriting. However, there's a real digital divide between...

Conduits See Servicing Issues.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Nonconforming lenders that sell their loans to Wall Street conduits are starting to express concerns about the quality of "interim" servicers. One West Coast-based lender told National Mortgage News that he received a buyback...

Commercial Lenders in 4Q 2004 (A Sample).
February 7, 2005... ($ in Millions) (MBA's 4Q commercial servicer rankings story on p. 17) (part 1 of 2) Lender 4Q '04 Comm. Name Location Production Bridger Commercial ...

Fannie to Save $500 Per Loan?
February 7, 2005... MIAMI -- Fannie Mae unveiled a plan to streamline the mortgage loan process and cut the cost of origination by $500 a loan using new technology at the 8th Annual Mortgage Technology Conference here last week. David Flaxman, senior vice...

Eliminating the Gap.
February 7, 2005... Over the past 10 years, I've chaired or co-chaired two dozen mortgage conferences for our parent company. In that time I've heard some interesting presentations, heard a few company commercials, heard some overblown predictions about when the...

HE Deduction Under Scrutiny.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The tax deduction for interest on home-equity loans is "inconsistent" with encouraging homeownership and should be repealed, according to congressional tax experts. But it is highly unlikely this proposal by the staff of the...

Hedging Woes Take Toll on Countrywide Earnings.
February 7, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Investors reacted skittishly as the nation's biggest mortgage lender reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street expectations. Countrywide Financial Corp.'s consolidated net earnings totaled $343 million in the fourth...

Mortgage Bankers: Streamline State Licensing of Loan Officers.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Mortgage Bankers Association has created a task force to find ways of streamlining state licensing of loan officers to reduce costs and facilitate interstate lending. If successful, the task force's recommendations will be...

MBA Seeks Dialogue On MD County Bill.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Mortgage Bankers Association is making an effort to bring industry members together to discuss a proposed Montgomery County, Md., ordinance which it believes could have a negative impact on members who do business there. ...

Homeownership's Value.
February 7, 2005... Excerpts of Secretary Snow's prepared remarks before the Real Estate Roundtable's State of the Industry Meeting in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. The housing market in particular has been vibrant in the past few...

Short-Term Rates Rise, Long-Term Rates Fall Again as Fed Acts.
February 7, 2005... Once again the Fed has moved, short-term rates have risen and long-term rates have fallen, further flattening the yield curve and moving 30-year mortgage investments closer to the point at which some think they might actually become prepayment...

'Governance' Score For Fannie Slips.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's Governance Services has lowered its corporate governance score on Fannie Mae from CGS-9 to CGS-7 following meetings with the company's management and directors. (The top score is CGS-10.) S&P lowered the score...

MuniMae to Move Beyond Multifamily with MONY Acquisition.
February 7, 2005... BALTIMORE -- MuniMae is acquiring MONY Realty Capital from AXA Financial. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. MRC has over $2 billion in assets under management and its regional network of about 35 employees source, underwrite and...

Moody's: $1 Bil In CMBS in '05.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's is expecting issuance of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities to touch $100 billion for 2005, following issuance of $93 billion for 2004. Tad Philipp, managing director for CMBS, Moody's, said, "U.S. issuance will...

Colliers: Office Occupancy Recovers, Returns to Year 2000 Levels.
February 7, 2005... BOSTON -- Occupancy levels in the office sector have nearly rebounded to their year-2000 levels following two years of positive absorption in markets nationwide, according to Colliers International. The 15.5% national office vacancy rate...

Merger's End Sparks Lawsuit.
February 7, 2005... CHICAGO -- Prime/Mansur Investment Partners has filed a lawsuit against office real estate investment trust Prime Group Realty Trust in connection with the recent termination of a merger agreement between the two parties. The suit, filed...

iStar Purchasing Falcon Financial.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- iStar Financial is acquiring Falcon Financial Investment Trust for $7.50 per share, making for a total acquisition price of about $120 million. Falcon is a finance company that provides long-term capital to automotive dealers...

Fannie Deal Is a First-Ever in Indian Lending.
February 7, 2005... BROWNING, MT -- Fannie Mae has entered into an agreement that for the first time ever will provide needed liquidity to lenders that provide affordable conventional financing on Blackfeet tribal lands. "This partnership helps American...

Moody's Modifies Its MQ Rating.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Citing intention to avoid confusion, Moody's Investors Service has assigned a new management quality rating scale to affordable housing providers and real estate entities, asset management companies, custodian banks and other...

Nehemiah Receives Bank Grant.
February 7, 2005... SACRAMENTO, CA -- Downpayment assistance pioneer Nehemiah Corp. of America has received a $100,000 grant from Western Sierra Bank, Cameron Park, Calif., earmarked as support for Nehemiah's homeownership and financial education services online....

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades Some Home Equity Classes, Etc.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded nine classes from three IndyMac Home Equity Mortgage Loan Asset Backed Trust securitizations. The downgrades were as follows: series SPMD 2000-C, class MF-2, from B2 to Ca, and class BV,...

Some CSFB tranche ratings slip.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded 11 mezzanine and subordinated tranches from five fixed-rate mortgage securitizations issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. in 2002 have been downgraded by Moody's...

Arbor closes a CDO.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Arbor Realty Trust Inc., New York, has closed a collateralized debt obligation through two subsidiaries: the issuer, Arbor Realty Mortgage Securities Series 2004-1 Ltd., and the co-issuer, Arbor Realty Mortgage Securities Series...

Fitch Takes FNF ratings Off watch.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed and removed from Rating Watch Negative its A-minus financial strength ratings for the title insurance underwriting subsidiaries of Fidelity National Financial Inc. and its BBB-minus long-term issuer rating...

Encore REIT Switch Planned.
February 7, 2005... IRVINE, CA -- Wholesale subprime mortgage lender Encore Credit Corp. here is the latest company looking to convert to a publicly traded firm using a real estate investment trust structure. According to the front page of the prospectus for...

American Home's Earnings Quadruple.
February 7, 2005... MELVILLE, NY -- American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. here posted fourth-quarter 2004 earnings of $48.6 million, or $1.14 per share, compared with $11.9 million, or $0.59 per share, for the same period in 2003. Net earnings for the year...

Downey Financial Has More ARMs Than It Needs.
February 7, 2005... NEWPORT BEACH -- Downey Financial Corp. earned $46.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, or $1.66 per share, up 95% from the year-earlier period. While most of the earnings increase reflected a favorable tax development, the bank also...

BBT Recaptures Servicing Value.
February 7, 2005... WINSTON-SALEM, NC -- BB&T Corp. reported net income of $416.9 million in the fourth quarter, 37% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2003. Earnings per share were $0.75, up from $0.55 a year earlier. The bank said that fourth-quarter...

Flagstar Bancorp Misses Target.
February 7, 2005... TROY, MI -- Flagstar Bancorp here earned $28.2 million in the fourth quarter, or $0.44 per share, down from $36.7 million, or $0.57 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2003. The quarterly earnings are seven cents a share below previous...

Merrill Earnings Slipped in 4Q, Rose in Year.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. earned $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004, down 2% from a year ago, but saw its annual earnings rise 16% over 2003 to a record $4.4 billion. Among the notable developments in Merrill's...

Archstone Smith EPS Jumped 76% in 4Q.
February 7, 2005... DENVER -- Archstone-Smith earnings per share for the fourth quarter rose 76% to $1.11 per share from $0.63 EPS during the same period of 2003. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2004, the multifamily real estate investment trust said that it...

Del Mar Adds New Feature to DocumentTrac.
February 7, 2005... SAN DIEGO -- Del Mar Database here will add automatic document recognition to its DocumentTrac offering with its new release due out at the end of this month. DocumentTrac was released six months ago and was designed to act as an...

BNP Paribas Hires Former Freddie MBS Professionals in the U.S.
February 7, 2005... PARIS -- BNP Paribas here has hired six mortgage-backed securities professionals from Freddie Mac, including Kevin Heal, previously an institutional sales manager at Freddie, who has been named managing director and head of sales at the...

Moody's Tallies '04 EMEA RMBS.
February 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Residential mortgage-backed securities issuance in Europe, the Middle East and Africa totaled 149.7 billion euros (about $194.2 billion) in 2004, remaining the dominant asset class, representing 53.3% of the entire securitized...

Pulte Sells Off Argentina Unit.
February 7, 2005... BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI -- Builder Pulte Homes here has sold its operations in Argentina to Grupo Farallon SA, an Argentine company involved in residential and commercial real estate development. The Michigan-based builder said it will record...

Moody's Proposes Covered Bond Rating Changes.
February 7, 2005... LONDON -- Moody's Investors Service has proposed incorporating a structured finance-like analysis of collateral into its rating process for Europe's mortgage-related covered bond market. "The key difference... is that under the proposed...

GE, Shinsei Ally.
February 7, 2005... STAMFORD, CT -- GE Commercial Finance Real Estate here has formed a strategic partnership in Japan. The Y12 billion (about $1.12 billion) partnership with Shinsei Bank Ltd. "combines GE's capital strength with Shinsei's strong commercial...

AHBR Ratings May Face Change.
February 7, 2005... FRANKFURT, Germany -- Moody's Investors Service's office here has placed on review for possible downgrade Allgemeine Hypothekenbank Rheinboden AG's deposit and long-term and subordinate debt ratings. "The review follows the recently...

GMAC Tops List of Primary and Master Servicers of Commercial.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The leading commercial mortgage servicer, by total primary and master servicing volume, as of the end of 2004, is GMAC Commercial Holding, according to data that the Mortgage Bankers Association plans to release at its conference...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
February 7, 2005... MIEC Index: 178.2 Change: 2.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 1/27/2002 3/2005 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 37.60 38.33 2% ...

Wells Opposing GSE Servicing Fee Cut?
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the nation's second-largest servicer, is adamantly opposed to a significant cut in the minimum servicing fee charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, industry sources said last week. As NMN went to...

'Mold Is No. 1 Contaminant for CRE/MF Lenders'.
February 7, 2005... SAN DIEGO -- A poll conducted by the Environmental Assurance Group has found that mold is now the No. 1 feared environmental contaminant for real estate lenders and developers. As much as 78% of commercial and multifamily lenders and...

OCC Emphasizing Enforcement.
February 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has reissued its 2003 anti-predatory lending guidelines in a regulation to emphasize its commitment to take enforcement actions when it discovers unfair and deceptive lending practices...

Ruling Finds for CA's Authority vs. City's in Lending Case.
February 7, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court held that California's anti-predatory lending law pre-empts Oakland's predatory lending ordinance in a 4-3 decision issued last week. The ruling is good news for California, according to the...

Inside Track.
February 14, 2005... EQUITIES Fannie Cut From Dividend Index 6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING How Countrywide Plans To Meet Its Raised Bar 11 B&C MORTGAGES Fieldstone Starts Its Life As A Public Company 13 RATES FALL The average 30-year...

Budget Questions GSEs' Role.
February 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, in its new fiscal budget, questions the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the mortgage market, citing the "potential for systematic risk" arising from their size. Although the 2006 budget offers...

Top Residential Servicers at 12/31/04.
February 14, 2005... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. 2 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage 3 Washington Mutual 4 Chase Home Finance 5 CitiMortgage, Inc. ...

Comm/MF See Record Year.
February 14, 2005... SAN DIEGO -- Commercial and multifamily mortgage bankers enjoyed a record year in 2004, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported here last week. "Everything was up," MBA chief economist Doug Duncan told reporters at the group's Commercial...

Senator Eyeing GSE 'G-Fee' Charges.
February 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Senate Banking Committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is looking into complaints from small lenders that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge them high loan guarantee fees while offering discounts to large seller/servicers. ...

Goldstein Takes the Helm of AAMG.
February 14, 2005... ANN ARBOR, MI -- Thomas M. Goldstein has been named chairman, president and chief executive of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Chicago. In this role he will oversee all mortgage and home-equity line of credit business. He replaces current AAMG...

Gallagher Sold To First Amer?
February 14, 2005... CORAL GABLES, FL -- First American has purchased loan origination vendor Gallagher Financial Systems here, according to market sources. A spokesperson from First American would not comment on the development. Gallagher did not return calls...

Bank of America Shuts 20-Month-Old Private-Label Unit.
February 14, 2005... CHARLOTTE, NC -- Bank of America - which has experienced a series of ups and downs in mortgages over the past five years - is closing its private-label outsourcing unit, Financial Services Solutions. The decision to shut FSS comes just 20...

Connecticut Challenges Ameriquest's Licenses.
February 14, 2005... HARTFORD, CT -- The state banking commissioner here has told subprime giant Ameriquest Mortgage that it will not renew its lending licenses, accusing the company of charging consumers excessive finance charges. The California-based...

Colorado Eyeing Title Underwriters.
February 14, 2005... DENVER -- The Colorado Department of Insurance is investigating at least nine title insurance underwriters for allegedly paying kickbacks to homebuilders, lenders and Realtors, the deputy commissioner in charge of the investigation confirmed....

OFHEO Gives the Go-Ahead to Money for Raines and Howard.
February 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has given Fannie Mae the green light to pay initial pension and deferred compensation benefits to its recently ousted chairman/CEO Franklin Raines and CFO Timothy Howard. However,...

Restore the HUD Cuts.
February 14, 2005... The federal government is terminally clumsy and inefficient in managing just about everything it touches, right? While that may be true in just about every instance, it's not true in the housing and mortgage field. The federal government...

Home Mortgage Debt Growing.
February 14, 2005... Excerpts of Mr. Greenspan's remarks at the Advancing Enterprise 2005 Conference in London recently are presented as our Open Forum. An increase in household saving should also act to diminish borrowing from abroad. The growth of home...

Employment Report Kicks Off a Period of Lower Mortgage Rates.
February 14, 2005... A recent weaker-than-expected overall employment report at press time had kicked off a period of lower rate-indicative bond yields and speculation as to whether federal officials would continue to raise short-term rates. The long-term rate...

ABFS Names Prez, Seeks Credit Line.
February 14, 2005... PHILADELPHIA -- Subprime lender American Business Financial Services here, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has promoted Milton Riseman to president and chief operating officer. Mr. Riseman's promotion comes just as the...

Fannie Mae Cut from Dividend Index.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Dow Jones Select Dividend Index is deleting Fannie Mae and replacing it with Astoria Financial because Fannie's recent halving of dividends caused the company to fall below the index's yield requirement. To be listed on the...

PHH Spin-off Comes at a Price.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Cendant Corp. here earlier this month spun-off its mortgage and fleet unit to the public, a move that will cost the parent company as much as $650 million after taxes. Late in its first week of trading, shares of the new...

New Century Earnings Rose Year-to-Year in 4Q.
February 14, 2005... IRVINE, CA -- New Century Financial Corp. here reported fourth-quarter 2004 net earnings of $78.7 million, or $1.44 per share, compared with $74.1 million, or $1.80 per share, for the same period in 2003. For the full year, the company had...

Rice Retiring, FHLB Facing Earnings Pressure.
February 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Norman Rice is retiring as president and chief executive of the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank and he plans to step down on March 15. The Seattle bank, which is operating under a supervisory agreement, announced Mr. Rice's...

Radian Group Sees Record Net Income in Fourth Quarter and Year.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Record net income for the fourth quarter and year was the earnings story at two of the four publicly traded mortgage insurance companies, with a third reporting only record annual profits. Philadelphia's Radian Group has the...

Equity Residential Sees Earnings Rise on Higher RE Sales Gains.
February 14, 2005... CHICAGO -- Equity Residential reported earnings per share of $0.48 for the fourth quarter, compared to EPS of $0.33 for the fourth quarter of 2003. Equity Residential, the largest multifamily real estate investment trust by market...

Beazer Earnings Up 47.7% in Qtr.
February 14, 2005... ATLANTA -- Despite difficult conditions in the Midwest and Charlotte, N.C., markets, Beazer Homes USA Inc. increased its net income to $69.7 million for the fourth quarter, up 47.7% year-over-year, according to Ian McCarthy, president and chief...

Shift to ARMs Hurt NVR in '04.
February 14, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Although mortgage production increased in 2004, homebuilder NVR Inc. saw operating income from its mortgage banking operations decrease 12% for the year, due to a shift away from fixed-rate mortgages to adjustable-rate and...

How Countrywide Plans to Meet Its Raised Goal.
February 14, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- When Countrywide Financial Corp. here said it would expand its lending commitment to minority and low-income borrowers from $600 billion to a challenging $1 trillion by the end of the decade, company executives began...

Financing AH Via E-Securities.
February 14, 2005... BETHESDA, MD -- For the first time ever, the Calvert Social Investment Foundation has opened the electronic securities marketplace to individual and institutional community investors who address affordable housing, employment and social service...

AmeriDream Giving Homebuyers Who Warrant It a 'FreshStart'.
February 14, 2005... GAITHERSBURG, MD -- AmeriDream Inc. here has launched FreshStart, a new gift program designed to provide one downpayment to a deserving individual or family every month. The gift will be at 3% of the home purchase price and does not...

Fieldstone Investment Corp. Begins Its Life as a Public Company.
February 14, 2005... COLUMBIA, MD -- Shares of Fieldstone Investment Corp. here began trading publicly on Feb. 3, after the Securities and Exchange Commission signed off on the nonconforming lender's registration statement. The company received authorization to...

Same Six States Remain the 'Best'.
February 14, 2005... ANN ARBOR, MI -- The same six states, including four known as oil-producing areas, remain on University Financial Associates' Nonprime Mortgage Report Best Places to Lend. The fall 2004 list includes Alaska, Louisiana, Mississippi and...

N.J. Changes Definition Of High-Cost Loan.
February 14, 2005... TRENTON, NJ -- The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance has increased the current maximum principal amount falling within the high-cost home loan from $350,000 to $365,674. The change will apply to all completed mortgage loan...

CarsDirect Acquires Myers Web Properties.
February 14, 2005... LOS ANGELES -- CarsDirect has acquired several mortgage website properties from Myers Internet Inc. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the agreement, CarsDirect acquires Myers' mortgage lead technology platform and...

E-Mortgaging in Fits and Starts.
February 14, 2005... MIAMI -- When Chicago-based 1st Advantage Mortgage LLC set out to do an actual e-mortgage with "the first MERS-regulated commercially reproducible eNote," recalled Paul Lueken, the company's president and owner, the event was delayed because...

Electronic Recording Seen Making Some Progress.
February 14, 2005... MIAMI -- Electronic recording is picking up momentum as more counties come online and could soon be the common way of recording a loan, panelists at the 8th Annual Mortgage Technology Conference here said. "We on the county level simply...

Roundup: Prepayment Decline Most Pronounced in Freddie MBS.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities decreased in January, while 30-year Freddie Mac MBS speeds declined even more sharply, according to Bear Stearns. For Fannie 30-year MBS issues, the aggregate...

TBMA weighs in on SEC proposal.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- The Bond Market Association supports some aspects of the Securities and Exchange Commission's offering reform proposal but has concerns about its application to asset-backed securities. The bond group has filed two comment...

AAMES Class downgraded.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded class B of Aames Mortgage Trust 2001-2 to Caa3 from B2, and placed class B of Aames Mortgage Trust 2001-1 on review for possible downgrade. The transactions are backed mostly by...

ABFC CLASS rating lowered.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has placed class B of ABFC mortgage loan asset-backed certificates, series 2001-AQ1, on review for possible downgrade. Moody's also placed on review for possible upgrade five certificates from...

Amresco Classes' Ratings Slip.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has downgraded two classes from Amresco's series 1997-3 mortgage-backed securities issue. Fitch downgraded class M-2F of Amresco series 1997-3, group 1,to BBB from A and downgraded class B-1F to C from BB and...

CFN terminates home equity deal.
February 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- CFN Liquidating Trust, the successor to ContiFinancial Corp. and affiliates pursuant to their confirmed Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, has terminated Soundview Home Equity Loan Trust 1999-1. CFN terminated of the securitization...