National Mortgage News articles from January 2003

National Mortgage News archives from January 2003

Inside Track.
January 6, 2003... OPEN FORUM The Multidistrict Question 4 SECURITIZATION Moody's Refines CDO Rating Approach 6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING New York Mixed-Use Housing Funded 7 COMMERCIAL $2B in Volume For Fixed-to-Float Loan 8 ...

HUD's 2003 Resolution: Crackdown on FHA Fraud.
January 6, 2003... The Department of Housing and Urban Development's internal investigation unit is leading a crackdown on fraud in the Federal Housing Administration single family program. HUD Inspector General Kenneth Donohue has retooled his shop and...

Residential Segregation Still Prevalent.
January 6, 2003... In one of the most exhaustive studies of residential segregation ever undertaken, the Census Bureau has found that the United States is still very much racially divided. African-Americans have made modest strides, but are still the most...

Lehman Expands Subprime.
January 6, 2003... The Lehman Brothers-owned Aurora Loan Services is doing a swift little business in 'Alt-A' lending and is now looking to expand its presence in subprime. According to one Aurora official, the non-depository wants to "build a large...

Buy at the Top? Merrill Says Yes.
January 6, 2003... Most investors avoid buying mortgage stocks at the peak of a refinancing wave, fearing they may be buying at high prices. But that consensus may be out of date, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. Analysts William Roy and Michael Hughes...

Statistics At a Glance.
January 6, 2003... (Dollars in Millions) (Aurora Loan Services) Third Qtr Res. Production: $ 3,848 Third Qtr. 'Alt A' Volume: $ 2,103 Third Quarter Subprime Volume: $43 Corres. Production %: 66% Wholesale...

Delinquency Rates: Based on No. of Loans Serviced at 9-30-02.
January 6, 2003... (part 1of 2) No. Lns Pct Loans Pct 30+ Rk Organization Name Serviced Past Due Days 1 Pulte Mortgage 6,273 0.29% 0.22% 2 Guardian Mtg...

Quicken Settles Online Application Dispute with FTC.
January 6, 2003... Quicken Loans has agreed to a new disclosure format with regard to pre-approvals to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the online lender failed to provide "adverse action" notices that a loan had been denied. However, the...

GSEs Pass Test That Now Counts.
January 6, 2003... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac easily passed their first official risk- based capital test for the third quarter, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. After 10 years of development and rulemaking, the risk-based...

FHA Sets New Loan Ceiling.
January 6, 2003... The Department of Housing and Urban Development has officially increased the limits on single-family mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. As of Jan. 1, the new "floor," or basic mortgage limit, is $154,896, while the...

Home Builder Scandal Prompts Reform Legislation in Kentucky.
January 6, 2003... A member of the Kentucky House of Representatives has introduced a bill for the 2003 session as a result of the Erpenbeck scandal that would change how closings are done. Erpenbeck Co. was a homebuilder in Ohio and Kentucky that allegedly...

FHA, VA Will Insure Loans in Floodplains.
January 6, 2003... The Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs have announced they will do their part to keep loan originations rolling even though the federal government stopped issuing flood insurance policies after midnight Dec....

Editorial: New Year, New Opportunities.
January 6, 2003... We'll know soon enough, when our colleagues at Mortgagestats.com get finished crunching the numbers, whether or not the industry hit the astounding figure of $2.5 trillion in volume last year. What we do know for sure is that the halcyon...

Open Forum: The Multidistrict Question.
January 6, 2003... On Dec. 20, 2002, the Federal Housing Finance Board adopted Resolution 2002-63, eliciting information from the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks regarding the changing financial services industry and its effect on terms of membership in the banks. The...

Buyers Should Have a Sense of Hope But Remain on Guard in 2003.
January 6, 2003... A new year generally is an opportunity to psychologically wipe the proverbial slate clean and make a fresh start, and I find that tends to generate a sense of hope in investors. Counterbalancing that optimism this year is the fact that the...

SEC Approves New Clearinghouse.
January 6, 2003... The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the establishment of a new company named the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. The FICC will be a subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and will reflect the merger of the...

Moody's Refines CDO Rating Approach.
January 6, 2003... Because "market value CDOs" increasingly are using new assets that carry short price histories, Moody's Investors Service has refined its approach to rating collateralized debt obligations to incorporate more precise models of volatility....

Agency Prepay Speeds May Have Peaked.
January 6, 2003... Prepayment rates for agency mortgage-backed securities were mixed in the November reporting period, suggesting that speeds have peaked and should begin to slow broadly in December, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. ...

NY Mixed-Use Housing Funded.
January 6, 2003... The New York Housing Development Corp. will contribute $12.2 million in tax-exempt bond financing for the construction of the Clinton Parkview Apartments, a $19.4 million unique blend of housing prices for low- to middle-income residents in...

Freddie Mac Has Bilingual Product for Hispanics.
January 6, 2003... Freddie Mac unveiled a bilingual credit education program aimed at teaching Hispanics how to manage money, use credit and become homeowners. At a press conference in Washington, Freddie Mac chairman Leland Brendsel said CreditSmart Espanol...

$2 Billion in Volume for Fixed-to-Float Loan.
January 6, 2003... Freddie Mac has funded about 200 to 300 loans, worth about $2 billion in all (as of mid-December), featuring the fixed-to-float interest rate option that the government-sponsored enterprise introduced earlier this year, according to Mitchell...

Promotion Spotlight: Gordon DuGan.
January 6, 2003... Gordon DuGan has been named co-chief executive of W.P. Carey & Co., New York. In this role, Mr. DuGan, who was previously president of the company, will oversee the company's operations and coordinate its corporate strategies with chairman W....

Capstead Sends Prepayments Back to Investors in Its Stock.
January 6, 2003... Capstead Mortgage, a real estate investment trust that invests in adjustable-rate mortgages, has seen so much of its portfolio prepay that it is sending cash back to investors in the form of a big dividend. Capstead announced that it will...

Fitch Sees Rebound For Banks, Thrifts.
January 6, 2003... Fitch Ratings believes that over the next several quarters, community banks and thrifts "are primed for a rebound, but should still hold their own should the economy grow less than anticipated." While the economy continued to sputter in...

100 Years of Change Seen by U.S. Census.
January 6, 2003... A lot has changed in the last 100 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the U.S. population was male, under 23 years old, lived outside metropolitan areas and rented their homes. Nearly half lived in a household with...

Nevada Fastest Growing Again.
January 6, 2003... For the 16th consecutive year, Nevada was the fastest growing state in the union during the 12-month period ending July 1, according to the latest population estimates from the Census Bureau. The Silver State's population grew 3.6% to 2.2...

Publicly Traded 'Subprime' Related Firms.
January 6, 2003... B&C Stock Price Index: 134.5; Change: -1.4 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk-lo 52 wk-hi 1-2-03 Aames (AMSF) 0.30 1.90 1.10 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 6.36 17.49...

Funding the Line.
January 6, 2003... With origination volumes surging in 2002, many originators were figuratively - if not literally - waiting in line to, well, get a warehouse line ow that it's 2003, there is some question as to whether these volumes will continue at the same...

Origination Surge Fuels Demand.
January 6, 2003... Origination volunes have been surging, fueling demand for warehouse lines and, for a number of mortgage lenders, while October was very good and a record setting month, November was just as good, if not better. Countrywide Financial Corp.,...

Warehouse, Correspondent Closer.
January 6, 2003... The narrowing gap between correspondent and warehouse lending departments has become even narrower, according to William L. Beschel and Elsa Martinez, principals at Warehousing Advisory Services Inc., Pasadena, Calif. "I think what we're...

The Size of Warehouse Market.
January 6, 2003... ($ in millions) Firm Year-end 2002 (e) $ 55,200 Year-end 2001 $ 48,043 Year-end 2000 $ 40,472 Year-end 1999 $ 43,342 Notes: The eMID assumes that it has a 60% capture rate on warehouse...

Investec's First So. African Securitization's Proceeds to Repay Facility.
January 6, 2003... Moody's Investors Service's office, New York, has assigned definitive long-term national scale ratings to the first securitization of South African home loans originated by Investec Private Bank. Proceeds from the transaction are being...

Cendant Gets Credit Line.
January 6, 2003... Cendant Corp. here has received a new $2.9 billion three-year revolving credit facility. A spokesman for Cendant, which has multiple lines of business, including mortgage, real estate brokerage and travel services, said the company was not...

IG Slams Cendant on FHA Endorsement.
January 6, 2003... A government audit of Cendant Mortgage Corp. found the nationwide Federal Housing Administration lender couldn't keep up with rapid growth and violated FHA rules by submitting almost 1,200 delinquent loans for federal mortgage insurance. ...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 6, 2003... MIEC Index: 145.5; Change: 1.7 (part 1 of 2) 12-26-02 1-2-03 Wkly % Chg 52 wk-lo Alltel (AT) 52.95 53.00 0% 35.33 Countrywide Financial Corp. ...

Inside Track.
January 13, 2003... OPEN FORUM Deflation a Threat to Growth 4 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Advocates: Extra Credits Needed to Boost Redevelopment in Chicago 6 SECURITIZATION Georgia Law Could Move Problem Loans into MBS Deals 9 HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

Delinquencies May Have Peaked...But FHA, B/C Overdues Remain High.
January 13, 2003... The number of homeowners who are behind on mortgage payments declined in every major category during the third quarter of last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. But serious delinquencies remain stubbornly high...

LSI on Block, Fidelity National Looking?
January 13, 2003... Lender's Service Inc. here, one of the largest "closing" services firms in the U.S., is on the auction block again, National Mortgage News has learned. LSI, which changed hands a few years ago, is being shopped around by Merrill Lynch,...

Loan-Level Idea Dropped.
January 13, 2003... Federal agencies have quietly dropped two controversial proposals that would have required additional reporting by subprime lenders and limited fees on Federal Housing Administration single-family loans. Federal banking regulators have...

HUD: GSEs 'Low Impact'.
January 13, 2003... Loan purchases by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had very little impact on the revitalization of underserved neighborhoods in Cleveland during the 1990's, according to a research paper funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. ...

Industry Likes Stimulus Plan.
January 13, 2003... Passage of the economic stimulus package has become a major priority for the new Congress and housing trade groups are generally pleased that President George Bush has come up with a bold and aggressive plan. "It would help housing by...

At A Glance.
January 13, 2003... (Delinquency Rates Come Down) 3rd Q 2nd Q Conventional 3.04% 3.20% Prime 2.54% 2.64% Subprime* 14.28% 15.67% FHA 11.62% 11.81% ...

Fannie, Freddie Tops Among Soft Money Donors.
January 13, 2003... (part 1 of 2) Company Name Nat'l Rank Amt Donated '01-'02 Freddie Mac 9 $2,875,615 American Int'l (1) 22 $1,569,218 Citigroup (2) 24 ...

Congress Moves Toward Speedy Renewal of Flood Insurance Program.
January 13, 2003... The House has approved a one-year extension of the flood insurance program by voice vote and sent the bill (H.R. 11) to the Senate for final passage. House Financial Service Committee chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, noted that the...

MGIC: Earnings Fall As Persistency Drops.
January 13, 2003... Earnings for the fourth quarter at MGIC Investment Corp. here are down from the same period last year as persistency continues to decrease and delinquencies continue to increase. Net income for the fourth quarter was $137.5 million or $1.37...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Gave $4.2 Million in Soft Money.
January 13, 2003... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac donated at least $4.2 million in soft money during the last election cycle, according to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Freddie Mac gave more than twice as much as Fannie Mae, $2.88...

Morgan Stanley Looks To Ramp Up Conduit.
January 13, 2003... Investment banker Morgan Stanley is joining the stampede of Wall Street firms that are looking to ramp up their residential mortgage production operations. Industry sources say Morgan is expected to make a major announcement shortly about...

Editorial: Figuring It Out.
January 13, 2003... In housing as in the general economy, a plethora of figures gets released each week or month, providing a snapshot of how that area is trending. What do the latest ones tell us? Well, there is still a lot of good news for the mortgage...

Open Forum: Deflation a Threat to Growth.
January 13, 2003... Mr. Greenspan recently addressed the Economic Club of New York regarding issues for monetary policy xcerpts of his speech are presented as our Open Forum. Central bankers have long believed that price stability is conducive to achieving...

Don't Want to Talk About a 'Bubble?' Try "Tiny Bubbles".
January 13, 2003... After listening to a number of experts' mortgage industry forecasts last week, I have to say that one of the things I have become most fascinated by is the "elephant in the room" phenomenon surrounding the "housing bubble." Granted, it's...

Letter to the Editor.
January 13, 2003... To the Editor: Thanks for writing about ACORN's report on subprime lending. I'd like to correct one misunderstanding. You wrote: "A number of consumer advocacy groups like ACORN often equate charging a higher rate to borrowers who have...

Advocates: Extra Credits Needed to Boost Redevelopment in Chicago.
January 13, 2003... As large public housing redevelopment projects move to fruition, community developers here perceive that they're having trouble tapping into a key federal program that helps fund low-income housing development. A spokesman for the Chicago...

Law Paves Way for Terror Insurance, But at What Cost?
January 13, 2003... Although the recently enacted legislation providing a federal backstop for terrorism insurance is expected to provide relief to the commercial real estate industry by making the insurance more widely available, there is still uncertainty about...

Simon Renews Hostile Bid for Taubman.
January 13, 2003... Simon Property Group is proceeding with its $18 per share offer for Taubman Centers, disregarding Taubman's latest rejection of the Simon proposal. Simon, the largest retail real estate investment trust by market capitalization, said in a...

CRE Transactions at a Glance.
January 13, 2003... * AFC Realty Capital has arranged a 10-year, $14 million, non- recourse fixed rate loan for a 76,000 sq. foot, Staten Island, N. Y., office property. * Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has arranged a 10-year, $20.8 million fixed rate conduit loan...

Ken Beyer Takes Reins at MortgageRamp.
January 13, 2003... When MortgageRamp chief technology officer Ken Beyer stepped up to take over the top executive position from Mike Greco, he promised to change how the company does business. But that's not because Mr. Greco didn't excel at the job, he told...

Linux Making Inroads In Capital Markets.
January 13, 2003... Some leading firms in the capital markets are embracing Linux-based systems for fundamental applications such as basic infrastructure, e-mail and printer servers, according to a recent report from IDC Financial Services here. Some mortgage...

Rollout for Commercial Platform.
January 13, 2003... Midland Loan Servicing says it has completed the testing of its Enterprise loan servicing platform and will begin marketing it in earnest to other commercial mortgage loan servicers next year. Stacey M. Berger, Midland's executive vice...

Killer App Fans: Think About E-Mail.
January 13, 2003... Even as mortgage lenders spend millions on complicated loan origination and servicing technology to make their operations run better, cheaper and faster, the killer application may already be in their arsenals: e-mail. According to a...

Moody's Lowers Transamerica Debt.
January 13, 2003... Moody's Investors Service has lowered certain Transamerica Finance Corp. ratings and suggested that the real estate lender and information provider might eventually be put up for sale. The rating agency said it lowered Transamerica's senior...

Georgia Law Could Move Problem Loans into MBS Deals.
January 13, 2003... Standard & Poor's is concerned that mortgages not purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises due to Georgia's strict new lending law may increasingly be placed in securitized transactions it rates. The rating agency said the...

Promotion Spotlight: Keith Johnson.
January 13, 2003... Mr. Johnson has been named to the newly-created position of executive vice president and chief operating officer of Washington Mutual Inc.'s specialty finance group, which provides multifamily lending, commercial asset management, commercial...

U.K. Lenders Express Confidence.
January 13, 2003... Confidence among specialist financial advisers and mortgage brokers in the United Kingdom approached its all-time high on Dec. 25, according to the Paragon Mortgages Financial Advisor Confidence Tracking Index. The index reached 135.3...

Latin American MBS Issuance Falls in '02.
January 13, 2003... Latin American mortgage- and asset-backed securities issuance decreased 34% in 2002, according to Moody's Investors Service here. MBS and ABS issuance fell to $5.6 billion last year, compared to $8.5 billion the year before, the rating...

GMAC-RFC's Pendleton to Retire.
January 13, 2003... Warehouse lending veteran Larry Pendleton has announced his retirement from GMAC-RFC - but not for another year. Mr. Pendleton, 63, said he is "stepping back" from his warehouse duties as part of a recent restructuring that occurred at...

Dexma Transaction Volume Grows 300%.
January 13, 2003... Dexma, creator of the Transaction Director technology platform, reports that the volume of mortgage business traveling across its system tripled during 2002. During the fourth quarter 2002, the company reported that nearly 500,000 unique...

Dexma Transaction Volume '02.
January 13, 2003... Month Loans Jan 52381 Feb 53992 Mar 59231 Apr 68932 May 72769 Jun 77433 Jul 106072 Aug 135669 Sep 163033 Oct 194071 Nov ...

Radian Suffers Title Insurance Setback.
January 13, 2003... Radian Guaranty Inc., Philadelphia, has lost another round in its efforts to have California insurance regulators approve its Radian Lien Protection product. Conversely, for the American Land Title Association, the group has once again...

MISMO Releases eMortgage 1.0 Guide.
January 13, 2003... The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization eMortgage Workgroup has released eMortgage Guidelines and Recommendations version 1.0. The release comprises a number of specifications and supporting documents that provide a...

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments.
January 13, 2003... (For December 2002 Period) Cpn Year WAC Factor Dec '02 Nov '02 Fannie Mae 6.50 2002 6.97 .837 42.7 38.9 Fannie Mae 6.50 2001 7.03 .619 62.1 59.4 ...

Tax Plan's Impact on REITs Unclear.
January 13, 2003... At least one research firm believes that it is too early to gauge the impact on real estate investment trusts of a proposed Bush administration dividend tax cut plan that is in the development stage. Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. says,...

D.C. Minority Lender for Sale.
January 13, 2003... Independence Federal Savings Bank here saw its share price shoot up more than 40% last Wednesday after the company announced it had retained Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as its investment banker. In a statement, the company said it hired KBW...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 13, 2003... MIEC Index: 149.0; Change: 3.5 (part 1 of 2) 1-2-03 1-9-03 Wkly % Chg 52 wk-lo Alltel (AT) 53.00 54.50 3% 35.33 Countrywide Financial...

Publicly Traded 'Subprime' Related Firms.
January 13, 2003... B&C Stock Price Index: 140.4; Change: 5.9 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk-lo 52 wk-hi 1-9-03 Aames (AMSF) 0.34 1.90 1.54 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 6.36 16.71...

Inside Track.
January 20, 2003... OPEN FORUM Behind the Do Not Call Rule 4 SECURITIZATION S&P Expects Modest Drop in Issuance 8 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Creativity Required to Finance Mixed-Income Housing in New York City 12 PEOPLE 30 ...

GSE Bought $1 Trillion '02 Loans.
January 20, 2003... Fannie Mae acquired a mind boggling $1.09 trillion in home mortgages in 2002 - almost as much as the entire industry originated in 2000. Thanks to a stellar refinancing and purchase money market (not to mention a record year for...

GNMA Revamps Ginnie Mae II Security.
January 20, 2003... The Government National Mortgage Association has revamped its 18-year-old Ginnie Mae II securities program to improve the pricing on federally guaranteed mortgage-backed securities. The most significant change for lenders reduces the...

Fannie Mae Net Off by 52%.
January 20, 2003... A big writedown in the value of Fannie Mae's derivatives reduced its fourth-quarter net earnings by 52% compared to a year earlier, but favorable margins and a strong business environment boosted operating income. The company's...

Agency Invests In 138th Shop.
January 20, 2003... Fannie Mae has invested $1 million in Broadway Financial Corp., a community-oriented savings bank that originates mortgages in South Los Angeles and an area known as Mid-City. The investment in Broadway brings Fannie's holdings in other...

Fannie Mae Mortgage Purchases 2001-2002.
January 20, 2003... ($ in Mils) (part 1 of 2) Year- Mort. Port. Portfolio MBS MBS Acq'd Month Holdings Growth Rate Purch. By Others Dec $705,167 17.00% $26,620 $39,984 Total 01 na ...

U.S. Mortgage-Backed Securities.
January 20, 2003... (part 1 of 2) 1-1-02 -- 12-31-02 Proceeds* Mkt # of Managers ($Mil) Rk Sh Issues UBS Warburg ...

Flood Insurance Program Is Back in Business.
January 20, 2003... Insurance companies resumed processing federal flood insurance applications last week after President George Bush signed a bill that reauthorizes the National Flood Insurance Program for one year. The bill (H.R. 11) retroactively reauthorizes...

Morgan Hires Bank 1 Executive for Conduit.
January 20, 2003... Investment banker Morgan Stanley has hired the national sales manager of Bank One Arizona to manage its residential conduit. Randy Lightbody, formerly of Bank One, is expected to start as executive director of lending at Morgan this week....

MBS Volume Tops Old Record by 28% as Issuance Passes $700 Billion.
January 20, 2003... Mortgage-backed securities underwriting volume in the United States totaled $767.64 billion in 2002, up 28.6% from the $597.05 billion recorded in 2001, according to Thomson Financial, a National Mortgage News affiliate. UBS Warburg led...