National Mortgage News articles from January 2005

National Mortgage News archives from January 2005

Inside Track.
January 3, 2005... EDITORIAL New Year, New Market 4 OPEN FORUM Comptroller Weighs In On Risks 4 STREET SMARTS GSE Political Risk 5 OUTLOOK 2005 What's Ahead 7 PEOPLE 19 BIG SALES DROP New...

OFHEO In Charge as Fannie Execs Exit.
January 3, 2005... Over the next few months when OFHEO says jump, the correct response from Fannie Mae officials will be: how high? As National Mortgage News went to press last week, the congressionally chartered mortgage giant was considered "critically...

Timeline: GSE Scandal.
January 3, 2005... 2003 June 6: Freddie Mac's board fires long-time chairman/CEO Leland Brendsel and chief operating officer David Glenn as that GSE's $5 billion earnings restatement scandal explodes into public view. July: OFHEO director Armando Falcon...

Agency's Stockholders Shrug It Off.
January 3, 2005... Top executives have been booted out, the company stands accused of being undercapitalized and politicians want to tighten reins on the firm. Sound like a recipe for investor panic? Think again. In the last weeks of December, Fannie Mae...

Regulator Reviews Comp.
January 3, 2005... Fannie Mae's regulator said it will take a hard look at the multimillion dollar compensation packages owed to recently ousted chairman and CEO Franklin Raines, and chief financial officer Timothy Howard. Moreover, Rep. Richard Baker,...

Cuomo Favors OFHEO as Fannie, Freddie Regulator.
January 3, 2005... Andrew Cuomo believes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's days of riding roughshod over the secondary mortgage market are numbered. But he thinks responsibility for regulating the two giant financial institutions should remain with the Office of...

Freddie Mac Picks Timothy McBride as New Chief Lobbyist.
January 3, 2005... Freddie Mac has hired Timothy J. McBride to lead its lobbying efforts as Congress prepares to take up legislation early this year to restructure federal oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Mr. McBride has strong ties to the Bush...

Cal Lenders Win Victory on YSPs.
January 3, 2005... A California Appeals Court has ruled the state's predatory lending law does not require lenders to include yield-spread premiums in the points and fees test. In ruling in favor of Fremont Investment & Loan, the appellate judges said state...

New Year, New Market.
January 3, 2005... Last year saw a big drop in the conventional market and a big increase in the nonprime. This year will see a lot more conventional lenders expanding their credit horizons. That conclusion was reinforced by a recent visit to NMN's editors...

Banks Should Heed Warnings.
January 3, 2005... Ms. Williams recently addressed the Bank Administration Institute in New York. Excerpts of her remarks are presented as our Open Forum. Over the past two decades, banks have steadily increased their concentration of commercial real estate...

Sizing Up Political Risk at the Government-Sponsored Enterprises.
January 3, 2005... There continues to be this interesting dichotomy between how institutional investors perceive Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities and the political perception of those companies, with the former figuring that the latter should be taken with a...

FHA Hikes Loan Limits, and Raises Some Controversy As Well.
January 3, 2005... Parts of Jefferson County, W.Va., are considered a high-cost area under the new loan limits issued late last month for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. As part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan statistical area,...

E&Y Settlement Ends Superior Flap.
January 3, 2005... Ernst & Young and federal regulators have settled their long-running feud over the failure of Superior Bank FSB. Without admitting any liability for its audits, the big four accounting firm agreed to pay $125 million in restitution to the...

Stock Forecast Differs by Sector.
January 3, 2005... The marketplace is expecting interest rates to rise in 2005, but that hasn't put much of a dent in mortgage-related stocks recently. The caveat, in the eyes of a few analysts, are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Continued fallout from...

Fitch: Relative Fortune of Prime vs. Nonprime MBS Could Shift.
January 3, 2005... The nonprime credit sector may have proved to be hotter than the prime sector when it comes to origination volume recently, but that trend could reverse to some extent if higher interest rates and slower home price appreciation pressure the...

ULI, PricewaterhouseCoopers Are 'Cautiously Optimistic' on RE.
January 3, 2005... Concerns about the economy and job growth, combined with the prospect of higher interest rates, are causing real estate investors to rein in their expectations for real estate in 2005, although they are cautiously optimistic, according to a...

'Home Equity Fever'To 'Hit Hard'.
January 3, 2005... Among the trends the president and chief operating officer of Integrated Loan Services expects to hit hard in 2005" are "home equity loan fever" and recruiting and training. Lee Howlett said there should be less rate volatility in 2005,...

New Products Coming to FHA?
January 3, 2005... The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging Congress to hold hearings on the Federal Housing Administration with an eye toward generating support for legislation that would allow the FHA to conduct pilot programs and develop new loan products....

GSEs Top Washington's Agenda.
January 3, 2005... With GSE legislation topping the Washington agenda in 2005, it is going to be a very busy year for the mortgage industry. Fannie Mae's spectacular fall has vastly increased the odds that Congress will pass legislation to strengthen...

Housing: 'No Crash, but Slower'.
January 3, 2005... Housing markets will not crash this year but there is likely to be a cool down in some areas and a slowdown in some "overheated" coastal markets, according to Harvey Green, president & CEO, Marcus & Millichap. Delivering an investment...

Key Issues for AH: Transportation, Housing Costs.
January 3, 2005... Emerging market initiatives, long-term housing goals set forth by the Bush administration and data showing a growing affordable housing demand indicate that industry efforts to attract new business in 2005 will be challenged by factors such as...

German Mortgage Banking Group Prepared for Legislative Change.
January 3, 2005... The Association of German Mortgage Banks forecasts that new developments will dramatically improve and reshape the covered bond market in the coming year, executive director Louis Hagen told this publication in a recent interview here. ...

Wholesale Roundup: Lassoing Loans.
January 3, 2005... If the companies we talked to in this Special Report are any indication, then the focus of most wholesalers when it comes to rounding up loans these days is on finding the right people and giving them the tools they need to get their jobs done...

Axis Triples Its Loan Volume in Its Third Year of Existence.
January 3, 2005... After forming in 2002 and building its operations and software platform in 2003, the wholesale division of Axis Mortgage & Investments has seen a significant increase of 300% in its loan volume since January 2004. The company has grown its...

First Franklin Plans to Continue 'Organic Growth'.
January 3, 2005... First Franklin Financial Corp. plans to continue to pursue going forward what executives call an "organic growth" strategy through local branch expansion, product development, technology upgrades and the operation of a six-region sales...

MILA to Upgrade Its Automated Underwriting Functionality.
January 3, 2005... Mortgage Investment Lending Associates Inc., Mountlake Terrace, Wash., a wholesaler serving the nonprime residential market in 26 states, plans to provide its products and technology to brokers in another 12 states by the end of 2005. MILA...

Promotion Spotlight: R.J. Arnett.
January 3, 2005... Mr. Arnett has been named to the new position of national wholesale prime production manager and executive vice president of MortgageIT Inc. Before joining MIT Lending, Mr. Arnett spent nine years with Countrywide, departing as executive vice...

People.
January 3, 2005... CALIFORNIA Orange-Ameriquest Mortgage Co. has added Amy Cobb, community relations specialist, to its government/public affairs and community relations team. Ms. Cobb will support Ameriquest's community initiatives throughout Texas,...

Fannie Raises $5 Billion of Capital.
January 3, 2005... Fannie Mae last week sold $5 billion of preferred stock - $1 billion more than expected - to institutional investors. It is the largest capital placement ever undertaken by Fannie Mae. The transaction came in two series. Series 2004-1...

Two NAHB Members Quit Fannie Panel.
January 3, 2005... Two top officers of the National Association of Home Builders have resigned from Fannie Mae's national advisory council, a move that was prompted by the trade group's review of its GSE policies. NAHB will release its findings and...

Agency MBS Weathering Scandal.
January 3, 2005... While the so-called political risk of Fannie Mae's accounting scandal in 2004 has hammered the government-sponsored enterprises' subordinate debt and from time-to-time temporarily pressured the rest of the GSE debt market, agency...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 3, 2005... MIEC Index: 184.6 Change: 2.7 (part 1 of 2) Wkly. Company 12/16/2004 12/30/2004 % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 40.20 ...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
January 3, 2005... B&C Stock Price Index: 264.8 Change: -3.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 12/30/2004 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) ...

Inside Track.
January 10, 2005... EDITORIAL Opportunities For Investment 4 OPEN FORUM New Realities For Freddie Mac 4 STREET SMARTS Ginnie Mae's Challenges 5 EQUITIES Where's The Beef? 6 COMMERCIAL Mortgages More Balance In...

Industry Spotlight: Roger Gudobba.
January 10, 2005... Mr. Gudobba, senior principal for strategic business development at VMP Mortgage Solutions Inc., has been named chairperson of the eMortgage Alliance, replacing Dave Williamson of the Performance Group. The eMortgage Alliance is a consortium of...

GSE Woes May Spark Tough Law.
January 10, 2005... The accounting scandal at Fannie Mae has upped the odds that Congress will pass a strong GSE regulatory reform bill, but there are concerns among some housing groups that the Bush administration might try to push for an even tougher bill. ...

Alt-A Volume Robust in 3Q.
January 10, 2005... The hot alt-A market remained robust in the third quarter as many top-ranked lenders continued to register double-digit production gains. In total, alt-A funders originated about $64 billion in these credits, compared to $37 billion in the...

Top Alt-A Lenders in Q3 2004.
January 10, 2005... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. 3 Impac Funding 4 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BC) 5 GreenPoint Mortgage Funding...

Defiance Raines' Downfall.
January 10, 2005... On Oct. 6 when Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines testified before Congress about the GSE's widening accounting scandal he was cocky, confident and defiant. In short order he tried to blame the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise...

Commercial Market Passes $2.2T.
January 10, 2005... Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding grew 2.4%, by $51.7 billion, to $2.2 trillion between the second and third quarters of 2004, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. Multifamily debt alone grew by $8.2 billion, 1.4%,...

Holdings Of Commercial/MF.
January 10, 2005... Banks $918 billion CMBS Pools $401 Billion Insurers $247 Billion GSEs $181 billion Thrifts $178 billion As of Sept. 30, 2004 Source:MBA Copyright 2005 Thomson Media...

Social Security Extends Program to Cut ID Theft.
January 10, 2005... Rapid Reporting here has successfully lobbied for the Social Security Administration to extend a pilot program giving the mortgage fraud prevention company access to its database to catch mortgage fraud at various stages of the process. ...

Economists Expect Volume to Contract.
January 10, 2005... Expect single-family mortgage origination to decline by 10% to 20% in 2005, according to two secondary market economists. Fannie Mae chief economist David Berson sees originations falling from $2.74 trillion in 2004 to $2.15 trillion this...

Credit Watch Has FHA Lenders Tightening Loan Standards.
January 10, 2005... The penalties for getting caught under the Credit Watch program are not all that painful sometimes, but they are forcing Federal Housing Administration lenders to tighten their underwriting standards. Last September, the Department of...

FHFB Backtracks On Extending Terms.
January 10, 2005... The Federal Housing Finance Board dismissed one-third of the public interest directors who serve on the boards of the 12 Federal Home Loan Loans last week, after the agency learned it exceeded its powers in extending their terms. Presented...

Opportunities for Investment.
January 10, 2005... Fannie Mae has taken advantage of what seems like a great vehicle to invest in affordable housing and lower income and underserved communities. It has provided a $1.5 million deposit to a community bank in Oklahoma under a program which...

Don't Take GSEs for Granted.
January 10, 2005... Mr. Syron recently addressed the Workforce Housing Symposium, co-hosted by the National Association of Home Builders and Freddie Mac in Washington. Excerpts of his prepared remarks are presented as our Open Forum. Our mission drives us to...

Investors Hoping for More Data about Loans in Ginnie Mae Pools.
January 10, 2005... As tough as it's been for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the past year or two, in the mortgage-backed securities market it's been tougher in some respects to be Ginnie Mae. But I see some potential for that to change and for Ginnie Mae to...

REITs Extend Winning Streak with 23% Gain.
January 10, 2005... Real estate investment trusts continued to chalk up performances that beat market averages last year, according to an industry's trade group analysis. Over the past five years, the REIT sector has posted average annual gains of 22.5%,...

At a Glance: REITs Post Another Strong Year.
January 10, 2005... Year REIT composite mortgage REITs 2000 25.89% 15.96% 2001 15.50% 77.34% 2002 5.22% 31.08% 2003 38.47% 57.39% 2004 30.41% 18.43% ...

Merrill Lynch: No 'Sizzle' in Mortgage Outlook.
January 10, 2005... It shouldn't be the best of times, nor should it be the worst of times. That's what equity analysts at Merrill Lynch are saying about the outlook for specialty finance stocks this year. And the mortgage sector of that universe will likely...

Roundup: Fidelity Buys Back $112 Million of Stock.
January 10, 2005... Fidelity National Financial has repurchased just over 2.5 million shares of its common stock from Willis Stein & Partners, a Chicago-based private-equity firm, and J.P. Morgan Chase, as escrow agent for the former shareholders of Aurum...

Freddie Declares Dividends.
January 10, 2005... Freddie Mac has declared a $0.30 dividend on the company's common stock, payable Dec. 31 to stockholders of record as of Dec. 13. Based on Freddie Mac's opening share price of $69.42 on Dec. 7, Freddie Mac had a dividend yield of 1.73%. ...

Lehman Earnings Rise.
January 10, 2005... Lehman Brothers reported net earnings of $585 million in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2004, up from $481 million during the same period last year. During fiscal 2004, Lehman earned net income of $2.4 billion, an increase from $1.7 billion...

Realty Rated Top Investment.
January 10, 2005... Individual investors surveyed by the National Association of Investors Corp. selected real estate, pharmaceuticals and technology as their top investment choices for 2005. Citing data from its quarterly poll of some 1,100 investors, NAIC...

WaMu's Killinger Buys 50,000 Shares.
January 10, 2005... Washington Mutual chairman and chief executive Kerry Killinger recently purchased 50,000 shares in the company, a transaction that cost him just shy of $2 million. Mr. Killinger bought the shares in mid-November in the open market at a...

E-Mortgage Pioneers Say They Are Saving $800 Per Loan.
January 10, 2005... On average, users of the Prime Alliance Web-based offering are going paperless and saving an average of $800 a loan with this electronic mortgage strategy. Specifically, Bethpage Federal Credit Union was able to drop the cost of processing...

More Balance in Commercial?
January 10, 2005... Commercial mortgage lending has been more of a borrower's market this year but it is likely that the market will become more balanced over the next 12-18 months, according to Tom McManus, president, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Horsham, Pa. ...

Commercial Transactions.
January 10, 2005... * Gramercy Capital Corp. has provided $84.7 million of LIBOR-based floating rate mortgage financing backed by a portfolio of Southern U.S. office and warehouse properties, comprising 1.9 million square feet, and one 22-acre land parcel. *...

Mezzanine Is Getting Crowded.
January 10, 2005... The commercial real estate mezzanine financing niche may be getting crowded with opportunistic investors and it is likely that some players will be forced out of the field when times get tougher, according to some lenders at a recent Realshare...

Data-Vision to Integrate Doc Delivery and E-Signatures.
January 10, 2005... Data-Vision Inc. will expand into new areas in 2005 while continuing to build on its doc preparation and delivery expertise to include electronic signature and electronic loan folder functionality. Many of the company's clients are asking...

Mortgage Cadence Looks to Enterprise.
January 10, 2005... 3T Systems here has plans to continue to upgrade the functionality of its Mortgage Cadence loan origination software offering so that it will touch every part of a company's enterprise, including departments that are not directly mortgage...

NHS: Buyers Need More Help in High Cost Areas.
January 10, 2005... Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City aims to further develop extensive business partnerships, complex financing solutions and homeownership education efforts in 2005 as the best strategy to produce affordable housing in high-cost...

Tax Credit for CDE Investments.
January 10, 2005... The New Markets Tax Credit final regulations issued by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service include a tax credit to investors who make qualified equity investments in Community Development Entities effective Dec. 22, 2004. ...

Affordable Housing Costs 3 Times Minimum Wage.
January 10, 2005... A recent report found the so-called housing wage, or the minimum wage necessary to afford a fair-market two-bedroom apartment without exceeding 30% of income, in 2004 rose to $15.37 an hour - almost three times higher than the minimum wage. ...

Group Backs Asian Ownership Interests.
January 10, 2005... A group of real estate professionals is working to make sure Asian-Americans aren't ignored in the effort to boost homeownership among minorities. Although the stereotypical view of Asian-Americans is that they are well off with little...

Industry Aids Tsunami Victims.
January 10, 2005... A number of U.S. and international mortgage market participants have responded to the deadly Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami waves in South Asia with promises to help fund disaster relief efforts. Among the companies that have pledged to help provide...

Extent of Damage Remains Unclear.
January 10, 2005... Determining the full extent of the damage to life and property from the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in South Asia may take some time. More than 100,000 lives were lost when the waves initially hit and countless more may die from the aftereffects...

U.K. Home Price Appreciation at 4%.
January 10, 2005... The Council of Mortgage Lenders has forecast that United Kingdom home prices, which appreciated by 15% annually in 2003 and 2004, will grow by just 4% in 2005. The council said it believes this slower rate of home price appreciation will...

Roundup: Diversity Good for Canada.
January 10, 2005... Canadian commercial mortgage-backed securities deals have higher economic diversity scores than their U.S. counterparts, according to Moody's Investors Service's office here. "On an economic diversity index scale of 1-100, with 100 a...

Housing Starts Rise.
January 10, 2005... The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in Canada rose to 238,200 in November from 225,000 in October, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. here has reported. "Housing starts remain on track to reach a 17-year high in 2004,"...

German Deal on Review.
January 10, 2005... Moody's Investors Service's office here has placed on review for possible downgrade DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's B- financial strength rating. "The FSR action follows the announcement that Dekabank will increase the support for its...

Standardization Urged.
January 10, 2005... A report on mortgage credit markets by the European Commission shows that consumers and the industry don't agree on much but they do agree that standardization in some key areas involving property-related data, taxes and oversight are needed,...

Santandar Deal Downgraded.
January 10, 2005... Fitch's office here has reported that it has downgraded and removed from Negative Rating Watch the ratings of two series of mortgage-backed securities issued by Santander SA Soc Securitizadora Part 3 (Chile). The downgrade affects series...

Moody's Adds Mexico Index.
January 10, 2005... Moody's Investors Service has created and is introducing to the market a new "Mexican Residential Construction Loan Take-Out Securitization Composite Index." The index is designed to "aid the market's understanding, monitoring and...

People.
January 10, 2005... CALIFORNIA Brea-ResMAE Mortgage Corp. said that Erik P. Amneus has been promoted to senior vice president, managing director, information technology. Mr. Amneus has over 14 years experience in technology, seven of which were focused...

Fannie Hires D&T As Auditor.
January 10, 2005... Fannie Mae has hired Deloitte & Touche LLP as its independent auditor, a firm that has been working for its regulator conducting a special forensic investigation into the GSE's accounting practices. However, the selection of D&T isn't...

Fannie Execs on Hook for Bonuses?
January 10, 2005... Fannie Mae executives may have to return at least $22 million worth of bonuses dating back to 2001 if Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., gets his way. Rep. Baker, chairman of the House GSE subcommittee, has asked the Office of Federal Housing...

Price War Not So Bad This Time Around?
January 10, 2005... Conforming and nonconforming mortgage executives alike have been griping about the current "price war" but is it really all that bad? According to a new research report by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. here, there is indeed a price war (for...

GSE Affordable Goals 'Too High'.
January 10, 2005... Industry and consumer groups continue to gripe that the GSE affordable new housing goals are too high or poorly targeted, but they generally agreed that HUD should minimize distortions caused by counting single-family refinancings toward the...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
January 10, 2005... B&C Stock Price Index: 251.6 Change: -13.2 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/6/2005 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.35 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 0.41...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 10, 2005... MIEC Index: 178.8 Change: -5.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 12/30/2004 1/6/2005 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 40.14 38.65...

Freddie Mac Worries MF Has Peaked.
January 10, 2005... Freddie Mac is raising concerns that multifamily originations may have "peaked," making it harder for the government-sponsored enterprise to meet its affordable housing goals. After a decade of "unparalleled growth" in the multifamily...

A New Start On RESPA.
January 17, 2005... An attempt to change the rules that govern real estate settlement practices crumbled apart last March, but the Bush administration is poised to start over again. Saying that the need to simplify regulations associated with the Real Estate...