National Mortgage News articles from January 2007

National Mortgage News archives from January 2007

Inside Track.
January 1, 2007... EDITORIAL Make or Break 4 OPEN FORUM Dodd on Homeownership 4 STREET SMARTS Holding Pattern 5 OUTLOOK 2007 6 COMMERCiAL MORTGAGES Debt Up 3% 9 REFIS BELOW 50% The...

Fraud Charge Against Raines.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has filed civil charges against three former Fannie Mae executives, including Franklin Raines, accusing the trio of perpetuating a $6.3 billion accounting fraud at the mortgage...

A Bust for B/C Loans?
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Almost 20% of all subprime loans funded over the past two years will wind up in foreclosure, according to a new report issued by the Center for Responsible Lending. CRL president Mike Calhoun said that when refinancings of...

HUD Chief: I'm Staying On.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Housing secretary Alphonso Jackson is planning to stay at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and he says he can work with Democrats who now control Congress and the committees that oversee HUD. Rumors have been...

Morgan Cuts Jobs at Saxon.
January 1, 2007... GLEN ALLEN, VA -- Morgan Stanley last month slashed 170 jobs at its newly acquired subprime unit, Saxon Mortgage, as part of a restructuring move. Saxon's longtime CEO and president Mike Sawyer and several other top managers also departed,...

He's Bullish on 2007.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- SunTrust Mortgage is bullish on the market and its chief executive expects to see a double-digit increase in loan production this year as other companies cut back or fall by the wayside. "We have been aggressively growing all...

Wells: No Need To Lower Rates.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Although some in the market have been betting on weakness in sectors like housing causing a recession and possibly prompting the Federal Open Market Committee to lower rates this year, Eugenio Aleman, a senior economist at Wells...

CRE Upside Big this Year.
January 1, 2007... BOSTON -- The U.S. commercial real estate sector has upside potential in 2007, even after factoring in a weak housing market and high energy costs, according to an outlook report from Colliers International, a real estate services provider. ...

Best Practices Head Off Fraud.
January 1, 2007... LAS VEGAS -- The best way to minimize the risk of fraudulent loans is to adopt a series of best practices, a panel told the SourceMedia Mortgage Fraud Conference here. This includes training and education of your staff, knowledge of the...

Fannie, Freddie in Line on NTMs.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received their marching orders last week to follow the nontraditional mortgage guidance that is now mandatory for most federally regulated and state-licensed lenders. The Office of Federal Housing...

Reverse Mortgage Deadline Looms.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage lenders are hoping the new Congress acts decisively by Feb. 15 or the Federal Housing Administration might have to stop insuring reverse mortgages. The FHA home-equity conversion mortgage program is the largest...

Revolt Among FHLBs Leads to Ditching of FHFB Capital Rule.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Finance Board has ditched a controversial capital proposal in the face of overwhelming opposition from shareholders of the Federal Home Loan Banks. The proposal would have forced FHLBanks to cut dividends...

FHFB Renames 25 PI Directors.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Finance Board has reappointed 25 public interest directors to serve on the boards of the Federal Home Loan Banks for another 12 months. The Finance Board's stopgap action came on Dec. 22 as the last of the...

Editorial: Make or Break.
January 1, 2007... The mortgage business will find 2007 to have been a key year when it looks back at its achievements a decade from now. The home loan business started the new millennium on a tear for the first three years, and the last three have seen the...

Open Forum: Reviving Homeownership.
January 1, 2007... Excerpts of Sen. Dodd's remarks unveiling the 2007 agenda for the Senate Banking Committee are presented as our Open Forum. He will become chairman of the committee when the Senate convenes in January. Rising home prices have put...

Street Smarts: Betting on a Fed on Hold and 'Mini-Rebounds' in Housing in 2007.
January 1, 2007... There was some talk in some of the forecasts I saw coming out before press time about the cycle of housing woes possibly being over sooner than expected. Some prognosticators also were saying that the Fed might possibly cut rates next year....

Outlook 2007: Home Builders Seen Cutting Back On Land Purchase in 2007.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Although the rating outlook remains generally stable in the homebuilding industry, Fitch Ratings expects builders will cut back preferably sharply on land purchases during the balance of 2006 and into 2007. Inventories should...

Outlook 2007: 2007 CMBS Volume Headed Up 20% to $240 Billion: Fitch.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Total issuance of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities is likely to be over $200 billion in 2006, Fitch Ratings reports, with issuance for 2007 going up 20% to $240 billion. The credit rating agency expects transactions...

Outlook 2007: Economist Expecting Big Home Price Drop.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- While there are encouraging signs that the housing market may be stabilizing, one Wall Street economist is predicting that another shoe is about to drop in the form of a significant decline in house prices. Allen Sinai,...

Outlook 2007: Decline Will Continue for Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Residential investment is expected to continue its decline in 2007 and have at least a small impact on the economy, according to residential mortgage-backed securities analysts at Fitch Ratings. Even if residential investment...

CRE Debt Up By 3% in 3Q.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding reached $2.845 trillion in the third quarter, an increase of 2.9% from the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports, based on an analysis of the Federal...

REIT Acquires Healthcare REIT.
January 1, 2007... INDIANAPOLIS -- Duke Realty Corp., an industrial and office real estate investment trust, is acquiring Bremner Healthcare Real Estate, a health care real estate development and management firm. The terms of the deal, which aims to cash in on...

ATM, IRR Join to Create a National Appraisal Firm.
January 1, 2007... PITTSBURGH -- As lenders move to be more efficient, appraisers and automated valuation model vendors are answering the call. These outfits are aggressively moving to distribute their products more seamlessly and on a national scale to lenders...

Commerce Velocity Adds 5 Customers.
January 1, 2007... IRVINE, CA -- Commerce Velocity here said that it has added five more customers: Fairfield Mortgage, Home Capital Funding, Liberty American Mortgage, Maverick Mortgage and Stearns Lending. All these companies are adopting Commerce...

TransUnion: Mortgage Industry Will Look More Like a Barbell.
January 1, 2007... CHICAGO -- Taking a look in its crystal ball at 2007, TransUnion is predicting that life is going to grow steadily harder for midsized and correspondent lenders. "We are seeing a very strong trend from the very top of the industry,...

Guidelines from CMSA, ESF.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Two securitization groups have released guidelines for participants in the commercial mortgage- and asset-backed securities markets that are designed to address challenges the market participants have when it comes to complying with...

International Mortgages: UK Home Prices Set to Rise.
January 1, 2007... LONDON -- United Kingdom home prices will see a continued rise over the next two years, but housing transactions are likely to fall in 2008 after a small increase in 2007, according to a housing market forecast from the Council of Mortgage...

Puerto Rico Bank Sells Off MBS.
January 1, 2007... SAN JUAN, PR -- Oriental Financial Group Inc. is one of the latest banks to sell mortgage-backed securities in a portfolio rebalancing. Specifically, Oriental has "completed the open market sale of approximately $865 million of...

Downgrade for Thornburg Stock.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- The preferred stock of Thornburg Mortgage Inc., Santa Fe, N.M., has been downgraded from BB-minus to B-plus by Fitch Ratings, and its rating outlook has been revised from positive to negative. Fitch also affirmed Thornburg's BB...

Commercebank Gets 2 Ratings.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has assigned a "BBB-" long-term issuer default rating and an "F3" short-term issuer rating to Commercebank Holding Corp., a Coral Gables, Fla.-based investor in real estate loans. Fitch also affirmed the ratings...

Mozilo, Other CFC Insiders Selling Plenty.
January 1, 2007... CALABASAS, CA -- Over the past few weeks insiders at Countrywide Financial Corp. - including chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo - have been exercising millions of dollars in options. According to trading records, on Dec. 15, Mr. Mozilo exercised...

Analysts Skeptical on Huntington.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Analysts at CreditSights are taking a skeptical view towards Huntington Bancshares' deal to acquire Sky Financial in a 90% stock and 10% cash deal. In a report, CreditSights called the 25% premium over Sky's stock price before...

Banks Face Yield Curve Pressure.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- If you think "mortgage centric" banks faced a lot of yield-curve pressure this year, don't expect much relief next year, according to analysts at CreditSights. CreditSights expects banks to face more pressure on asset-liability...

Tax Bill Boon To MI Industry.
January 1, 2007... ARLINGTON, VA -- The passage of a bill that makes mortgage insurance premiums tax deductible is one more factor that improves the outlook for mortgage insurance stocks, according to analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey. Just before...

Technology Trends: Eyeing Efficiency.
January 1, 2007... As volume slowed in 2006, employing technology to get more loans in the door was less of a concern. Lenders became concerned about cutting cost and creating internal efficiency. Previously, during the refinance boom, technology aimed to enable...

What Technology May Have in Store in 2007.
January 1, 2007... While the Holy Grail of mortgage technology remains the electronic mortgage, greats strides in that direction are expected this year. As lenders look hard at creating internal efficiencies, technology will aim to come to the rescue. "In...

Bringing Folders into the E-World.
January 1, 2007... DUBLIN, CA -- As more lenders move toward a paperless environment, going electronic is the next logical step. As lenders move away from just imaging to embracing electronic loan folders that can be electronically tracked and collaboratively...

Electronic Delivery to Investors Bridges a Gap.
January 1, 2007... Gone are the days when it was just Fannie Mae that was prepared to accept e-mortgages. Now the secondary market is opening up to e-delivery of hybrid and full e-mortgages. The benefits that are received by both the correspondent seller and the...

Servicing Cost Squeeze Could Prompt Innovation.
January 1, 2007... The cost to service a loan is minimal so the top servicers tend to stick with their servicing systems for a longer period of time. However, with defaults rising, the cost to service a loan will increase, which vendors in this space say will...

Good Fundamentals for Commercial.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Following up on the heightened activity of the past few years, market participants don't expect a letup in the demand for commercial real estate investments in 2007, considering that the sector is likely to continue to enjoy good...

Alt Credit History Is Touted.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Minorities and low-income homebuyers who regularly pay their telephone and heating bills on time can achieve high credit scores and should qualify for lower-cost mortgages, according to a new credit scoring study. The study...

People.
January 1, 2007... ARIZONA Tucson-First Magnus Financial Corp. appointed Kymberly Wright as director of the correspondent lending division. Ms. Wright has more than 15 years of experience in mortgage lending, including 13 years with specific...

Revisions for IOs From Fannie Mae.
January 1, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae is requiring borrowers to be qualified at "a fully-indexed rate that assumes a fully-amortizing repayment schedule," effective Jan. 30. Other related changes it is making include: * Eliminating its...

Franklin Reduces Borrowing Costs.
January 1, 2007... NEW YORK -- Franklin Credit Management Corp., a specialty finance company that focuses on the residential mortgage market, has modified several of its borrowing agreements to reduce its borrowing costs. "We are very pleased to announce the...

Inside Track.
January 8, 2007... EDITORIAL An Enduring Legacy 4 OPEN FORUM U.S. Housing's Broader Context 4 STREET SMARTS Eyeing Credit, the Yield Curve and Jobs 5 NMN.COM MortgageWire Roundup: ARM Share Seen Falling 8 PEOPLE 18 ...

MLN Confirms TPO Closure.
January 8, 2007... MIDDLETOWN, CT -- After weeks of market rumors, subprime lender Mortgage Lenders Network here confirmed that it is shutting its wholesale network, which accounts for 90% of its fundings. Sources told National Mortgage News that the...

Warehouse Lenders by Commitments.
January 8, 2007... ($ in Millions) $ Volume of Comm. % Company Name Location 9/30/06 9/30/05 Change Washington Mutual Seattle, WA $18,575...

GSE Bill Passage Predicted.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives can pass a GSE regulatory reform bill by April 2 when Congress leaves for its spring recess, predicted the new chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.,...

Calif. Lender Goes Bust.
January 8, 2007... SANTA ROSA, CA -- Subprime lender Harbourton Mortgage Investment Corp. here closed its doors in late December, the apparent victim of loan buyback requests that it could not handle. According to one correspondent buyer, HMIC, a...

CFC Suit Alleged But Unconfirmed.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- A New York law firm says it has "commenced" a shareholder lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., accusing its executives of backdating stock options. But so far, there is no evidence that a lawsuit has...

Citi, Others Eyeing AAMG?
January 8, 2007... Citigroup and Countrywide Financial Corp. have expressed interest in ABN Amro's U.S. mortgage operations, industry advisors told National Mortgage News. In early November, NMN first reported that Dutch bank ABN Amro Holding NV was...

Report Alleges 'Discredit' Effort.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Top executives at Land-America Financial Group authorized the use of "personal information" to discredit a Colorado insurance regulator and block a multistate settlement, according to a congressional report. The title insurer...

Top Multifamily Lenders in 3Q 2006.
January 8, 2007... ($ in Millions) Organization Name Location Q3 06 Q3 05 % MF Vol. MF Vol Change Washington Mutual Seattle, WA ...

Subprime Firm Files for Bankruptcy: Not only is it a top 20 ranked subprime funder but a Wall Street firm owned about 20% of it.(Company rankings)
January 8, 2007... LOS ANGELES -- After closing its doors almost a month ago, subprime lender Ownit Mortgage Solutions filed for bankruptcy protection in late December, saying it did not have enough cash to buy back $166 million in delinquent loans. In the...

NAR Pending Sales Index Eases.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on contracts signed in November, eased by 0.5% to 107 from an upwardly revised reading of 107.5 in October, and is 11.4% lower than November 2005,...

SNB Completes Its BBVA Deal.
January 8, 2007... FORT WORTH, TX -- State National Bancshares Inc. has completed its transaction with Argentina's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and, as a result, become part of BBVA's retail and commercial banking unit. State National Bank, State National...

REIT Return Totals 34.35%.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The real estate investment trust sector turned in a total return of 34.35% for 2006, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts reports, based on the FTSE NAREIT index maintained by the trade association. This...

Bank Austria Creditanstal Increasing Stake in Moscow Lender.
January 8, 2007... MOSCOW -- Bank Austria Creditanstal has acquired a 19.77% stake in International Moscow Bank from VTB Bank (France) SA for $395 million and about $20 million for a recent capital increase subscribed by VTB in IMB earlier. Pursuant to an...

Editorial: An Enduring Legacy.
January 8, 2007... This week 10 years ago, National Mortgage News lost its founding editor and publisher. And while the sands of time are usually pretty unforgiving, it's still fairly easy to discern Stan Strachan's legacy at this newspaper. For one thing,...

Open Forum: U.S. Housing's Broader Context: Secretary Paulson's remarks before the Office of Thrift Supervision National Housing Forum in Washington last month are presented as our Open Forum.
January 8, 2007... At Treasury, we are charged with keeping America on the path of long-term sustainable growth. And increasingly that task requires a global outlook. Tomorrow (Dec. 12) I will head to China to participate in the first meeting of our Strategic...

Market Eyeing Credit, the Yield Curve and Jobs: These are the factors that could upset the seesawing balance in economic sentiments seen recently.
January 8, 2007... The Federal Open Market Committee minutes the Federal Reserve Board released last week left my belief that the Fed will stay on hold this year intact, even if the bond market took it as a sign of economic weakness vs. strength. Then again,...

Lennar Expects Third Quarter Loss, Sees No Signs of Recovery: 'Market conditions continue to weaken ... and we have not yet seen tangible evidence of a market recovery.'.
January 8, 2007... MIAMI -- Homebuilder Lennar Corp. has indicated that it expects to take a loss for the quarter and sees no evidence of a market recovery ahead. Subsequent to valuation adjustments and write-offs, the company said it anticipates a loss...

'Volumes to Fall to Pre-2002 Levels'.
January 8, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Housing economists are forecasting only a slight decline in single-family originations in 2007, but it will still force the industry to scale back to pre-2002 levels. Refinancing activity is expected to remain strong. However,...

G&E: Soft Landing to Help CRE: 'Business capital spending and the expanding global economy will power demand for space.'.
January 8, 2007... CHICAGO -- Grubb & Ellis, a real estate services company, expects that an economic soft landing scenario for 2007 will keep the commercial real estate investment market healthy. While G&E expects that the volume of investment activity will...

FL Sales Fall By 30% Year-to-Year.
January 8, 2007... ORLANDO, FL -- Sales of existing homes and condos in Florida were down nearly one-third year-to-year in November, traditionally a slow month for the housing sector. A total of 11,912 existing single-family homes sold statewide in November,...

MortgageWire Roundup: Freddie Sees Further Drop in ARM Share.
January 8, 2007... Lenders that specialize in adjustable-rate mortgage products could face a tough time this year as ARM volume drops to 16% of originations, according to the chief economist at Freddie Mac. ARM production (based on number of loans) accounted for...

Roundup: Fitch Downgrades Three Aegis Bond Deal Classes.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Three classes from two Aegis asset-backed securities trust securitizations have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were: series 2003-1, class M2, from A to BBB-plus, and class B1, from BB to CC (and assigned a...

Some GMAC MBS ratings slip.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Classes K through O of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Securities Inc. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2004-C3, have been downgraded and removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. Three of the...

ML DEAL Class sees change.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Seven classes from five Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors Inc. subprime securitizations have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: series 2002-AFC1 group 1, class BF-1, from BB to B-plus, and group 2,...

Rating Slips in RAAC transaction.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Class B-2 of RAAC series 2004-SP2 Trust has been downgraded from B2 to Ca by Moody's Investors Service and classes M-3 and B-1 from the same transaction have been placed on review for possible downgrade. The actions were attributed...

Nomura class downgraded.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Class B-3 of Nomura Asset Acceptance Corp. mortgage pass-through securities, series 2001-R1, has been downgraded from BB to B by Fitch Ratings. Fitch also affirmed the ratings on five other classes in the transaction, which...

CAMB Optimistic on Interest Rates.
January 8, 2007... SACRAMENTO, CA -- The California Association of Mortgage Brokers has issued its annual mortgage forecast and projected that interest rates will remain favorable in 2007. Additionally, recent homebuyers within the last several years who...

Hovnanian Income Down from 2005: 'Overall we are disappointed with our results in fiscal 2006. Although our ... revenues increased.'.
January 8, 2007... RED BANK, NJ -- Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. saw net income available to common stockholders of $138.9 million on $6.1 billion in total revenue for the full year ended Oct. 31. In fiscal 2005, net income was $469.1 million on total revenue of...

Street Deals for FFFC, MortgageIT: The FFFC deal makes Merrill Lynch the largest Wall Street funder of subprime loans in the U.S.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Merrill Lynch last week closed on its purchase of subprime giant First Franklin Financial Corp., San Jose, Calif., while Deutsche Bank completed its acquisition of MortgageIT Holdings here. Merrill paid $1.3 billion to National...

Windstorm Insurance Still Viewed as an Issue for Commercial RE.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Although the 2006 hurricane season was milder than expected, the issue of windstorm insurance coverage still looms large over the commercial real estate sector, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. And commercial real...

Fitch Downgrades JPM Chase Classes.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Six classes of J.P. Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Corp. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2004-CIBC8, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: class J,...

Wholesaler's Take on Brokers: Focus groups the company has been having with brokers have helped it identify problems.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Wholesalers in some cases may indeed have fallen short in terms of giving brokers what they want in general if they haven't really listened to the third-party originators they work with, agreed one wholesale executive, when asked...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 8, 2007... MIEC Index: 141.1 Change: -0.1 Company 12/21/2006 1/4/2007 Wkly. 52 52 % Chg. P/E % Chg. wk/lo wk/hi From Ratio American Home (AHM) 33.03 33.03...

Challenges Seen in Wholesaler Broker Relationship.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Despite the increased competition in what has generally been a more challenging market and the stated aims of most funders to make their dealings with their origination sources as conducive to the latter as possible, it appears...

Lender Sees the Benefit of Integrated Systems.
January 8, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO -- After an acquisition Bank of the West inherited Fiserv UniFi PRO and MortgageServ technology. By closely melding the two systems, the lender was able to realize the benefit of having a closely integrated origination system and...

People.
January 8, 2007... CALIFORNIA Brea-ResMAE Mortgage Corp. appointed Brian Morgenstern as regional vice president for portions of Southern California. Prior to joining ResMAE, Mr. Morgenstern was assistant vice president and branch production manager for...

CFC Execs Exercise Options.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- The president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage originator and servicer, exercised stock options relating to 14,000 shares of the company's common stock in late December. ...

DLJ Class Sees Rating Change.
January 8, 2007... NEW YORK -- Class B-8 of DLJ Commercial Mortgage Corp.'s pass-through certificates, series 1999-CG2, has been downgraded from B-minus to CCC and assigned a Distressed Recovery rating of DR3 by Fitch Ratings. In addition, Fitch affirmed the...

Inside Track.
January 15, 2007... EDITORIAL The Foreclosure Numbers Game 4 OPEN FORUM The Fed Weighs In 4 STREET SMARTS International Affairs 5 INTERNATIONAL MORTGAGES Tsunami Update 10 HOT STAT RATES STABLE Interest rates on...