National Mortgage News articles from March 2005

National Mortgage News archives from March 2005

Inside Track.
March 7, 2005... EDITORIAL A New Name 4 OPEN FORUM Weicher On Gses 4 STREET SMARTS Rate Spike 5 SECURITIZATION Ginnie Targets 538s 6 SERVICING B/C Escrows Low 7 EQUITIES Countrywide EPS Guide ...

Second Homes Explode to 36%.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Are the baby boomers doing to the second-home market what they did to technology stocks a few years ago? A new study by the National Association of Realtors says the second-home market - vacation and "investment" properties -...

U.S. Second Home Sales In 2004/2003.
March 7, 2005... Second Home Units Sold Units Sold Percentage Type in 2004 in 2003 Change Vacation homes 1,018,000 850,000 19.8% Investment homes 1,800,000 1,574,000 ...

$2.5 Trillion the New Norm.
March 7, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corp. sees a rosy future for its home loan business, and if the company's projections prove correct, other mortgage lenders could also benefit for many years to come. In a recent webcast for...

Residential Jumbo Lenders in Q4 2004.
March 7, 2005... ($ in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 3 Cendant/PHH Mortgage ...

January Home Sales Fall Off.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Single-family home sales got off to a slow start in January with new home sales tumbling 9%, while existing home sales fell only 0.5% from the previous month. The number of previously owned homes on the market got tighter in...

Chi. Title Is Set To Pay $6.2 MM.
March 7, 2005... HOUSTON -- The Chicago Title Insurance Co. subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has entered into an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,...

'Shorting' Fannie Good?
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Short sellers reduced their bets against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in February, but late last week a top equities analyst suggested that shorting Fannie's stock might be a good way to make a quick killing. In a note to...

GSE Portfolios Face Limiting.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., said his GSE bill will definitely place limits on the growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's huge mortgage portfolios. "Portfolio growth is an issue we are going to address," Rep. Baker said last...

a La Mode Uses Twist To Recreate The AVM Space.
March 7, 2005... OKLAHOMA CITY -- Appraisal automation vendor a la mode here has plans to reinvent the automated valuation model by adding a new twist to an old model. Most in the industry are aware of hybrid AVMs like appraiser-assisted and insured AVMs, but...

Rural Housing Service Considers Changes for $3 Billion Loan Program.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Rural Housing Service is working to update its single-family program, which guarantees over $3 billion in loans a year, to make it more user friendly and dependable. In early summer, three lenders will begin testing a...

WaMu Confirms Executive Search.
March 7, 2005... SEATTLE -- Washington Mutual, Seattle, the nation's third-largest home lender, has confirmed that it's looking for a new mortgage chief. Industry sources told National Mortgage News that the company has hired an executive recruiting firm -...

WaMu Enters Alt-A Conduit Business.
March 7, 2005... LOS ANGELES -- Washington Mutual has joined the hordes of banks and investment bankers entering the nonconforming conduit business. Launched late last year, WaMu Capital Corp. specializes in alternative-A loans. To date, the business has...

Predatory Amendment Fails in Senate Vote.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Senate has voted to kill an amendment that would have prevented mortgage lenders from pursuing claims in Bankruptcy Court if they violated a federal anti-predatory lending law. The Senate voted 58-40 to defeat the...

By Any Other Name.
March 7, 2005... If you glance down at the masthead directly below this editorial, you will notice something different. Our parent company has a new name. We always like to share with our readers anything pertinent that happens to us. In this case, the new...

Staged Increases For GSEs.
March 7, 2005... Mr. Weicher recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee. Excerpts of his statement are presented as our Open Forum. HUD's purpose in setting higher housing goals is to encourage the GSEs to facilitate greater financing and...

Higher Rates Slow Refis, May Slow Home Price Appreciation.
March 7, 2005... Higher long-term mortgage rates last week had slowed refinancing somewhat and were seen as having the potential to slow annual home price appreciation if they were to continue. But whether this upward trend in rates would be sustained was...

GNMA Securitizing RHS Loans.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Ginnie Mae, having completed its first securitization of an RHS Section 538 loan in February, expects to hit $100 million in securitization of this product for 2005. This securitization of a United States Department of...

REMIC Modernization Back on Table.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would make the Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit structure more responsive to today's environment has been re-introduced by Reps. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., the MBA reports. The REMIC...

Roundup: $419 MM Deal Hits Market.
March 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- New York Mortgage Trust has completed its first mortgage securitization through New York Mortgage Trust 2005-1, a transaction collateralized by $419 million of high-credit quality, first-lien, adjustable-rate mortgages and hybrid...

HomeBanc Does $1 Billion Deal.
March 7, 2005... ATLANTA -- HomeBanc Corp. here has completed an offering of about $1.09 billion in notes backed by adjustable-rate, residential, first-lien mortgages through HomeBanc Mortgage Trust 2005-1. HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. originated the securitized...

Hanover Private Placement.
March 7, 2005... EDISON, NJ -- Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings Inc. here has agreed to issue and sell in a private placement $20 million of trust-preferred securities through a newly formed statutory trust, Hanover Statutory Trust I. The trust-preferred...

BMA Advises Ginnie Mae.
March 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- The Bond Market Association has formed a committee to advise Ginnie Mae on ways in which it can become more competitive in the mortgage marketplace while also improving the credit performance and investor interest in its...

B&C Escrow Rate Called Low.
March 7, 2005... ORLANDO, FL -- Servicers of subprime mortgage loans face a perplexing conundrum. Only about a quarter of the loans include escrow accounts to ensure payment of insurance premiums and property taxes, yet subprime borrowers are the least likely...

Freddie Mac Rewards Top Servicers.
March 7, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac said that 23 single-family mortgage servicers achieved Tier One performance rankings for superior investor reporting and default management during two or more quarters last year. The company also inducted 12...

Wells' Service Helps Customers Track Spending Habits.
March 7, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO -- Wells Fargo & Co. has launched a new online service designed to provide an overview of all the spending activity of an account holder by tracking all financial venues they use: credit cards, debit cards, online bill payment,...

PMI Sees Lower Risk of Price Drop.
March 7, 2005... WALNUT CREEK, CA -- The PMI Risk Index for winter 2005 indicates there is a decrease in the probability of an overall house price decline when compared with the index for autumn 2004. The average risk value of the 50 largest metropolitan...

Collections Software Wins Recognition.
March 7, 2005... The firm eCredit, Dedham, Mass., a provider of online software for credit and collections professionals, has been selected as a finalist in the "Best Financial Product or Service" category for the 20th annual Codie Awards, produced by the...

Countrywide Raises Earnings Guidance.
March 7, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corp. has raised its earnings guidance for this year, citing continued strength in the home loan market. Countrywide now estimates that 2005 earnings per share will total $3.45 to $4.45, up from a...

Roundup: Charge Affects FirstMerit.
March 7, 2005... AKRON, OH -- FirstMerit Corp. here has revised its fourth-quarter and annual 2004 earnings based on a $3.8 million impairment charge on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock. The impairment charge, equal to $0.05 per diluted share, is...

Fog Cutter Appeal Denied.
March 7, 2005... PORTLAND, OR -- Fog Cutter Capital Group said that it had received notification that its appeal of the delisting of the company's stock has been denied by Nasdaq. As a result, the company's stock will continue to trade on the OTC Pink...

IBT Takes GSE Charge.
March 7, 2005... IRWIN, PA -- IBT Bancorp here, the holding company for Irwin Bank & Trust, is among the banks taking an impairment charge related to its holdings of adjustable-rate preferred stock from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. IBT said it is taking a...

Economists See No Big Bubbles.
March 7, 2005... ORLANDO, FL -- Economists who specialize in mortgage finance still see little evidence of a national "bubble" in home prices, but investor demand for housing may be pushing up prices in some markets. That theme emerged during a panel...

At a Glance: Historical Delinquency Rates.
March 7, 2005... Period Delinquency Rate 1980-1989 5.29% 1990-1997 4.47% 2004 3rd Qtr 4.41% Source: MBA Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com...

New Arrivals Push Up Portland Prices.
March 7, 2005... PORTLAND, OR -- Newcomers are flocking into Portland in such numbers that they are causing a housing boom in the metropolitan area, which includes Vancouver, Wash., as they purchase new and existing homes at a record pace. While low...

Lennar Pays $650 Million for Marine Base.
March 7, 2005... MIAMI -- Homebuilder Lennar Corp. has placed the winning bid of $650 million to purchase Heritage Fields, a former Marine Corps base in Irvine, Calif., which includes approximately 3,400 homesites, commercial and retail properties on 1,300...

Luxury Builder Is Acquired by WCI.
March 7, 2005... BONITA SPRINGS, FL -- As part of its strategy to expand beyond Florida and into new regions of the country, homebuilder WCI Communities Inc. has completed the acquisition of Renaissance Housing Corp., a luxury homebuilder and high-rise tower...

Accounting Problems, Overseas Challenges Dog Shurgard Storage.
March 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service here has downgraded the ratings of real estate investment trust Shurgard Storage, citing concerns that include lower-than-expected results in its operations outside the United States. The rating agency...

RBC Sees Higher Income from U.S.
March 7, 2005... TORONTO -- Improvements in the Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. mortgage unit helped boost its quarterly net income to about C$1.04 billion (about $844 million) in its fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 31 from approximately C$793 million (about $643.8...

Kroll Buys U.K. Consulting Firm.
March 7, 2005... Kroll Inc., New York, has acquired global risk consulting company Talbot Hughes McKillop, a provider of financial restructuring services operating in Europe and the United States. The firm's management and staff are joining Kroll's...

Fitch Sees Little Risk to GSEs' 'AAA'.
March 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings, noting that its ratings for the senior debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac include an assumption of support from the U.S. government, said in a recent report that it sees little risk that the GSEs' relationship with...

Freddie Adds ARM Options.
March 7, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac has expanded its Initial Interest mortgage products to include Constant Maturity Treasury and London interbank offered rate 3/1, 5/1 and 7/1 adjustable-rate mortgages with a 10-year interest-only period. Borrowers...

Homestead to Affiliate.
March 7, 2005... ALBANY, NY -- Homestead Funding Corp. here, a privately owned mortgage lender, has entered into an affiliation agreement with First Niagara Bank, Lockport, N.Y. A minority interest in Homestead was held by Hudson River Bank & Trust, which...

Quicken Chairman's NBA Bid Approved.
March 7, 2005... LIVONIA, MI -- The National Basketball Association has approved the purchase of the Cleveland Cavaliers by an investor group headed up by Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert. Other members of the group include David Katzman, vice chairman of...

Thrifts Load Up on Home Loans.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Residential mortgage lending and investments at banks and thrifts accounted for 42% of all asset growth in 2004 and 70% in the fourth quarter as federally insured depositories continue to bulk up on mortgage assets. The most...

Mortgage Earnings Fall at H&R Block.
March 7, 2005... KANSAS CITY, MO -- Pretax earnings for the mortgage services division of H&R Block decreased by nearly 28% in the company's third fiscal quarter in spite of an approximately 57% increase in loan production. The quarter ended Jan. 1, 2005. ...

Small Step Forward for CRA?
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Affordable housing and community development entities cautiously applauded recent efforts of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to improve a controversial Community Reinvestment...

Liberty Bonds Support NYC Housing.
March 7, 2005... NEW YORK -- For the first time the Liberty Bond program will include financing for affordable housing units that are part of The William, a residential development project in lower Manhattan. "We worked hard to find a solution to create...

HUD Promotes 'Sweat Equity' Grant Program.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program is offering nearly $27 million in "sweat equity" grants that will benefit over 1,700 first-time homebuyer families. It is...

NAHMA Offers Management Directory.
March 7, 2005... ALEXANDRIA, VA -- The National Affordable Housing Management Association has launched an online directory of NAHMA certified and credentialed property management staff around the country. Data on professionals from various management...

People.
March 7, 2005... ARIZONA Tucson-First Magnus Financial Corp. said that Julie McCan has been appointed to the Utah Residential Mortgage Regulatory Commission. The commission consists of five members appointed by the governor of Utah and approved by the...

At a Glance: Mortgage Origination Volume.
March 7, 2005... 2001 $2.2 trillion 2002 $2.9 trillion 2003 $3.8 trillion 2004 $2.9 trillion 2005 $2 trillion-2.9 trillion* *2005 range is a CFC estimate. Source: Countrywide Financial Corp. Copyright 2005...

PHH Nixes Management Contracts.
March 7, 2005... MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- One month after going public, PHH Corp. here has adopted a policy of not entering into "employment agreements" with any of its executives or workers, including its CEO Terence W. Edwards. The company, the parent of PHH...

Florida Home Prices Increase 22% in '04.
March 7, 2005... ORLANDO, FL -- Demand for existing single-family homes in Florida continued to rise in December 2004, pushing the statewide median sales price 22% higher to $195,900. A year ago, it was $160,600, according to the Florida Association of...

Rosenfeld Wants to Leave MBS to Congress.
March 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board is unlikely to approve a mortgage-backed securities program for the Federal Home Loan Banks unless he has the consent of Congress. Finance Board chairman Ronald Rosenfeld...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
March 7, 2005... B&C Stock Price Index: 227.9 Change: -0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/3/2005 Aames (AIC) 2.05 12.00 9.30 American Business Fin. (ABFIQ) ...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
March 7, 2005... MIEC Index: 173.8 Change: -0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 2/24/2005 3/3/2005 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 37.26 25.58...

Price Appreciation Continues to Rise.
March 7, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Home prices rose at a 10.7% annual rate in 2004, according to Freddie Mac's conventional mortgage home price index. That's up from an 8.4% rate of appreciation in 2003, Freddie Mac said. On a quarterly basis, the...

At a Glance: Regional Home Price Growth in '04.
March 7, 2005... Region '04 Price Growth Pacific 17.7% South Atlantic 14.1% Middle Atlantic 13.5% New England 12.6% Mountain 9.8% West North Central 6.2%...

Inside Track.
March 14, 2005... EDITORIAL Second Chances 4 OPEN FORUM 'Close The Gap' 4 STREET SMARTS Rates Hurt MBS Market 5 LETTERS Colo. Action; HUD Collection Practices 6 EUITIES Freddie's 'quiet' Period 8 ...

Mozilo Fears B/C Debacle.
March 14, 2005... PARK CITY, UT -- On the heels of a new report that found one in four home loans originated in last year's fourth quarter were subprime comes a renewed warning that one misstep by a mono-line nonprime lender could cast a pall over the entire...

Fannie In Second Agreement.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae has signed a supplemental supervisory agreement with its regulator, addressing a host of concerns on accounting systems and corporate governance issues. The agreement, signed last week by Stephen Ashley, the GSE's...

M&A: CapOne to Buy Hibernia.
March 14, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Credit card giant Capital One Financial here has agreed to buy Hibernia Corp., New Orleans, one of the largest lenders in Louisiana, for $5.3 billion in stock and cash. The deal, once completed, will bolster the credit card...

Top Alt-A Lenders in Q4 04.
March 14, 2005... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. Aurora, CO 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. Pasadena, CA 3 Novelle Financial Services ...

'Flat' G-Fee Gains Steam.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- A legislative proposal that would mandate all lenders pay Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the same flat guarantee fee is gathering serious traction on Capitol Hill, according to industry officials. If the idea becomes law it would...

Duncan: Industry Should Focus on Customers.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The mortgage industry "really is out of touch with the customer," Mortgage Bankers Association chief economist and senior vice president of research and business development, Doug Duncan, told NMN. "Obviously it is important...

Broker Jobs Slow.
March 14, 2005... Month: Brokers employed January '05 (p) 123,100 December '04 124,800 November 123,900 October 124,300 September 121,300 August 124,600 July ...

Broker Positions May Be Slipping.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Employment in the overall mortgage industry hit a record 489,400 full-time positions in January but broker jobs appear to be slipping. According to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of real estate...

'Flips' Are Half Of Fraud Cases.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Almost half of all mortgage fraud cases currently under investigation by the government involve land flips while just 6% involve "double-sold loans," a senior FBI official said last week. Speaking at an industry conference,...

Countrywide's Plans For UK Are 'On' Again.
March 14, 2005... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial, which has coveted the British origination market for several years, plans to launch a production and servicing operation there some time next year. In an interview with National Mortgage News last...

Finance Board Weighing Appropriate Levels for Mortgage Purchases.
March 14, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The decision by the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank to exit the mortgage purchase business is raising concerns that other FHLBanks could get into regulatory trouble if they pursue that line of business too aggressively. "I...

Second Chances.
March 14, 2005... If recent reports are any indication, it is a pair of seconds - second liens and second homes - that is sustaining mortgage volume currently. We reported two weeks ago, from our own surveys, that second liens have contributed to the big...

Closing the Homeownership Gap.
March 14, 2005... Secretary Jackson recently testified on HUD's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget before the House Financial Services Committee. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. Over the past four years, the Department of Housing and...

Mortgage Market Benchmarks Reach Consequential Highs.
March 14, 2005... Long-term rates, bond yields and purchase applications have made notable moves upward in the past week. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported last Wednesday that its seasonally adjusted purchase index rose to its highest point for the...

Aggressive Enforcement Welcome.
March 14, 2005... To the editor: You'd better be careful in Colorado if your mortgage business practices are illegal. That's the message our state's law enforcement officials, regulators and governor have made in the past 10 days. For consumers, it's...

Questions on HUD Collections.
March 14, 2005... To the editor: HUD is now employing the use of a collection agency with questionable tactics to collect outstanding indemnifications on homes that have gone into foreclosure. The collection agency is called DCS Inc. and this is how they...

Roundup: Freddie Mac Goes 'Quiet' as Earnings Release Looms.
March 14, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac, which is likely to release its 2004 earnings by the end of this month, has voluntarily entered into a "quiet period" to avoid selective release of financial information. A spokesperson said it has been Freddie...

Freddie Ups Dividend 17%.
March 14, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac has raised the dividend on its common stock 17% to $0.35 per share. At the same time, Freddie Mac also declared quarterly dividends on 17 issues of preferred stock. The common stock and preferred stock...

GE to Sell Genworth Stock.
March 14, 2005... FAIRFIELD, CT -- General Electric here said it will sell 82 million of Class A shares of the common stock of Genworth Financial, Richmond, Va. In addition, Genworth will purchase between $400 million and $500 million of Class B common stock...

Unizan Sees Impairment.
March 14, 2005... CANTON, OH -- Unizan Financial Corp. here earned $3.3 million for the fourth quarter, up from $2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2003, despite taking an impairment charge against its preferred stock in the government-sponsored enterprises....

Mills to Restate Earnings.
March 14, 2005... ARLINGTON, VA -- The Mills Corp. is restating its audited financial results for the years ended Dec. 31, 2002 and 2003, as well as its unaudited quarterly results for 2004, to reflect some accounting changes. The accounting changes reflect...

Speeds Rise Slightly in February.
March 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- Prepayment rates for 30-year Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities rose modestly in February, according to Bear Stearns & Co. For Fannie 30-year MBS issues, the aggregate prepayment rate increased by 4.7% in...

Bond Group Backs FICC Proposed Rule.
March 14, 2005... NEW YORK -- The Bond Market Association has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to support a recent Fixed Income Clearing Corp. rule proposal that would expand FICC's trade submission requirements, arguing that its potential to reduce...

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments.
March 14, 2005... (For February Period) Cpn Year WAC Fctr Feb '05 Jan '05 Fannie Mae 6.00 2004 6.43 .863 22.4 20.4 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.48 .536 27.7 27.5 Fannie Mae ...