National Mortgage News articles from March 2008

National Mortgage News archives from March 2008

40% B&C to Default?
March 3, 2008... NEW ORLEANS -- An estimated 40% of outstanding subprime mortgage loans could go into default over the next three years based on current economic assumptions, according to Michael Bykhovsky, president of Applied Analytics, San Francisco. ...

Res. Wholesalers In 4q 07 (Sample).
March 3, 2008... Wholesale Volume % Organization Name Location Q4 07 Q4 06 change Astoria FS & LA Lake Success, NY $596 $460 30% B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank Bethesda, MD $312 $856 -64% Cimarron Mortgage Jackson, MS $29 $31...

GSEs Edge Warily Into Jumbos.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are entering the jumbo market with very unsure footing due to legislative, securitization and capital constraints. Fannie estimates that there is potential to purchase $200 billion in jumbo loans...

High Risk? High Price.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Freddie Mac seller/servicers delivering high-risk mortgages to the GSE could wind up paying guarantee and delivery fees of close to 78 basis points per loan under new requirements that go into effect in three months. Up until...

Fannie Loses $3.6 B.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae reported a $3.6 billion loss in the fourth quarter and a $2.1 billion loss for 2007 as revenue was eaten up by hedging losses, loan-loss provisions and credit losses. The mortgage giant doubled its market share last...

Margin Calls for TM.
March 3, 2008... SANTA FE, NM -- Thornburg Mortgage, a jumbo lending REIT and the nation's 38th largest funder overall, late last week revealed that it has been hit with $300 million in margin calls from its lenders since Feb. 14. The margin calls were...

Astoria's Earnings Fall to $37.1 Million.
March 3, 2008... LAKE SUCCESS, NY -- Astoria Financial Corp. here saw its net income decline from $37.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 to $19.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. However, the company said its operating income was down only...

Frank Seeks to Fund FHA Buys of Distressed Mortgages.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants the Federal Housing Administration to purchase distressed mortgages from lenders and he is seeking $15 billion to fund the program. "The committee is...

Ameriquest Mortgage Founder Resigns as Ambassador.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Roland Arnall, who founded both Ameriquest Mortgage and its wholesale affiliate Argent, has resigned as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands effective March 7, citing his son's health. Mr. Arnall was confirmed as ambassador in...

Protest Angers MBA Executive.
March 3, 2008... NEW ORLEANS -- Members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now staged a protest at the hotel where the Mortgage Bankers Association was holding its National Mortgage Servicing Conference here last week. While only a small...

FIS Desktop '08 Gets Underway.
March 3, 2008... NEW ORLEANS -- Fidelity National Information Services has released FIS Desktop 2008, an improved imaging, retrieval, expense and communication management system that provides real-time connectivity to mortgage banking and financial industry...

Editorial: An Unwelcome Visitor.(Editorial)
March 3, 2008... Here's the prospect of something coming back we hoped we'd never see again - stagflation. The word conjures up bad memories of 20% prime mortgages, long gas lines and the "Misery Index" of the late 1970s, a time when economic malaise lay upon...

Open Forum: The Era of Reform.
March 3, 2008... Mr. Reichs remarks at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Legislative & Regulatory Conference in Washington recently are presented as our Open Forum. I dont need to tell you that the national and international financial markets,...

Eyeing Weak Economy/Inflation and Bond Insurance Moves.
March 3, 2008... It had been a relatively tough week up through press time last Thursday as the combination of a weak economy and inflationary signs, among other things, led to more concerns for the market. There was more evidence last week that another fed...

Two Rating Agencies Look at Commercial Real Estate Prices.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- Two leading credit rating agencies recently reported on commercial real estate prices, with Moody's seeing declines and S&P seeing some recent improvements. Commercial real estate prices were down 1.5% in December, compared to...

Mortgage CDO Lawsuit Filed.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- HSH Nordbank AG has filed a lawsuit against UBS involving a U.S. mortgage-linked collateralized debt obligation portfolio, alleging breaches of contractual obligations and fiduciary duties that UBS denies. The suit filed in New...

More Suing than in S&L Era Seen.
March 3, 2008... CHICAGO -- There could be more litigation resulting from the current subprime mortgage crisis than from the thrift crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Navigant Consulting Inc. here said. The savings and loan debacle has been considered to...

Roundup: Some Firms Seeing Mortgage-Related Pressures.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- Credit Suisse Group and related entities have been put on CreditWatch Negative by the London office of Standard & Poor's here due to its estimated $2.85 billion in mortgage-related writedowns for the first quarter that mispricing by...

Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Index Falls Slightly.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- A leading indicator of commercial real estate brokerage activity maintained by the National Association of Realtors fell 0.4% in the fourth quarter. According to the trade group, this is the second consecutive quarterly decline...

CBRE Becomes a DUS Lender.
March 3, 2008... LOS ANGELES -- CB Richard Ellis Group, a commercial real estate services company and lender, has become a Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing lender and will be doing this multifamily lending through its capital markets platform....

FBR Examines Discounts.
March 3, 2008... ARLINGTON, VA -- With banking companies having a high concentration of housing-related assets trading at a steep discount these days, that doesn't necessarily mean it's time to jump in and buy up their stocks, according to analysts at Friedman...

Flagstar Bancorp Suspends Its Dividend for the First Quarter.
March 3, 2008... TROY, MI -- Flagstar Bancorp has suspended its dividend for the first quarter of 2008. The company's CEO said in a statement that the decision was made in light of a need to preserve capital "until capital markets normalize and residential...

Ratings Roundup: Fitch Downgrades 400 More B&C Classes.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- Nearly 400 additional classes of first-lien subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were downgraded by Fitch Ratings from Feb. 15 to Feb. 21 as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. Fitch also...

Ryland Adopts Much of Mortgage Risk Disclosure Proposal.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Ryland Homes has agreed to substantially implement a shareholder proposal by a LIUNA pension fund requiring better disclosure of the homebuilder's mortgage risk. LIUNA, the Laborers' International Union of North America,...

Document Services: Technology May Help.
March 3, 2008... As lenders look to create internal efficiencies, going paperless is one solution. Handling physical paper, keying and rekeying data, faxing that paper and storing that paper takes both time and money. In the current market, lenders often...

Team Automates Loan Mods.
March 3, 2008... Given the overwhelming foreclosure issue, lenders need to get the paper out of the process, keep compliant and try to ensure homeowners get a fair shake, according to Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. In order to accomplish this goal,...

Flagstar Creates DocVelocity Unit.
March 3, 2008... TROY, MI -- Flagstar Bank here has created a subsidiary called DocVelocity as part of an initiative to offer the benefits of paperless processing to the rest of the lending institution. DocVelocity's Paperless Office Solutions tool is a...

MBS ProClose Aims to Show Web Services and XML Increase Accuracy.
March 3, 2008... MCLEAN, VA -- Document preparation vendor MBS ProClose Inc. has launched ProClose Platinum, which the company is billing as a Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, extensible markup language, data-driven Web services document...

Firm Pushes Expansion and Does So Itself.
March 3, 2008... As its name suggests, marketing and cross-sell vendor XSell believes lenders need to use technology to expand beyond just mortgage. XSell also is stretching out by partnering with doc prep vendor SigniaDocs. Specifically, SigniaDocs Inc.,...

GSEs May Shift Appraisal Policy.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may stop accepting appraisals ordered by mortgage brokers by Sept. 1 as part of a settlement the two secondary market agencies are negotiating with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. In selling...

Niche Lending Finds a Way.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Despite the meltdown in the subprime-mortgage sector, lenders continue to devise new and unusual ways - or dust off little-known products - to finance borrowers who fit into numerous market niches. For example, there are now...

FCM Faces Another Delisting Threat.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- Franklin Credit Management has been notified by the Nasdaq composite index that because its common stock has failed to maintain a minimum bid price of $1 per share or more for 30 days, the company faces delisting from the market...

Dems Fail to Invoke Cloture on Bill.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leaders failed late last week to get the necessary 60 votes to bring a bill up for debate that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgages. The failure to invoke cloture is a major victory for...

GSE Exec Eyes Huge Loss, Offsets.
March 3, 2008... MCLEAN, VA -- Even with the huge loss Freddie Mac posted for the fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 periods, its chairman and chief executive Richard F. Syron told a conference call right now is a "momentous time" for the company. Among the...

Using Outsourcing to Launch Retail.
March 3, 2008... DENVER -- GenEquity Mortgage Inc. recently decided to launch new retail branches by outsourcing closing, loan funding, line management and post-closing services. GenEquity, a national company based in Texas, has built a successful business...

Housing Costs Threaten Middle-Class Security.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- The economic security of America's African-American and Latino middle class is endangered by insufficient assets and high housing costs that put America's households of color at risk of impoverishment, according to a new study by...

Proposing 'Average Price' Use in GFE.
March 3, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage lenders could use the average price in listing the costs of third-party settlement services on a newly designed good-faith estimate, according to a RESPA reform proposal the Department of Housing and Urban Development is...

People.
March 3, 2008... CALIFORNIA Santa Ana-Grubb & Ellis Co. said that Jack Van Berkel has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer. Mr. Van Berkel joined NNN Realty Advisors Inc. as senior vice president, human resources in...

Ratings Reports Pressure MIs.
March 3, 2008... NEW YORK -- A pair of rating agencies have taken a critical eye towards the companies that make up the private mortgage insurance business. The report from Fitch Ratings placed its hardest hits on the four standalone mortgage insurers. It...

UBS to 'Redouble' MBS Cut Efforts.
March 3, 2008... BASEL, Switzerland -- UBS's plans to improve finances damaged by U.S. mortgage exposures include a move to "redouble" efforts to "manage down" its holdings of mortgage-backed securities and derivatives, embattled chairman Marcel Ospel told...

Citi Reducing Holdings 20%.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Citigroup late last week disclosed plans to reduce its on-balance-sheet mortgage holdings by $45 billion over the next year or 20% of its total portfolio. Officials in Citi's mortgage division told National Mortgage News that...

First Franklin Closed.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Merrill Lynch last week closed its failed experiment in subprime lending, First Franklin Financial Corp., adding that it intends to sell the unit's servicing division, Home Loan Services. A year ago, the Wall Street giant paid...

Defaults Set Record.
March 10, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The overall mortgage delinquency rate jumped to 5.82% in the fourth quarter of last year, the highest level seen since 1985, according to the national delinquency survey of the Mortgage Bankers Association. When the...

ARMs Loans Fare Worst.
March 10, 2008... Loan Type % Loans Outstanding % Foreclosure Starts Prime Fixed 65% 18% Prime ARM 15% 20% Subprime Fixed 6% 12% Subprime ARM 7% 42% FHA 7% 8% Source: MBA. Data for 4th Quarter...

CFC's POA 'Debt' at $1.2 Billion.
March 10, 2008... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corp., one of the largest funders of payment-option ARMs in the nation, is owed at least $1.2 billion from borrowers who have chosen to forestall interest payments. Roughly 5.36% of CFC's POA portfolio...

CFC's POA Woes.
March 10, 2008... ($ in millions) Total POA holdings at 12/31/07 $28,423 Accumulated negative amortization $1,216 POA no-doc or lo-doc loans 81% Borrowers using neg-am option 71% POA loans 90-plus...

TMA Defaults On Margin Call.
March 10, 2008... SANTA FE, NM -- Thornburg Mortgage at press time last Thursday appeared to be potentially facing "material" defaults due to deteriorating mortgage-backed securities market conditions. The company had met a recent set of more than $300...

Change for Broker Pay?
March 10, 2008... PARK CITY, UT -- In an effort to restore faith in the dishonored mortgage business, the Mortgage Bankers Association has begun kicking around the idea of paying mortgage brokers only if the loans they originate perform as promised. "We...

Ambac Stops All Structured.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Ambac Financial Group here at press time was seeking to bolster flagging ratings strained by the U.S. mortgage woe-sparked global credit crunch by suspending all new structured finance business for six months and reducing its...

States With The Highest Delinquency Rates.
March 10, 2008... State Total Past Due 30-day 60-day 90-day Foreclosure Foreclosure Inventory Starts Mississippi 11.07% 5.91% 2.02% 3.14% 2.14% 1.09% Michigan 8.97% 4.62% 1.81% 2.55% 3.38% 1.29% Georgia 8.37% 4.57% 1.66%...

Bond Insurance Ties Prove Troubling for Mortgage Insurers.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- The bad news keeps on rolling in for those firms involved in the mortgage insurance business, especially those that have ties to the financial guarantee business as well. American International Group Inc. here reported a net...

Fed: Lenders Must Sacrifice Some Principal.
March 10, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke is breaking away from the Bush administration's efforts to keep the restructuring of subprime mortgages narrowly focused on interest rate freezes and reductions. In a major policy...

Editorial: Getting It Done.(Editorial)
March 10, 2008... House and Senate conferees should swiftly reconcile and President Bush sign the pending reauthorization of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act, and fund it at a level that helps reduce some of the worst housing...

Open Forum: Against a Lender Bailout.
March 10, 2008... Mr. Paulson's remarks on housing and the mortgage market before the National Association of Business Economists in Washington last week are presented as our Open Forum. I have said before that housing poses the biggest downside risk to our...

Heavy Selling Seen Widening MBS Spreads to 1986 Level.
March 10, 2008... Spreads between agency mortgage-backed securities and comparable Treasuries last week hit their widest levels since the mid-1980s, according to mortgage researchers. The spread between the 30-year Fannie Mae current coupon MBS and the...

Moody's Wary of CRE Loans.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has taken negative rating actions on some regional and community banks, citing their exposure to commercial real estate. The credit rating agency said that it is concerned about the potential for loss...

ASR Sells Remaining South Carolina Property.
March 10, 2008... HOUSTON -- Real estate investment and management company American Spectrum Realty Inc. has sold its remaining South Carolina property, Columbia Northeast, on Feb. 28. The project is located in one of American Spectrum's non-core markets. ...

HGI Launches Global RE Fund.
March 10, 2008... CHICAGO -- Henderson Global Investors, an independent asset management firm with $117.8 billion under management, has launched the Henderson Global Real Estate Equities Fund, an institutional share-class mutual fund that aims to achieve...

Grubb & Ellis Wealth Management Acquires TIAA Building.
March 10, 2008... SANTA ANA, CA -- Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors LLC has acquired the TIAA Building on behalf of a private investor participating in the Grubb & Ellis Wealth Management program. The acquisition closed on Feb. 29. "The TIAA Building is an...

NHP and PMB to Buy 28 Buildings.
March 10, 2008... NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- Nationwide Health Properties and Pacific Medical Buildings are together acquiring a portfolio of 28 medical office buildings for up to $2 billion over a period of three years. Nationwide Health Properties, a health care...

Irwin Suspends Dividend But Says Capital Position is Strong.
March 10, 2008... COLUMBUS, IN -- Irwin Financial Corp. became the latest banking company to suspend its dividend. The company said it is suspending dividends on preferred stock and trust-preferred securities in addition to its common stock. "During the...

Analyst Shrugs Off Margin Calls.
March 10, 2008... ARLINGTON, VA -- Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here say that Thornburg Mortgage's disclosure that it faced $300 million of margin calls in February is not a major cause for worry. However, the report was issued before Thornburg...

Zacks: Stay Away from Banks.
March 10, 2008... CHICAGO -- Predicting that commercial real estate values will follow the residential sector "into the tank," analysts at the Zacks.com website are warning investors away from some big banking stocks. Specifically, Zacks Equity Research...

MGIC Planning to Sell Stock.
March 10, 2008... MILWAUKEE -- MGIC Investment Corp. here has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation to sell shares of its common stock in order to raise capital. MGIC has not made a decision on the amount...

Roundup: Scottish Re Downgraded on Subprime Worries Roundup: Scottish Re Downgraded on Subprime Concerns.
March 10, 2008... OLDWICK, NJ -- A.M. Best here has downgraded certain ratings of Hamilton, Bermuda-based life reinsurer Scottish Re Group Ltd. and its primary operating insurance subsidiaries, citing "continuing market deterioration in the subprime mortgage...

Canadian Real Estate Feels Fallout from U.S. Credit Crunch.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Canada's commercial mortgage market remains relatively attractive performance-wise despite the credit crunch and related funding cutbacks, according to a mortgage broker with dual headquarters here and in Montreal. This may...

Ratings Roundup: S&P Taking a Second Look at Alt-A Deals.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has placed 1,887 classes of alternative-A, first-lien residential mortgage-backed securities on CreditWatch with negative implications. The classes are from 404 RMBS transactions issued in 2006...

Price Gains Significant Despite Recent Drop.
March 10, 2008... PARK CITY, UT -- Housing prices in every one of the 20 markets tracked by the popular S&P/Case-Shiller Housing Price Index are higher than they were in the first quarter of 2001. Prices have fallen in each of the markets from their...

Prices Still Up Since '01.
March 10, 2008... % Decline % Increase City Peak From Peak Since 1st Qtr '01 Atlanta Aug 06 4.3 29.4 Boston Sep 05 9.8 64.6 Charlotte Aug 07 2.9 31.9 Chicago Sep 06 5.1 60.0...

Capital Turmoil Blunts Recovery.
March 10, 2008... PARK CITY, UT -- The capital markets have placed themselves into a crisis they can't extricate themselves from, according to an industry advisor who paints the situation as "very ugly." "We're in a roach motel," George Feiger, chief...

GSEs Agree Brokers Should Rely on Independent Appraisers.
March 10, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage lenders must use independent appraisal firms and mortgage brokers cannot select their own appraiser under a settlement the New York attorney general succeeded in getting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sign. The...

PHH Offsets Higher Origination Losses with Servicing Profit.(Financial report)
March 10, 2008... MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- While PHH Corp. here was profitable for the fourth quarter, for the full year the company lost money. In addition, its mortgage production segment had an increased loss in the fourth quarter and the full year over the...

Attendees Looking for Solutions.
March 10, 2008... As the industry gathers at the MBA's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo in Dallas, there is certain to be talk about the market downturn. But attendees don't just want speculation, they'll be looking for strategies that...

Steps to Going Paperless.
March 10, 2008... A relatively small change in procedure and reorganization of tasks without any expenditure can bring most small- or medium-sized lenders cost savings within two or three years as well as bring them a step closer to "paperless" lending. ...

MBA Technology Show to be More Interactive This Year.
March 10, 2008... This year at the MBA tech show there will be some noticeable changes. In an effort to appeal more to lenders the MBA will run more concurrent sessions and host a roundtable that will invite audience participation. The new session is being...

New Vendor Exec Team Poised to Deliver for Lenders.
March 10, 2008... At this year's MBA technology conference lenders will be looking to do more with less. LOS vendor Mortgage Cadence is poised to deliver with its new executive team. Specifically, Mortgage Cadence Inc. has appointed Michael Hammond its new...

LOS Moves to SaaS Model.
March 10, 2008... SOUTHFIELD, MI -- Realizing the demand for lenders to move away from licensed technology toward paying for their technology on a transactional basis, LOS vendor Mortgage Builder here will roll out its application on a Software as a Service...

Fremont May Take More Asset Hits.
March 10, 2008... BREA, CA -- Fremont General Corp. here warned it may need to take additional asset writedowns and reserves, which could lead to further losses for the troubled company or force its bank subsidiary, Fremont Investment & Loan, to reduce its...

Most Housing Markets Remain Sheltered from the Downturn.
March 10, 2008... PARK CITY, UT -- The housing markets in the vast majority of the country have been largely unaffected by recent price declines, according to a partner in a popular index the media likes to use to show the enormity of the housing crisis, and an...

FHA Moves Fast on Higher Limit.
March 10, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Federal Housing Administration lenders now have the green light to originate $700,000 mortgages in San Francisco, Boston, Washington and other high-cost metropolitan areas designated by the Department of Housing and Urban...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
March 10, 2008... MIEC INDEX: 46.7 Change: -6.3 Company 3/6/2008 2/28/2008 Wkly.% Chg. 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi % Chg. P/E Ratio Astoria Federal (AF) 24.84 27.01 -8% 19.75 29.99 25.77% 18.89 Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) 5.22 6.63 -21%...

People.
March 10, 2008... CALIFORNIA Calabasase-All Valley Trustee has hired Michael S. Goldstein as executive vice president of marketing. Mr. Goldstein is bringing 26 years of management experience in mortgage loan servicing. Prior to joining All Valley,...

MBS Losses Shrink Balance Sheets.
March 10, 2008... NEW YORK -- Losses on mortgage securities during the current financial crisis may total $400 billion, resulting in "much larger" decreases in lending and balance sheet shrinkage topping $1 trillion, according to a recent report by Wall Street...

Maryland Scrutinizing Servicers.
March 10, 2008... ANNAPOLIS, MD -- In response to the impact of the subprime lending crisis on homeowners, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is working on two new initiatives putting servicers on notice that their response to the crisis will be carefully...