National Mortgage News articles from May 2003

National Mortgage News archives from May 2003

Inside Track.
May 5, 2003... OPEN FORUM FHLB-SF's Crystal Ball 4 HOME BUILDERS Home Sales Appear to Be on Rebound 6 TECHONOGY NetBank Earnings Strong on Mortgage Growth 13 AFFODABLE HOUSING Tight State and Federal Budgets Threatening...

Top Five Saw Share Jump 63%.
May 5, 2003... The nation's top five residential funders increased their market share by 63% over the past three years and now account for 42.8% of all loans produced in the U.S., according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News. Among the top...

Mitigating a Writedown.
May 5, 2003... When is a $1 billion reduction in the value of your mortgage servicing rights a good thing? When your "natural hedge" is working as well as Countrywide Financial Corp.'s. Last week, Countrywide reported record first-quarter net income of...

GSE Capital Adequacy Questioned.
May 5, 2003... Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has warned legislators that standard measures of capital adequacy may not be enough when it comes to the large government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan...

Raines Eyes Charter 'Balance'.
May 5, 2003... Franklin Raines, the chairman and chief executive of Fannie Mae, indicated in response to a question at an investor conference last week that he can see circumstances in which Fannie would reconsider its government charter. Although he was...

Weighing Risk vs. Growth.
May 5, 2003... Chase Home Finance, Edison, N.J., has stayed completely out of the "high-cost loan" market despite the fact that it has been one of its goals to invest more heavily in high-margin loan channels - one example of the challenging balance between...

A Look at the Big Five.
May 5, 2003... Production Market Shares 1999-2002 (part 1 of 2) Lender '02 Market Share '01 Market Share Wells 12.17% 9.28% WaMu 11.39% 8.33% Countrywid 9.20% ...

Three Final Bidders For GMACCM?
May 5, 2003... Investment bankers last week were expected to pick three final bidders for GMAC Commercial Mortgage here, the nation's largest commercial lender and servicer. According to sources familiar with the sale, about 10 to 12 firms initially...

GMAC Mortgage Brands New Division.
May 5, 2003... GMAC Mortgage launched a new division last week. The division, operating under the brand name CalDirect, is located in Costa Mesa, Calif. It is a direct mortgage lender focused on phone and Web-based business. CalDirect is GMAC Mortgage's...

HUD Issues Long-Awaited 'Flipping' Rule.
May 5, 2003... The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued a long-awaited rule that is supposed to stop the Federal Housing Administration from financing "property flips." Starting June 2, the FHA will no longer insure single-family loans...

U.S. Appeals Court: Volume Discounts OK by RESPA If ...
May 5, 2003... A U.S. Appeals Court here has ruled that volume discounts are permissible under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act if they are economically justified and the savings are passed on to consumers. The decision by the 9th Circuit Court of...

Promotion Spotlight: Andrew Pollock.
May 5, 2003... Subprime mortgage giant First Franklin Financial Corp., San Jose has promoted Mr. Pollock to be its new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Pollock actually worked for First Franklin from 1986 to 1996 before leaving to join another...

Editorial: The Building Season.
May 5, 2003... Real estate finance is a seasonal business as well as a cyclical one. And after a long cold winter in these parts (and many others around the country), it is good to report that building season is on again. The start of building season...

Open Forum: FHLB-SF's Crystal Ball.
May 5, 2003... The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco recently issued its 2002 annual report. The letter to members from that report is presented as our Open Forum. For more than 70 years now, in one of those rare occasions when unintended...

More Lower Rates Look Possible as Key MBS Price Hits Record.
May 5, 2003... A benchmark mortgage-backed security and a benchmark Treasury bond appeared to have broken out of the trading range they had been in as rates at press time showed signs of moving lower yet again. A key U.S. mortgage-backed security price...

Subprime Lender Sells 'A' to FNM.
May 5, 2003... Saxon Mortgage here, which has been funding nonconforming product for as long as anyone can recall, is jumping into the 'A' paper market by aligning itself with Fannie Mae. Company chief executive Mike Sawyer told NMN that Saxon hopes to be...

New Home Sales Appear to Be on Rebound After Two Sluggish Months.
May 5, 2003... With the uncertainty caused by the Iraqi war behind them, homebuilders and real estate agents are looking for single-family home sales to trend close to last year's record performance. In March, sales of newly constructed homes rebounded above...

FL Home Sales Up 10% Year-to-Year.
May 5, 2003... Florida home sales continued to rise in February, putting sales 10% higher than they were one year before. Sales of single-family existing homes totaled 12,218 in the month of February, as opposed to 11,078 homes sold in the same period last...

NYU RE Panelists Take a Look at Analyst Conflict of Interest Issues.
May 5, 2003... Industry panelists touched on the conflict of interest for a Wall Street research analyst who is also expected to bring in investment banking dollars at the New York University Real Estate Institute's 8th annual real estate investment trust...

Roundup: EOP Challenged by Occupancy Rate, Helped by Terrorism Coverage.
May 5, 2003... Equity Office Properties Trust, the largest real estate investment trust by market capitalization, has reported net income of $141.7 million for the first quarter ($0.35 per share), down from $201.4 million ($0.48 per share) for the first...

Would You Like to Get More NMN Data?
May 5, 2003... Each week, NMN brings you the top rankings from our comprehensive surveys of the mortgage industry. But if you would like to plug in deeper into our world of data, you can learn more about sectors such as these we've recently highlighted: ...

Pioneer in REITs Entry into Capital Markets Joins Colony.
May 5, 2003... Richard Saltzman is joining Colony Capital, an investment firm focusing primarily on real estate, as president, and he will be based at the firm's office here. He is leaving his present position as managing director and vice chairman of...

'Renters Staying But Jobs a Concern'.
May 5, 2003... While the pace of multifamily renters leaving to pursue homeownership is slowing down somewhat, conditions in the apartment sector remain soft on account of the slack job market, the National Multi Housing Council reports, based on its recent...

Senior Housing Loan Volume Is Up.
May 5, 2003... Loan volume placed for the fourth quarter of 2002 on senior housing and care properties was up 53% compared to a year ago, according to the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industries. NIC, a nonprofit organization...

Greenwich's MBS-ABS Team Grows.
May 5, 2003... Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary RBS Greenwich Capital has reported the expansion of its mortgage- and asset-backed securities department. The Greenwich, Conn.-based company said it has hired a total of eight experienced institutional...

'Upgrades Dominate U.S. RMBS Ratings'.
May 5, 2003... Upgrades continued to represent the bulk of rating activity involving U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities in the first quarter, according to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. S&P's latest Structured Finance Global Ratings Roundup...

S&P: RMBS Market Being Reshaped.
May 5, 2003... Significant growth in residential mortgage-backed securities volume is being accompanied by regulatory changes and technological advances that will have "a lasting, monumental effect" on the future of that market, according to Standard & Poor's...

Fitch: Mixed View on Basel II Move.
May 5, 2003... The increased capital charges Basel II proposes for a select ratings category of subordinated tranches in mortgage transactions and other securities deals do need to be higher than they have been, but they should be a little lower than the...

Proposal Could Be MBS Disincentive.
May 5, 2003... Proposed international capital standards currently slated to be implemented at year-end 2006 could reshape the U.S. mortgage market, according to a recent report by Tower Group, Needham, Mass. Among other things, the report by senior...

NetBank Earnings, Like Others, Strong on Mortgage Growth.
May 5, 2003... Despite the fact that mortgage production in the first quarter of 2003 dipped at NetBank, the company's earnings nearly doubled from the year-ago quarter, mostly on the strength of the bank's mortgage and servicing operations. NetBank Inc....

Dexma Adds Clients, Posts Record Volume.
May 5, 2003... Low interest rates and record mortgage loan volumes have been pumping business through Transaction Director, the transaction management platform developed by Dexma here. According to the company, its technology handled over 2.3 million...

DocuTech Corp Is Expanding Units To Accommodate Surge in Business.
May 5, 2003... DocuTech Corp. here reports that the total client volume in its mortgage document preparation and delivery business is up 200% for the first quarter. The company developed DT6, an original program that simplifies the process of preparing and...

Integra Uses QuestSoft's Geocoding in LOS.
May 5, 2003... Integra Software Systems, Franklin, Tenn., a loan origination software provider, and QuestSoft, Laguna Hills, Calif., a provider of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act compliance solutions and geocoding services for brokers and lenders, have formed a...

Tight State and Federal Budgets Threatening Housing Funds?
May 5, 2003... Housing experts from major metropolitan areas are worried about a possible shortage of affordable housing finance because programs are threatened by growing state and federal budget cuts. This concern was presented at National Housing...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
May 5, 2003... Homebuilders Financial Network, featured in the affordable housing Special Report in the April 14 issue, is headquartered in Miami Lakes, Fla. and not in San Francisco as indicated in the article. We regret the error. Copyright 2003...

Proposed Law Allowing Veterans to Choose Appraisers Sees Opposition.
May 5, 2003... A pair of appraisal trade groups are opposing legislation that would give veterans the ability to choose their own appraiser. But the bill's sponsor says the current system of using a rotating panel of appraisers is leaving veterans shut...

LandAmerica to Buy California Depository.
May 5, 2003... LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. here has agreed to purchase a California-based financial institution, Orange County Bancorp, and use the depository as a place to hold some of its escrows. Right now, the title company has relationships with...

Schwab to Open Bank Offering Mortgages.
May 5, 2003... Charles Schwab Corp., the discount broker headquartered here, has received permission to open a commercial bank which will have the express purpose of making residential mortgage loans. It is a natural fit for the company's client base, a...

Post Closing Goes (Mid) West.
May 5, 2003... The Post Closing Department, a subsidiary of Cobine Consulting and Associates, is planning to expand into the Midwestern United States. The group projects growth into Idaho, Utah, Montana and the Dakotas by May of this year. "Our...

AMCO, AGA Ally.
May 5, 2003... AMCO, a national appraisal management company and parent company of eValu, has entered into a relationship with the American Guild of Appraisers, a professional association affiliated with the OPEIU and the AFL-CIO. According to AMCO, the two...

'State Laws: It's Not All About Predatory Lending'.
May 5, 2003... Predatory lending legislation gets all the ink, but many states also have been busy of late with other legislative issues that matter to mortgage companies. According to Nanci Weissgold of the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkpatrick &...

BoA Compliance Officer Says Don't Dally on HMDA Changes.
May 5, 2003... With changes in the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act still seven months away, lenders covered by the complicated federal reporting law may be forgiven if they are focusing on more pressing regulatory matters. But the compliance officer at Bank...

FTC Call May Be Cause for Concern.
May 5, 2003... Given what he termed a "dramatic" increase in the Federal Trade Commission's interest in mortgage-related issues, an attorney specializing in regulatory matters warned lenders late last month not to treat inquiries from the consumer watch-dog...

NJ Wholesaler Contesting Unfavorable HUD IG Audit.
May 5, 2003... A New Jersey mortgage wholesaler that appears to be the victim of a property flipping scheme, has received an unfavorable audit from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The lender, Chapel Mortgage Corp., Rancocas, N.J., is...

WaMu Seeks to Be 'Category Killer'.
May 5, 2003... The chairman, president and chief executive of Washington Mutual, Kerry Killinger, said his company was not a bank, not a thrift and not a mortgage company, but rather "an integrated financial services company going after the mass market." ...

A Look at the Big Five Production 1999-2002.
May 5, 2003... (Dollars in Millions) Lender '02 Volume '01 Volume '00 Volume '99 Volume Wells $333,389 $201,615 $63,567 $81,994 WaMu $311,959 $175,537 $64,045 $47,610 Countrywide ...

Chase Building Its Servicing Portfolio.
May 5, 2003... Besides building its originations, Edison, N.J.-based Chase Home Finance has been building the servicing side of its business in preparation for a potential change from a downward interest rate cycle in which production fares well to an upward...

CHF Adds Community Loan Officers.
May 5, 2003... Since launching its 10-year $500 billion commitment in January "to the historically underserved" and minority markets across the country, Chase Home Finance has extended its community loan officer presence following a similarly strategic...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
May 5, 2003... MIEC Index: 153.8 Change: 2.0 (part 1 of 2) 4/24/03 5/1/03 Wkly % Chg Alltel (AT) 46.36 46.81 1% Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) ...

ACB Alliances Lead to $10 Billion in Loan Sales.
May 5, 2003... America's Community Bankers strategic alliances with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and several private wholesalers has generated $10 billion in loan sales in the first quarter. For all of 2002, loan volume totaled $22 billion under the...

AAMG Cited in ABN Amro's Stability.
May 5, 2003... ABN Amro Holding NV here, the corporate parent of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc., Ann Arbor, Mich., has reported a net profit of 690 million euros (about $762 million) in the first quarter, up from 397 euros (approximately $439 million) a year...

Brookfield Merging Subsidiary with BPO?
May 5, 2003... Brookfield Properties Corp. is looking to merge a subsidiary of Brookfield with BPO Properties in a C$86.7 million (approximately $60.5 million) deal that would simplify Brookfield's corporate structure. Under the terms of Brookfield's...

People.
May 5, 2003... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Marc A. Farfel has joined Option One Mortgage Corp., a subsidiary of H&R Block, as vice president and director of real estate. In this role, he will be a member of the servicing unit's senior management team, with...

LendingTree Brings $700M+.
May 12, 2003... USA Interactive here has agreed to acquire multilender Internet specialist LendingTree for a price somewhere up to $735 million. The transaction is expected to close in late summer or early fall. The deal calls for LendingTree's senior...

S&P Won't Rate High-Cost in NJ.
May 12, 2003... New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey signed into law the Home Ownership Security Act last week, a predatory lending bill which is being described as having the toughest restrictions on mortgage lending in the country. Standard & Poor's...

Lenders Look to Tennessee Model.
May 12, 2003... Georgia and now New Mexico and New Jersey are widely known as the states which have enacted the most unworkable, far-reaching statutes aimed at curbing abusive lending practices. But which state has acted most reasonably in addressing...

Servicing Stagnant from Runoff.
May 12, 2003... Thanks to the refinancing binge, the nation's top ranked servicers are continuing to see their market shares stagnate. According to first-quarter survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News, the top 10 servicers, as a group, had a...

Reorganization For Household?
May 12, 2003... The recently-acquired Household International last week dismissed its national sales director, a move that could portend a reorganization at the residential subprime giant. Rudy Orman, who also holds the title of vice president, said he was...

Editorial: Tearing the Curtain.
May 12, 2003... One hundred mortgages may not seem like a lot, especially if they are made over five years. But the almost incalculable difficulty in making loans on the Navajo Nation and this country's other American Indian reservations makes this...

CA Revokes Wells' License.
May 12, 2003... The battle over who regulates the mortgage lending operations of Wells Fargo in California has gone to the next logical step - the California Department of Corporations has suspended the company's licenses. In March, Judge Garland E....

Top Residential Servicers At 3-31-03.
May 12, 2003... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Wells Fargo Hm Mtg San Francisco 3 Countrywide Fin'l Calabasas, CA 4 Chase Home...

Jumbo Lenders Putting Up Guard Against Fraud and Price Bubble.
May 12, 2003... It's generally assumed in housing finance circles that the U.S. likely will not experience a housing price "bubble," but some jumbo and "superjumbo" lenders are quietly tightening their underwriting guidelines. One high-end lender,...

FHLB-Atlanta Gets Green Light on MPP.
May 12, 2003... After months of waiting, the Federal Home Loan Bank here has received the green light from its regulator to launch its own "mortgage purchase program" - a product that will give loan sellers another option in the secondary market. ...

Predatory Lending Laws Adding to the Cost of Regulatory Compliance.
May 12, 2003... Keeping up with the patchwork of existing federal, state and local lending laws has become an expensive proposition, Paul Marchese, senior vice president at due diligence firm Clayton told attendees at Standard & Poor's structured finance...

Open Forum: The Pre-Emption Distraction.
May 12, 2003... Mr. Hawke recently discussed bank regulatory structure before the Exchequer Club in Washington xcerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. The current bank regulatory structure offends all of our aesthetic and logical...

Some Things Look Same for Market, But Other Things Are Changing.
May 12, 2003... In some ways, last week reminded me a lot of the previous week: rates fell yet again and I heard a second major mortgage originator advocate 1-4-point coupon mortgage-backed securities. But that's not to say things aren't changing. The...

Promotion Spotlight: Tony Gaffney.
May 12, 2003... Mr. Gaffney has been appointed chief executive officer of BCE Emergis, Montreal, and will assume his new position on May 14. He is currently president and chief executive officer of Bell Nexxia. Mr. Gaffney will be appointed to the BCE Emergis...

OFHEO Choice Waiting for Nomination.
May 12, 2003... The man slated to be the next regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is still waiting for the White House to send his confirmation papers to the Senate. As of May 1, a White House spokeswoman could offer no timetable on when the...

Letter to the Editor.
May 12, 2003... To the editor: Whether it's stocks or housing finance, unsubstantiated negative reports or fears can often have a chilling effect on an otherwise healthy market sector. A case in point is your April 28 op-ed on the Low-Income Housing...

Roundup: American Home Sees a Surge in 1Q Income.
May 12, 2003... American Home Mortgage Holdings Inc. reported a 143% increase in income between the first quarter of 2002 and the first quarter of 2003, announcing its first-quarter earnings last week to be $16.3 million. Earnings per share increased by...

Consumer Group: Ney's 'Pre-Emption' Bill Goes Too Far.
May 12, 2003... The National Consumer Law Center is raising concerns that the pre-emptive powers in a bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, go way beyond their intended purpose of overriding state predatory lending laws. "The breadth of pre-emption in...

Rating Agencies Take Action in Wake of Fairbanks Servicing Controversy.
May 12, 2003... Two rating agencies have been prompted to take action concerning Fairbanks Capital in the aftermath of negative publicity surrounding the company's loan servicing practices. Standard & Poor's, which had placed Fairbanks on review in March,...

Fairbanks Shakes Up Executive Leadership.
May 12, 2003... Fairbanks Capital Holding Corporation announced that Brad Shuster has been named chairman of the company and James Ozanne will take over as CEO. Mr. Shuster and Mr. Ozanne are presently directors of the company and its subsidiaries. Tom...

Transamerica Exec Sees One-Fee Trend.
May 12, 2003... RESPA reform may be uncertain, but the trend toward offering one-fee mortgages and bundled services will continue. So said Tom DellaTorre, president of Transamerica Vendor Management and Consulting (TA VMAC) in an exclusive NMNinterview. ...

Provantedge Releases VOX Website Tool.
May 12, 2003... After exceeding its short-term growth strategy in 2002, Provantedge Technologies here, producers of nVision enterprisewide loan management software, says it will concentrate on building its "back end" to allow for more growth. "By the end...

Fidelity MSTD Interface to Provide Workout Tool.
May 12, 2003... Fidelity Information Services Inc., the new division of Fidelity National Financial that is made up largely of the assets it acquired from Alltel, has completed a bidirectional interface of its Mortgage Servicing Package with MSTD Inc.'s...

Dynatek Enhances MORvision Website.
May 12, 2003... Dynatek Inc. here has rolled out its new website with a number of features designed to allow its customers to share information about the company's MORvision loan origination platform. The company made the announcement at its 11th annual users...

GMAC Commercial, Despite Sale Rumors, Is a Buyer in CapMark Deal.
May 12, 2003... GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. is acquiring Atlanta-based CapMark Services in a business-as-usual move, amidst uncertainty about GMACCM's own future. GMACCM, whose parent General Motors is exploring the possibilities for a sale of the...

Post Reports Loss Amid Control Fight.
May 12, 2003... Amidst an ongoing fight for the control of the company, Post Properties has reported a net loss of $23.5 million for the first quarter (a loss per share of $0.63), compared to net income of $14.2 million (earnings per share of $0.38) for the...

CBO: SEC Registration Will Not Affect Pricing of Securities.
May 12, 2003... Requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to register their debt and mortgage-backed securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission would have little impact on the pricing of their securities, according to a Congressional Budget Office...

Changing Definitions Pose Challenge in Valuing Jumbo, Alt-A Loan Pools.
May 12, 2003... The relatively recent redefinition of credit in residential mortgage-backed security issues may have made sizing up the relative value of the bonds more accurate in some ways, but it also has created some challenges - particularly in the...

Bubble Talk 'Misguided,' Unless Rates Rise.
May 12, 2003... The concept of a housing bubble is "fundamentally misguided," but an interest-rate-driven rise in mortgage payments might someday be a concern, the chief economist at Standard & Poor's said last week at S&P's structured finance seminar here....

Order in the Classroom.
May 12, 2003... For managers of mortgage servicing portfolios, their job often requires the patience and fortitude of a school teacher. Imagine a classroom filled with over a million students, each raising their hand with a question like, "Do I owe a late...

Fiserv Partners with REO.com.
May 12, 2003... Fiserv has formed a strategic alliance with REO.com to integrate the online REO firm's Offer Management System into the workflow of the MortgageServ loan servicing platform. The combination will help improve productivity and reduce costs...