National Mortgage News articles from May 2008

National Mortgage News archives from May 2008

S&P Drops Closed 2ds.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Standard & Poors on May 1 officially halted the rating process for closed-end, second-lien mortgages and related residential mortgage-backed securities, citing the sectors inordinately poor performance. This market segment does...

Top Correspondent Lenders in 2007.
May 5, 2008... Correspondent Vol. % Market Mkt Shr Rk Organization Name 2007 2006 Change Share % pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial (1) $192,700 $211,185 -9% 21.91% +4.00% 2 CitiMortgage Inc. $94,211 $88,657 6% 10.71%...

Edtorial: Starting It Up Again.
May 5, 2008... Attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Associations secondary market conference this week in Boston ought to be thinking hard about Job One for the secondary market: creating liquidity for mortgage finance. Thats because this essential function...

GMAC Sees Some Light.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- GMAC Financial Services lost $589 million in the first quarter, but said that the performance of its U.S. mortgage unit actually improved. The companys mortgage unit, ResCap, lost $859 million in the first quarter, down from a...

Ross May Buy S&Ls.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Now that WL Ross & Co. LLC is the proud owner of two midsized (mostly) nonprime servicing units, its next step is to buy a savings and loan or two, or maybe even three. Last week, WLR CEO Wilbur Ross signaled his intent to...

Countrywide Hit: $3B.
May 5, 2008... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corp. here took $3 billion of credit-related charges in the first quarter, widening the companys loss well above Wall Street expectations. The company lost $893 million, or $1.60 per share, in the...

AllRegs Buys Merit Matrix.
May 5, 2008... EAGAN, MN -- Pricing Guidelines distributor AllRegs here has acquired Merit Matrix, a division of IntraPrise Solutions Inc. headquartered in Warminster, Pa., as part of a strategy to become the mortgage utility for pricing. AllRegs has...

'HOA' Lender Finds Investors.
May 5, 2008... SAN RAMON, CA -- CMG Mortgage Services here is in the process of lining up two new investors for its popular Home Ownership Accelerator loan program. Meanwhile, company president Chris George said the company is talking to investment...

FDIC Plan Would Pay Down $50 Billion of Underwater Loans.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. unveiled a bold $50 billion "pay down" loan program last week to facilitate the restructuring of underwater mortgages and potentially prevent one million foreclosures. The FDIC proposal...

Green Tree to Buy Origen's Servicing Platform.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Origen Financial, a manufactured housing lender, has agreed to sell its servicing platform and related assets to Green Tree Servicing. The deal includes the transfer of approximately $1.6 billion of manufactured housing loans....

Radian Tries to Sell GSEs on Long-Term Recovery Process.
May 5, 2008... PHILADELPHIA -- Radian Group Inc. here said it presented a comprehensive business and financial plan to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae just two days after Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on the company from AA- to A. That move triggered a...

Open Forum: Using FHA for Stabilization.
May 5, 2008... Mr. Montgomery's statement at a recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee is presented as our Open Forum. The administration has taken decisive action to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes. The administration...

Fed Cuts May Stop There Even If Housing Still Hurts.
May 5, 2008... The Federal Open Market Committee has cut its target for the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to 2% and indicated it will try to avoid more cuts going forward even though the credit crunch and housing woes are likely to persist. "The...

Consumers Have Little Say in Choice of Settlement Services.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- What if you visited a department store and a clerk told you what brand of shirt you had to buy? There were plenty of makers available - Hathaway, Tommy Bahama, Polo, etc. - but you weren't given a choice. You had to take the...

Subprime Mess Fuels FHA's Rise.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage banking shops across the country are finding a huge demand for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans, especially from borrowers who are being squeezed by subprime loans. FHA makes the "most sense" for...

Strong 1st Quarter Leads Analyst to Revise Outlook for MGIC.
May 5, 2008... MILWAUKEE -- An analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, Arlington, Va., has cut his 2008 loss estimates for MGIC Investment Corp. here by more than half, as the company's first-quarter results were better than anticipated. The cut, from an...

Servicers Facing ARM Payment Resets Need to Be Proactive.
May 5, 2008... DALLAS -- As servicers get ready and start to deal with adjustable-rate mortgage payment resets, the multifaceted national effort to save homeowners in distress is an endeavor that requires proactive intervention and sometimes, unpopular...

Mortgage Insurers Continue to Feel Strain.
May 5, 2008... CHICAGO -- Driven by losses in the mortgage insurance and title insurance segments of its business, Old Republic International Corp. here posted a first-quarter 2008 net loss of $19 million, or $0.08 per share, compared with net income of...

Las Vegas Foreclosure Bus Tours Boost Home Sales.
May 5, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- Re/Max Central here has launched a foreclosure bus tour for consumers and investors. "Re/Max Central believes it is a great time to buy Las Vegas real estate or a Las Vegas foreclosure as interest rates are at near-record lows,...

CRL: BrokersCharge More.
May 5, 2008... DURHAM, NC -- In its latest study, the Center for Responsible Lending claims that subprime borrowers pay significantly more for getting a loan from a mortgage broker as opposed to a retail lender. The study is called "Steered Wrong:...

FBR Upgrades Downey's Shares.
May 5, 2008... ARLINGTON, VA -- Analysts at Friedman Billings Ramsey here have upgraded their rating on Downey Financial Corp. to "market perform" from "underperform," even as they lowered their price target on the company's shares to $13. The lower...

Flagstar Hurt by Change in Accounting for Servicing Rights.
May 5, 2008... TROY, MI -- Flagstar Bancorp lost $10.6 million in the first quarter as a change in accounting for mortgage servicing rights and higher credit costs damaged the company's results. Still, the first-quarter loss was an improvement from the...

Roundup: PHH Offers $220 Million of New Convertible Notes.
May 5, 2008... MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- PHH Corp. has priced an offering of $220 million of 4% senior convertible notes due 2012. The underwriters have an additional $30 million overallotment option. The notes are convertible to cash or to common shares of PHH...

Cousins Properties Selling 167 Industrial Acres in Atlanta.
May 5, 2008... ATLANTA -- Cousins Properties Inc. is selling 167 acres of land at two Atlanta-area industrial parks to Weeks Robinson Properties, an industrial development here, for $18.5 million. The transactions, which will close through next year,...

LaSalle Units Form New JV.
May 5, 2008... CHICAGO -- LaSalle Hotel Properties, a multi-operator real estate investment trust, and LaSalle Investment Management, a global real estate investment manager, have formed a joint venture to seek U.S. hotel investments in high barrier-to-entry...

Moody's: CREIs Bouncing Back.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Commercial real estate prices as measured by Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices rose 2.1% in February, offsetting most of the losses the CPPI had posted since October. "We interpret the CPPI's increase in February...

Appraiser Independence Called Key to Restoring Confidence.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Pending federal approval, property evaluation standards and the creation of the Independent Valuation Protection Institute are attracting positively cautious reviews. Now is time for action in securing that appraisals are...

U.K. Group Skeptical of European Integration.
May 5, 2008... LONDON -- A United Kingdom mortgage group is calling for the European Commission to shelve proposals to integrate European Union mortgage markets in light of recent market changes. "Many European mortgage markets have changed so...

Central Database and Analytics Help Alliance Aid Borrowers.
May 5, 2008... DALLAS -- Hope Now, the nation's largest partnership of government, private and nonprofit entities, is proving that strategy is one of the most efficient ways to assist those who are suffering from the subprime mortgage crisis. The reason,...

FirstFed Raises Single-Family Loss Allowance.(Financial report)
May 5, 2008... SANTA MONICA, CA -- FirstFed Financial Corp., parent of First Federal Bank of California, expects to substantially increase its allowance for loan losses related to single-family home loans. The bank expects to report a loan loss provision...

Some Fear New Appraisal Standards Will Drive Up Costs.
May 5, 2008... ANN ARBOR, MI -- Experts believe proposed home appraisal rules will drive up costs for homeowners and limit their choices. Commenting on the implementation and deployment of the Home Valuation Protection Code and efforts by Fannie Mae,...

Data-Vision Adds E-Disclosure Functionality.
May 5, 2008... MISHAWAKA, IN -- Data-Vision Inc. has released a new version of its LoanQuoter software that allows lenders to facilitate the mortgage loan application process through its consumer-facing Web portals. The new LoanQuoter Version 7.02 marks...

PROMOTION SPOTLIGHT: Susan Graham.
May 5, 2008... Ms. Graham has been promoted from vice president of operations to president of origination vendor Financial Industry Computer Systems, Dallas. Prior to joining FICS, she served as first vice president of residential and commercial loan...

Builders: New Home Market Caught in a 'Diabolical Loop'.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The housing market is trapped in a vicious downward spin, several panelists said at the National Association of Home Builders' Semi-Annual Spring Construction Forecast Conference late last month. And at least one participant,...

CapitalSource Renews its $1 Billion Syndicated Credit Line.
May 5, 2008... CHEVY CHASE, MD -- CapitalSource Inc., a real estate investment trust here, has renewed a secured credit facility of $1 billion. The syndicate is comprised of five banks. The lead is Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, which has made a commitment of...

Builders Told To Scale Down.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The nation's giant homebuilding firms must pull back if they are to survive the current downturn, an analyst with Wachovia Capital Markets in San Francisco warned at the National Association of Home Builders' Spring Construction...

Mortgage Pros Talk about Looking for Greener Pastures.
May 5, 2008... AE-Secret-Informant: How do you downplay 20 years experience in the mortgage (business) when trying to break into another line of work? Up until now I have made enough to cover all my monthly expenses and not dip into savings. This month I will...

Roundup: Moody's Downgrades 800+ Subprime Classes.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of more than 800 tranches in nearly 100 subprime residential mortgage-backed securities transactions from six issuers. The affected securities were as follows: 286 tranches...

Roundup: Countrywide, New Vista Form Alliance to Sell REO.
May 5, 2008... Countrywide Financial Corp. and New Vista Asset Management have joined together to find qualified borrowers for Countrywide's real estate-owned properties. The companies said New Vista's network of real estate agents, who have "deep roots in...

Citi Raises $4.5BWith Stock Offer.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Shares of Citigroup sank more than 2% last Wednesday after the company priced a $4.5 billion common stock offering. Citi had previously announced its intention to issue $3 billion of shares but raised the amount in response to...

BoA Pledges to Mitigate Foreclosures on Countrywide Loans.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Bank of America is promising regulators it will devote substantial resources to prevent foreclosures after it takes control of Countrywide's $1.47 trillion mortgage servicing portfolio. BoA president Liam McGee told Federal...

AmStar to Finance Reverse Warehouse.
May 5, 2008... MIAMI -- AmStar Financial Services Inc. here is launching what its top executive is describing as the first-ever warehouse lending facility dedicated to reverse mortgages. Right now, Amstar is looking for an investor to fund the facility....

Mortgage-Related Writedowns Push Deutsche Bank into Red.
May 5, 2008... FRANKFURT, Germany -- Deutsche Bank took a 141 million euro ($220 million) loss in the first quarter, a period in which it also took 2.7 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in writedowns, 885 million euros ($1.38 billion) of which were mortgage...

Street Vets Teaming Up with Black?
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Former Deutsche Bank loan traders Michael Commaroto and Paul Mangione are talking to investor Leon Black about starting a fund to bottom-fish in delinquent mortgages and securities, industry officials told National Mortgage News....

First American, Fidelity Buck Trend with Profitable First Quarter Results.(Financial report)
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Of the five national title insurance underwriters, only The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. reported profits for the first quarter. FAF, which is in the...

FTC Takes Aim at Bear's Servicer.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commissions multiyear investigation into the servicing practices of EMC Mortgage Corp. has finally placed the Bear Stearns & Co. affiliate in hot water. FTC director of consumer protection Lydia Parnes told a...

Key Goldman Exec Leaving Firm.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- Goldman Sachs mortgage head and managing director Daniel Sparks has stepped down and been replaced by two other executives from within the firm who will co-head the unit going forward, a spokesman confirmed. Justin Gmelich,...

Provident Posts Loss But Cites Regional Strength as Asset.(Financial report)
May 5, 2008... BALTIMORE -- Provident Bankshares Corp., the parent company of Provident Bank, reported a net loss of $17.6 million for the quarter ending March 31. The company said recent economic data have shown that the Mid-Atlantic region, while...

People.
May 5, 2008... FLORIDA Maitland-Digital Risk LLC has named former Credit Suisse conduit and credit products group founder Bruce Miller as the head of its structured finance consultancy practice in New York. Mr. Miller was most recently managing...

Roundup: More B&C Scrutiny.
May 5, 2008... NEW YORK -- More than 400 additional classes of subprime mortgage pass-through certificates were downgraded by Fitch Ratings recently as a result of changes to its subprime loss forecasting assumptions. Fitch also placed more than 20...

2007 Subprime Off 70%.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- There's no pretty way to state the obvious: subprime origination volumes were hammered last year after concerns about delinquencies, credit quality and declining home values ravished the market. According to exclusive survey...

Fannie Mae Staying the Course.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae executives are telling investors and its customers that 2008 and 2009 will be "tough years" with falling house prices and rising credit losses but the giant mortgage company will play a major role in the recovery of the...

BoA Could Face $30B in CFC Hits.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- When Bank of America finally signs over the checks and swallows Countrywide Financial Corp. in September it may face loan writedowns of $30 billion on its new acquisition, according to a new research report from Friedman Billings...

Fiserv Buys Portellus.
May 12, 2008... BROOKFIELD, WI -- As the subprime crisis and credit crunch claimed several lender victims, origination vendor Portellus found itself without customers and closed its doors. Now Fiserv here has acquired the technology assets of Portellus. No...

ResCap Will Sell Assets.
May 12, 2008... Facing a liquidity crunch, Residential Capital Corp. says it hopes to sell $600 million worth of assets by June 30 and is considering the auction of European MBS held on its balance sheet. "We are highly leveraged relative to our cash...

Top Subprime Lenders In 2007.
May 12, 2008... Subprime Volume % Market Rk Organization Name 2007 2006 Change Share 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. (1) $16,993 $40,596 -58% 10.22% 2 Option One Mortgage Corp. (CL) $13,985 $29,811 -53% 8.41% 3...

House Passes FHA Bill Despite Threat of Bush Veto.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives passed a Federal Housing Administration refinancing bill last week by a 266 to 154 vote despite a threat by President Bush to veto the foreclosure prevention bill. The FHA bill is designed to...

HUD Extends Comment Period on RESPA.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Bowing to congressional pressure, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has extended the comment period on its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act reform proposal for 30 days to June 13. "In light of congressional...

Servicers See Increase in Workouts.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Hope Now alliance estimates that mortgage servicers provided borrowers with more than a half-million loan workouts in the first quarter, bringing the total number of workouts completed since last July to 1.4 million. The...

Lenders Resist New Appraisal Standards.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Lenders appear to be united in their opposition to the appraisal standards or code that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed to implement as part of a settlement with New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. The Mortgage Bankers...

Open Forum: Preserving Affordable Rentals.
May 12, 2008... The following article written by Mr. Dugan on preserving affordable multifamily rental housing is presented as our Open Forum. Some 34 million American households occupy rental housing, so there are significant opportunities for banks to...

Editorial: Rating the Retreat.(Editorial)
May 12, 2008... Standard & Poor's Corp.'s decision no longer to rate closed-end second loans or securities is another indication of a mortgage business in full retreat. Lenders are having trouble lending, Wall Street is in full retreat from securitizing (at...

Recovery Challenged by the Need to Do More with Less.
May 12, 2008... A big part of the challenge when it comes to efforts to bring buyers back to the secondary mortgage market lies not only in the fact that some loans weren't all they were cracked up to be but in that investors are no longer who they were, do...

Decisioning to Restore Confidence?(Conference notes)
May 12, 2008... BOSTON -- As the mortgage industry looks to restore investor confidence as well as its own tarnished image, Overture Technologies suggests that a concept called re-decisioning may be the answer. "Today securitization is done with macros and...

Jumbo Efforts to Be Put to the Test in Hearing.
May 12, 2008... BOSTON -- The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee told the MBA's National Secondary Market Conference here last week that he plans to hold a hearing later this month that he hoped would shed light on why officials have not gotten...

Troubled Branch Outlet Is Bought.
May 12, 2008... TACOMA, WA -- All Fund Mortgage here, a net branch operator that had trouble paying some of its managers last year, has new owners. According to correspondence provided to National Mortgage News, All Fund was purchased by Carlile...

Equity Firm Teaming Up with Triad to Build New MI Company.
May 12, 2008... WINSTON-SALEM, NC -- Triad Guaranty Inc. here is negotiating exclusively with Lightyear Capital LLC, New York, on the creation of a new monoline mortgage insurer. In its most recent 10-K filing, Triad said this is one of the options it was...

KBW: REITs Beat 1st Q Consensus Estimates.
May 12, 2008... NEW YORK, NY -- Keefe Bruyette & Woods released its first-quarter scorecard for equity REITs, which includes a snapshot look at first-quarter earnings results for the 25 equity REITs/REOCs that have already reported across various property...

Hudson Realty Invests In Colorado Apartments.
May 12, 2008... NEW YORK -- Hudson Realty Capital, a real estate fund manager here, has made a $6 million equity investment in a 44-unit apartment complex, known as the Marcellina, and nearly two acres of adjacent developable land located in Crested Butte,...

Subservicing: Rewarding Merit.
May 12, 2008... In today's mortgage industry, with delinquencies and defaults rising, loan modifications being promoted, and regulators eyeing practices, sophisticated loan administration is more important than ever before. It's no time to have inexperienced...

RMS Sees Growth in Reverse Subservicing.
May 12, 2008... With the baby boom generation starting to enter retirement, the business of making reverse mortgages is entering a growth phase. The baby boomers, more comfortable than earlier generations taking out debt, make for prime Home Equity...

LaSalle's Servicer Rating Upgraded.
May 12, 2008... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the master servicer quality rating on LaSalle Bank National Association to SQ3+ from a previous rating of SQ3. LaSalle is an indirect subsidiary of Bank of America. The rating pertains to...

Top Subservicers At 12/31/07.
May 12, 2008... Subservicing Volume % Market Rk Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change Share % 1 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) Lake Zurich, IL $66,975 $62,700 7% 20.08% 2 Residential Capital LLC (GMAC) (E)...

Vendors Adapt to Change.
May 12, 2008... At the recent SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas, panelists said the old act of providing $500 to $1,000 upfront to borrowers in default for "cash for keys" is changing. Lorenz Schwarz, president, Phoenix Asset Management, said...

Strategies to Maximize Performance.
May 12, 2008... DALLAS -- Falling house prices and a slowing economy will continue to affect default rates as well as the recession-like situation in the fourth quarter of 2007 when the market saw a further increase in defaults and foreclosures, especially in...

Top Subprime Subservicers At 12/31/07.
May 12, 2008... Subservicing Volume % Rk Organization Name Location 12/31/07 12/31/06 Change 1 Select Portfolio Servicing (E) (1) Salt Lake City, UT $13,524 $8,959 51% 2 Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC West Palm Beach, FL $10,788 $15,420...

Pair Poised to be Reverse Leaders.
May 12, 2008... WILMINGTON, DE -- WSFS Bank, a subsidiary of WSFS Financial Corp. here, has acquired a majority interest in 1st Reverse Mortgage Financial Services LLC, a Westmont, Ill.-based reverse mortgage wholesaler. Terms of the deal were not...

CFC Deals with Servicing Concerns.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Countrywide Financial Corp. said it is improving the way it services mortgages for homeowners in bankruptcy after U.S. trustees have raised concerns about its servicing practices and the fees it charges those borrowers who are...

Central Banks Adding Liquidity to Aid Banks in U.S., Europe.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and Swiss National Bank have expanded their liquidity measures and the Fed has added a wider range of asset-backed securities to the list of collateral types that can be pledged in...

Fitch Ratings Downgrades More Than 550 Additional Subprime Classes.
May 12, 2008... NEW YORK -- More than 550 additional classes of subprime mortgage-backed securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. Fitch has also affirmed the ratings on classes with outstanding balances of more than $24 billion. Among the...

MBA to Lawmakers: 'Don't Overreact' to Housing Crisis.
May 12, 2008... BOSTON -- With Congress in crisis mode, the Mortgage Bankers Association last week called on lawmakers to take care of "unfinished business" by addressing policy issues that have, in some cases, lingered for years. Issuing a 10-point...

No Improvement Until 2009.
May 12, 2008... BOSTON -- Lenders shouldn't expect sales to begun picking up some steam until next year at the earliest, the Mortgage Bankers Association's acting chief economist warned here last week. And even when the market begins to rally, the recovery...

Few Hear GSEs' Get Wrists Slapped.
May 12, 2008... BOSTON -- Besides the crowd - the announced attendance was 1,200, but it seemed like only half that actually showed up - noticeably absent from the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference here last week was Wall...

People.
May 12, 2008... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Loan-Score Decisioning Systems has named Jon McGuire as chief technology officer. Mr. McGurie brings more than 10 years of mortgage technology experience to Loan-Score serving in development and integration roles as...