National Mortgage News articles from November 2007

National Mortgage News archives from November 2007

An Industry in Crisis.
November 5, 2007... * GMAC's rescap loses $2.3B in 3Q * Foreclosures Double * B&C mess claims job of Merrill CEO * NY AG sues First American on appraisals * Radian & PMI post big losses * UBS & CFC lost money too (c) 2007 National...

ABS Defaults Hit Record.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The default rate on securitized subprime mortgages hit a record in July and jumped another 150 basis points in August as declining house prices are making it more difficult for struggling homeowners to refinance into more...

Citi Closing HE Channel.
November 5, 2007... ST. LOUIS -- CitiMortgage here has discontinued its flow and bulk correspondent programs for prime second-lien/home-equity loans. The company said in an Oct. 31 bulletin to customers that it would only be accepting loans in this category...

1,600 More Downgrades.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has downgraded 1,413 classes of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (with an original par value of $22 billion). In all, S&P and Fitch Ratings took more than 1,600 negative rating actions...

B&C FUNDINGS HIT THE WALL.
November 5, 2007... ($ in Billions) Total Res. B&C B&C % Year Production Volume of Total 2007 (e) $2,400 $280 11.7% 2006 $3,267 $665 20.4% 2005 $3,294 $795 24.1% 2004 $2,790...

Editorial: Dead Flat.(Editorial)
November 5, 2007... The percentage of mortgages made to minorities remained flat last year, according to an analysis of data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. According to HMDA, in 2006 more than 8,700 lenders made $864 billion in mortgages to...

GMAC Unit Loses $2.3B.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- ResCap, the residential mortgage unit of GMAC Financial Services, suffered a $2.3 billion net loss in the third quarter, consisting of a $1.8 billion operating loss and a $455 million impairment charge to goodwill. The company loss...

MI Firms Take Big Hit.
November 5, 2007... PHILADELPHIA -- The carnage in the mortgage insurance business continues as the last two of the standalone companies reported losses for the third quarter. Radian Group Inc. here lost $704 million, or $8.78 per share, compared with...

NAMB Blasts RESPA Rule.(Conference notes)
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The president-elect of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers said the Department of Housing and Urban Development does "not care about true simplification" of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, if what is rumored to...

Investment Fund Quietly Accumulates a 7.9% Stake in CFC.
November 5, 2007... CALABASAS, CA -- Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego now owns 7.9% of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s common stock, a position it has amassed over the past few months. At 7.9%, Brandes is the fourth largest institutional investor in...

Chicago FHLB Drops Dividend.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Most Federal Home Loan Banks enjoyed a solid third quarter but the Chicago bank notified its members last week that it will not pay a dividend for the third quarter due to declining earnings and a possible loss in the fourth...

Major Fall in CRE Deals Since End of Summer: There has been a surge in deals falling out of contract because of difficulty obtaining financing.
November 5, 2007... LAS VEGAS -- The mortgage mess spilled over into the income property sector in a big way after the summer came to an official ending, according to analysts at the Urban Land Institute's annual fall conference here. "The capital markets...

Open Forum: Reforming Mortgage Practices: Excerpts of Ms. Bair's recent testimony on legislative proposals on reforming mortgage practices before the House Financial Services Committee are presented as our Open Forum.
November 5, 2007... For borrowers, there are 2.07 million subprime first-lien hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages outstanding that were made in 2005 and 2006, most of which have or will reset in 2007 or 2008. While about 311,000 of these are currently seriously...

Fed Lowers Rates But May Not Do It Again Soon: Adverse economic and housing developments have brought mortgage rates to a six-month low.
November 5, 2007... The Federal Open Market Committee's 25-basis-point rate cut last week may be its last for some time. "The committee judges that, after this action, the upside risks to inflation roughly balance the downside risks to growth," the FOMC said...

Broker Group Will Propose New Guidelines on Fiduciary Duty.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- A new disclosure form is in the works that could go a long way toward letting borrowers know exactly where their mortgage originator's allegiance truly lies. Is it with the lender, which actually funds the loan, or is it with...

City's AH Developers Fight Crime.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Recognition of homeownership preservation and affordable housing as an effective tool against crime may raise some eyebrows. Not in New York though, especially when the person giving such credit is New York Police Department...

More DPAs Try to Take Advantage of Loophole.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Downpayment assistance providers may lose the war against the Department of Housing and Urban Development rule to terminate their services on Oct. 31. Right now, however, they have won a six-month extension battle. Same as...

FHA Lenders Warned on Fees.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development is warning Federal Housing Administration lenders that they better stop paying excessive fees to non-approved mortgage brokers. HUD issued a "policy alert" last week reminding...

Captive Title Insurance Causes Trouble for Six Homebuilders.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Six homebuilders have agreed to pay a total of $1.4 million to settle alleged Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act violations in contention with their captive title reinsurance arrangements. The Department of Housing and...

Beazer's Debt Ratings Downgraded.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has downgraded Beazer Homes USA Inc.'s issuer default rating to BB- from BB. The downgrade of the IDR reflects the company's performance amidst continued challenging market conditions, according to Fitch, and the...

Home Builders Still Struggling: 'Return ratios were well below those of a year ago and coverage ratios were also noticeably diminished'.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- With the U.S. housing market mired in a sharper and longer-than-expected cyclical downturn, the contraction will be more severe than earlier anticipated during the balance of this year and into 2008, mainly due to tighter mortgage...

NAHB Forecast: More Bad News for Housing.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- There is little good to be said about the current state of the housing industry and according to industry professionals the immediate outlook for home prices is stormy, at best. "This downturn is well beyond anything I've...

Multifamily Starts Continue Slide.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Single-family housing starts fell 2% in September compared to the previous month while multifamily starts plunged 36%, according to recently released government figures. Homebuilders broke ground on 963,000 single-family units...

...But CRE Prices Continue to Rise: Moody's predicts, however, that price growth will begin to slow for the commercial property sector.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Commercial real estate prices were up 13.6% over a one-year period, and rose 1.6% in August, according to a Moody's Investors Service report. The credit rating agency sees commercial real estate prices as at or near a peak,...

Commercial Market Faces Uncertainty in '08.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- The commercial real estate correction that has been set in motion this year is expected to continue into 2008, resulting in a slowdown and uncertainty in the sector, according to over 600 real estate participants responding to a...

CMBS OverduesAre Edging Upward.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities were up 13 basis points to 0.29% in the third quarter, Standard & Poor's reports, led by loans from the 2005 and 2006 vintage years. In the third quarter, the total amount...

Choosing an LOS Requires More Attention to Detail than in Past.
November 5, 2007... GREENSBORO, NC -- As the market changes, so has the industry's attitude toward loan origination systems. Lenders are increasingly looking for a system that will both stand the test of time and interface easily with new and emerging players to...

E-Loan Is First to Co-Brand Home Listing Site: Studies Suggest the vast majority of homeowners don't use their current lender for their next home loan.
November 5, 2007... LEXINGTON, MA -- Bank on Real Estate here said that E-Loan has become the first lender customer to launch a co-branded website (eloan.bankonrealestate.net) to attract purchase borrowers by offering easy MapQuest access to homes for sale in...

News Analysis: Bullish on the MI Industry - and Here's Why: 'If the second lien carried a floating rate there was always the potential for a rate increase.'.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Over the past decade mortgage insurance executives wrung their hands over the rise of "80-10-10" loan structures, which have taken a major bite out of both their profits and prospects. But rest assured - thanks to the current...

Is AHM Servicing Sale in Doubt?: A Plan to sell the servicing rights to a distressed-debt investor sparked protests from some shareholders.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- The saga around the sale of bankrupt American Home Mortgage's servicing rights took a new twist recently as a major stockholder in the firm filed a lawsuit challenging the company's characterization of its portfolio. Other investors...

Legal Worries Stymie Workouts: 'We are aware of securities holders that have begun scrutinizing the actions of servicers.'.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Fear and doubt seems to be impeding mass restructurings of problem mortgages as servicers are wary of being sued by investors holding mortgage-backed securities. The Bush administration, federal regulators, mortgage industry...

SunTrust Wins on HELOC Servicing.
November 5, 2007... WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA -- SunTrust ranks highest in customer satisfaction for the servicing of home-equity lines of credit, according to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates. SunTrust, which has previously ranked highest in servicing...

KPMG Buys Real Estate Consultant.
November 5, 2007... BALTIMORE -- KPMG Corporate Finance LLC, a full-service, independent, middle-market investment bank, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Keen Consultants LLC and Keen Realty LLC. Keen, located on Long Island, N.Y., is a...

Priced to Move.
November 5, 2007... Scratch and dent used to be a category reserved for, say, seasoned loans that became problematic for one reason or another and fell out of securitized deals. But "scratch and dent" has come to apply to many more loans than it used to. The...

Scratch and Dent Interest Expands Outside Industry.
November 5, 2007... POWAY, CA -- Interest in the scratch-and-dent mortgage market has expanded outside the industry, according to Cary Burch, president and chief executive officer of technology vendor LSSI here. "LSSI has been providing servicing software for...

Understanding Loan Prices: Discounts in the market recently have been 'as great as 50 cents on the dollar, in some cases more,' according to one broker.
November 5, 2007... Brokering scratch-and-dent residential mortgages in the midst of a credit crunch has been a challenge primarily in terms of getting sellers to understand the market's prices and the alternatives to selling, according to Christian Kerr, founding...

Making the Market's Change Easier.
November 5, 2007... JERSEY CITY, NJ -- While the shift in secondary mortgage market focus to seasoned "scratch and dent" business from new loan conduit operations has been challenging for a number of the large players, it has been relatively easy for one service...

Certain Ameriquest Tranche Ratings Reviewed.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service as of Oct. 24 had placed on review for possible downgrade the ratings of 16 tranches issued in four separate Ameriquest Mortgage Securities Inc. mortgage transactions. All the tranches are backed primarily...

Scratch and Dent Affects Earnings.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- The inordinate amount of loans falling into the scratch-and-dent category these days has taken somewhat of a toll on some publicly traded institutions that are finding this development weighs negatively on their earnings results....

Spreading Awareness of Reaging/Loan Modification Issues: Reaging is 'a widespread industry concern, among both federally regulated and non-federally regulated institutions.'.
November 5, 2007... Two practices that are sometimes used in handling scratch-and-dent mortgages and that may affect their value are reaging and loan modifications, according to an Oct. 3 report by Joseph R. Mason, associate professor of finance at Drexel...

New York's AG Sues First American.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo is suing First American Corp. and its eAppraiseIT unit for allegedly colluding with Washington Mutual Inc. to use a list of preferred appraisers to inflate mortgage appraisals. The lawsuit...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
November 5, 2007... MIEC Index: 68.0 Change: -2.4 Company 11/1/2007 10/25/2007 Wkly. 52 52 % Chg. P/E % Chg. wk/lo wk/hi Ratio Astoria Federal (AF) 24.58 25.93 -5% 22.47 30.94...

Bear May Get Ousted from Fund: 'Bear's view is that it's not responsible for what happened and that shareholders are out of luck.'.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- A law firm that represents shareholders who lost millions by investing in two subprime-related hedge funds overseen by Bear Stearns & Co. is calling for a vote to replace Bear from managing what's left of the funds. A spokesman...

UBS Is Latest Firm Burned by B&C.
November 5, 2007... NEW YORK -- United Bank of Switzerland reported a $623 million loss in the third quarter, citing the liquidity crisis and what it calls the "deterioration" in the subprime market. UBS said its fixed-income division - which includes mortgage...

People.
November 5, 2007... ARKANSAS Little Rock - Wilson & Associates PLLC has hired John L. Billings as a new attorney in its Knoxville, Tenn., office. Mr. Billings is an attorney in the default department in the Knoxville office. His main area of practice...

Experts Want Workout Rules: Critics say loss mitigation has produced an invisible decline in the average quality of some performing mortgages.
November 5, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Academics and researchers are calling for disclosure of loss mitigation activities so investors can better gauge the risks and the quality of the underlying loans in mortgage-backed securitizations. Workouts and...

An Industry in Crisis.
November 12, 2007... * Citi tackles multibillion MBS Hit * IndyMac increases reserve by nearly 50% * WMC shut for good, assets being sold * B&C wholesaler ResMAE closes - again * 'Predatory' bill could hit YSPs * AIG's MI unit loses money in...

Citi Reeling From MBS.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Reeling from a multibillion-dollar decline in U.S. subprime mortgage-related exposures that forced its chief executive to step down, Citigroup Inc. has made plans to start a new unit to focus on the problem and repositioned its...

Wholesalers In 3Q 07 (Sample).
November 12, 2007... ($ in Millions) Wholesale Volume % Organization Name Headquarters Q3 07 Q3 06 change Amtrust Bank Cleveland, OH $4,153 $3,764 10% Branch Banking...

New York AG Subpoenas 2.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- The federal regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac blasted New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo for subpoenaing the two GSEs in connection with an appraisal fraud probe, noting that "they have no economic incentive to knowingly...

Pulte Posts Huge Loss.(Financial report)
November 12, 2007... BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI -- The operating environment for homebuilders continues to be depressed, with builder earnings being hit by elevated levels of new and resale home inventory, tightening of mortgage liquidity and weak consumer sentiment for...

ResMAE Stops Lending - For a Second Time.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- ResMAE Mortgage of LaBrea, Calif., has once again suspended wholesale production but said it would honor commitments made prior to Nov. 6. The subprime lender broke the news to its loan brokers last week. Earlier this year,...

GE Closes B&C Unit.
November 12, 2007... BURBANK, CA -- General Electric has officially closed its subprime unit, WMC Mortgage here, and is preparing to sell its remains to an undisclosed buyer, National Mortgage News has learned. The shutdown - unannounced - came about 10 days...

Measure May Crimp YSPs: ...But NAMB Hopeful on Outcome.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The House Financial Services Committee last week passed predatory lending legislation that could put a crimp on yield-spread premiums, a key component of how loan brokers are compensated. However, late last week, officials...

Dem. Predatory Proposals.
November 12, 2007... The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act introduced by Reps. Barney Frank, Brad Miller and Mel Watt would: * Establish an "ability to repay" standard for all residential mortgage originators and a "net tangible benefit" test for...

Japanese Look to NAMB for Help with Ethics and Standards.
November 12, 2007... LAS VEGAS -- The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has signed a cooperation agreement with the Japanese Mortgage Planners Association at the U.S. group's first-ever NAMB West conference here. NAMB will help JMPA develop programs on...

S&D Specialist Raises $65 MM.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- MountainView Capital Holdings, Denver, a player in the red-hot "scratch and dent" market has raised $65 million in equity capital, a sign that investors see gold in the loan "workout" business. Led by president and CEO Mike...

IndyMac Raises Loss Reserve to $1.4Billion in Weak 3rd Quarter.(Financial report)
November 12, 2007... PASADENA, CA -- IndyMac Bancorp increased its loss reserve by 47% and posted a $203 million loss, or $2.77 per share, in the third quarter as the company's stock price tumbled in the wake of a difficult quarter. But IndyMac's CEO says that...

Editorial: Going Sideways.(Editorial)
November 12, 2007... The movement to bring Native people into the mortgage tent seems to be stalling recently. Besides the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 184 program, which has been a success story that has made thousands of mortgages to...

Open Forum, Foreclosure Prevention Is Key: Secretary Jackson's prepared remarks at the recent MBA annual in Boston are presented as our Open Forum.
November 12, 2007... Fluctuations... booms and corrections... in the housing market ripple out worldwide. For the past several months we all have been caught in the gravitational pull of the subprime crisis. We have been drawn, pulled and propelled against our...

Fed May Want to Cut Again as Subprime Woes Extend Further.
November 12, 2007... It was starting to look last week like the Fed could change its mind about ruling out more rate cuts to address subprime-related woes as more indicators of general economic concern hit the market and both the long-term rate-indicative 10-year...

Massachusetts AG Issues Final Broker/Lender Regulations: The regulations prohibit lenders from steering borrowers into loans that are more costly than others for which they qualify.
November 12, 2007... BOSTON -- Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley filed finalized regulations with the secretary of state's office to expand the scope of the existing mortgage lender and broker regulations prohibiting certain unfair and deceptive...

Roundup: Fitch Issues Flurry of New Downgrades.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings issued a flurry of rating actions Oct. 29 that included downgrades of 51 classes of mortgage-backed securities. Fitch also placed seven classes of MBS on Rating Watch Negative and affirmed the ratings on 67...

CRE Executives Turn Cautious.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Only 31% of 332 commercial real estate executives nationwide are bullish about the prospects for commercial real estate in the next year, in the aftermath of subprime market concerns and credit crunch issues, according to a survey...

Delinquencies Rise on Apartment CMBS Deals.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Delinquencies on multifamily-based commercial mortgage-backed securities were up 10.4% in September, mostly on account of 20 new loan delinquencies totaling $78.7 million, Fitch Ratings reports. The credit rating agency said that...

Gramercy to Buy Ranieri's REIT: The deal is expected to create 'an integrated commercial real estate finance and operating company.'.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Gramercy Capital Corp., a commercial real estate financing affiliate of real estate investment trust SL Green Realty Trust, is acquiring American Financial Realty Trust, a Jenkintown, Pa., Lewis Ranieri-backed company in the...

Moody's Expects CMBS Contraction: 'The liquidity crunch is reducing collateral origination to a trickle and prompting issuers to revisit simpler... structures.'.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities and commercial real estate-related collateralized debt obligations will go down over the next few quarters as a result of the recent liquidity crunch, according to Moody's Investors...

Realty Shares Continue to Slide.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Pointing to more evidence of a slowdown in the commercial real estate sector, real estate investment trusts were down 5.92% on a total return basis as of October. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts...

Lower Loan Limit? OFHEO Spoils the Fun for '08: OFHEO has ruled that it will not allow the GSE loan limit to fall even if the national average home value declines.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- By stating that under no circumstances will the conforming loan limit be allowed to decline in 2008, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has taken all the fun out of what had become an annual guessing game ritual,...

Merrill Lynch Chief 'Retires'.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Stung by a $7.9 billion writedown on subprime and CDO-related assets, Merrill Lynch & Co. last week announced the "immediate" retirement of chairman and CEO Stanley O'Neal. Mortgage bankers that have done business with Merrill...

Consumers Get Legal Aid.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- Homeowners facing foreclosure in 10 hard-hit states may be eligible for free legal assistance thanks to the Center for Responsible Lending and a $15 million grant from a hedge fund. Paulson & Co. Inc., New York, is providing...

CRC Questions Loss Mit Efforts.
November 12, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO -- A survey by the California Reinvestment Coalition here found that "despite what they publicly state," lenders operating in California are not trying to help borrowers modify their loans and avoid foreclosure. Instead, most...

B&C Delinquencies Approach 19%.
November 12, 2007... WASHINGTON -- The delinquency rate on subprime mortgages reached almost 19% at June 30, according to exclusive survey figures collected by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report. The figure is based on responses from 11...

Subprime-Related Writedowns And Losses In 3Q.
November 12, 2007... Company $ Amount of 3Q Type Name Loss or Charge of Charge or Loss Merrill Lynch $7,900 writedown UBS $3,600 negative revenue on fixed income ResCap/GMAC $2,260 loss ...

Cavalier's Sales Fail to Rebound.
November 12, 2007... ADDISON, AL -- While revenue increased in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, Cavalier Homes Inc. here said it is disappointed that the company was not able to increase its revenue in comparison with the second quarter this...

Flagstar, Irwin Sink on Heavy Losses as Market Remains Weak.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Irwin Financial Corp. and Flagstar Bancorp both reported losses stemming from the mortgage downturn in the third quarter, providing scant evidence that the worst of the housing downturn is behind us. The stocks of both...

Federal Trust Blames Florida.
November 12, 2007... SANFORD, FL -- The continuing deterioration of the Florida residential real estate construction and development market has taken its toll on Federal Trust Corp.'s third-quarter and year-to-date earnings according to the company's president and...

FirstFed Reports Third-Quarter Loss.(Financial report)
November 12, 2007... SANTA MONICA, CA -- Due to lower net interest income, losses on real estate operations and higher operating costs, FirstFed Financial Corp., parent company of First Federal Bank of California, reported net income of $23 million for the third...

Huntington's Earnings Slip.
November 12, 2007... COLUMBUS, OH -- Huntington Bancshares earnings fell 12% in the third quarter as the company took several markdowns related to weakness in the secondary market. Merger costs associated with the acquisition of Sky Financial also affected the...

Thrift's CEO Sees Opportunity: 'Those people seeking a mortgage turned to us because we continued to make loans to qualified borrowers.'.
November 12, 2007... SHORT HILLS, NJ -- While many lenders blame the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market and its resultant credit crunch for the heavy losses incurred during the quarter that ended Sept. 30, Investors Bancorp Inc.'s CEO and president Robert M....

Analyst Lowers Target On NCC.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Calling National City's third-quarter results "noisy," analysts at Sandler O'Neill have lowered its earnings estimate for the firm. Investors seem to agree that it's time to be cautious about the Ohio-based bank. The company's...

Roundup: Washington Trust Revises 2nd Qtr. Financials.
November 12, 2007... WESTERLY, RI -- Washington Trust Bancorp Inc., Washington Trust Co.'s parent company, posted third-quarter net income of $6.6 million, substantially the same as the amounts reported for the third quarter of 2006. The returns on average equity...

Bottom-Fisher Gets AmHome.
November 12, 2007... NEW YORK -- Investor Wilbur Ross Jr., a bottom-fisher who made millions investing in ailing steel plants, has received final clearance from a bankruptcy court to purchase the mortgage servicing platform of American Home Mortgage, Melville, N.Y....

Ex-HUD Chief Leaves Countrywide's Board.
November 12, 2007... CALABASAS, CA -- Former housing secretary Henry Cisneros has resigned from the board of Countrywide Financial Corp. here, saying he wants to concentrate his time managing CityView, a company that lends money to urban homebuilders. His...