National Mortgage News articles from October 2004

National Mortgage News archives from October 2004

Inside Track.
October 4, 2004... EDITORIAL Efforts To Make It Paperless Make Progress 4 SECURITIZATION Home Equity Issuance Remains Strong 8 COMMERCIAL Arsenal Launched To Develop Multifamily 10 NEW HOMES RISE New single-family home...

DOJ Launching Fannie Probe?
October 4, 2004... The Department of Justice last week launched a criminal probe into Fannie Mae's accounting practices as the mortgage giant's problems continued to pile up. As National Mortgage News went to press, rumors were circulating that the company...

FNM Eyes Capital Options.
October 4, 2004... Embattled mortgage giant Fannie Mae has less than 270 days to raise roughly $4 billion in surplus capital - now the question begs: how will it get there? The company is not commenting on the supervisory agreement its board inked with the...

Capital Issue Hurts Some GSE Debt.
October 4, 2004... Fannie Mae's debt appears to have sustained relatively minor but still notable damage due to the regulatory reassessment of the government-sponsored enterprise's capitalization levels. All three major rating agencies, with some variation,...

Fannie's Stock Suffers Blow.
October 4, 2004... Wall Street has reacted skittishly to Fannie Mae's current accounting crisis, just as it did a year-and-a-half ago when questions arose about Freddie Mac's accounting practices. Last week, for the first time in almost two decades, Fannie...

At a Glance: Then and Now.
October 4, 2004... Market Cap. 9/21 9/30 Fannie Mae $73.2 B $61.4 B Freddie Mac $47.5 B $44.9 B Source: Yahoo! Finance. Data based on closing share price. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

'Undocumented' Tallied.
October 4, 2004... Nearly a quarter-million Hispanic households could become homeowners if undocumented immigrants had greater access to the mortgage market, according to new research scheduled for release here today. The study by Rob Paral and Associates...

Servicers Ranked by the Yield on Their Portfolios.
October 4, 2004... (Ranked from High to Low) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization, Location 1 Homeq Servicing Corp., North Highlands, CA 2 Homecomings/GMAC-RFC, Minneapolis, MN 3 Fieldstone Mortgage, Columbia, MD 4 ...

Analyst: Fannie Might Halt Earnings.
October 4, 2004... Embroiled in an explosive accounting scandal, Fannie Mae might possibly stop reporting its earnings, predicted one stock analyst who follows the company. Sandler O'Neill analyst Mike McMahon, in a research note released last week, said,...

GSE Faces Shareholder Lawsuits.
October 4, 2004... A trio of law firms known for being shareholder activists have filed two separate lawsuits against Fannie Mae in the wake of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight report. According to documents posted on the three law firms'...

NAHB Reconsiders Ties to Fannie Mae.
October 4, 2004... One of Fannie Mae's staunchest allies, the National Association of Home Builders, is re-evaluating its relationship with the scandal-plagued government-sponsored enterprise, NMN has learned. "I am shocked and appalled that this has...

OT Rules Moving Forward Despite Continuing Congressional Attacks.
October 4, 2004... Lenders are starting to change the way they pay commissioned loan officers under the new Labor Department overtime rules, even though the overtime regulations are still under attack in Congress. Bob Davis, a partner with Mayer, Brown, Rowe...

Private Equity Firm Looking at Cendant?
October 4, 2004... A private-equity firm is talking to Cendant Corp. about buying part of its mortgage company, industry sources told National Mortgage News late last week. One investment banker said the private-equity firm is working with a "nontraditional...

Paperless Progress.
October 4, 2004... News of the first "non-pilot" paperless mortgage is another welcome step toward the time when e-mortgages will be routine business. That transaction, by 1st Advantage Mortgage of Chicago using DPS' eMortgage Studio system for e-signatures...

Disclosure Helps FHLB System.
October 4, 2004... Ms. Castaneda recently addressed a Federal Home Loan Bank forum sponsored by several financial services trade groups in Washington. Excerpts of her remarks are presented as our Open Forum. To state the obvious: All of you know that the...

GSE Crackdown Highlights Mixed Blessing of Its Cap Markets Role.
October 4, 2004... The accounting-related regulatory crackdown at Fannie Mae has got me thinking about how much of a mixed blessing conditions in the mortgage-related capital markets have really been in recent years. A number of players in the mortgage...

Miller Named Exec. Director at ASF.
October 4, 2004... The American Securitization Forum has named George Miller, deputy general counsel at The Bond Market Association, as executive director. It was uncertain at press time how the move would affect the work Mr. Miller has been responsible for at...

Title Revenue Prediction Revised.
October 4, 2004... Title insurance underwriters have benefited from a stronger-than-anticipated performance during the first half of 2004, and as a result Fitch Ratings here is revising its prediction of title operating revenue. The company is now saying...

Roundup: Home Equity Securitization Issuance Stays Red Hot.
October 4, 2004... Home-equity issuance reached a new high in June 2004 with $32.7 billion worth of new securitized pools, almost twice the $17.1 billion seen in June 2003, Moody's Investors Service here reported. Between January and June, volume was up...

Some AAMES MBS Ratings reviewed.
October 4, 2004... Moody's Investors Services has placed four certificates from three transactions issued by Aames Mortgage Trust in 2001 under review for possible downgrade. The affected certificates are as follows: series 2001-1, class b; series 2001-2,...

Fitch Downgrades some ABS.
October 4, 2004... Fitch Ratings has downgraded class B of Asset Backed Funding Corp. mortgage loan asset-backed certificates, series 2001-AQ1, to BB from BBB by Fitch Ratings. Fitch attributed the downgrade to monthly losses that have an averaged over...

Some Bear ABS see lower ratings.
October 4, 2004... Fitch Ratings has downgraded three classes of Bear Stearns asset-backed securities series 1999-2, groups 1 and 2. The rating agency downgraded the following: group 1, class MF-2, to BBB from A, and class BF, to B from BBB-minus and removed...

C-bass Class Rating Takes A Dive.
October 4, 2004... Fitch Ratings downgraded class B-2 of C-BASS's series 2000-CB4 issue of mortgage-backed securities BBB- from BBB. In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on four other classes in the deal as well as four classes in a separate deal. The...

CWMBS Class Placed on Watch.
October 4, 2004... Fitch Ratings has placed class B4 of CWMBS (Countrywide Home Loans) Inc. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2003-41, on Rating Watch Negative. The Rating Watch placement stems from the fact that 0.93% of remaining loans have been...

Morgan, Other Houses Show Profits.
October 4, 2004... Morgan Stanley earned net income of $837 million for the third fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31 vs. $1.27 billion during the same period last year and $1.22 billion in the second fiscal quarter of this year. Other investment bankers also reported...

GSE: More Flexibility on MF Tax Credit Loans for Some.
October 4, 2004... Freddie Mac has entered into its first delegated underwriting arrangement that will eventually give a few select multifamily lenders more flexibility in originating loans on properties with tax-credit financing. "We are experimenting with...

CBA MCF Plans 2nd Securitization.
October 4, 2004... CBA Mezzanine Capital Finance is coming out with its second securitization of mezzanine loans later this year, Martin Lanigan, president and CEO of the Short Hills, N.J.-based company told attendees at the International Council of Shopping...

MuniMae Revises EPS, Net Income.
October 4, 2004... Municipal Mortgage & Equity has revised downward its net income and earnings per share for the three months ended March 31, 2004 and six months ended June 30, 2004, citing "the GAAP effect of $3 million in deferred compensations expense which...

NYCB Shareholder Lawsuit Filed.
October 4, 2004... The law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway has filed a lawsuit on behalf of New York Community Bancorp shareholders who bought shares of the thrift between June 27, 2003 and May 9, 2004. The firm is alleging that the Westbury, N.Y.-based BNY, an...

Arsenal Launched to Develop MF.
October 4, 2004... A group of real estate professionals have launched Arsenal Real Estate Funds to develop multifamily projects in "densely populated, high-demand markets nationally." The $350 million private equity enterprise will focus its development...

BPI Considering Merger or Sale.
October 4, 2004... The board of directors of Bedford Property Investors is looking at some "strategic alternatives" for the company. This could potentially lead to a sale or merger of the office and industrial real estate investment trust. The other...

Reit Transactions.
October 4, 2004... * Kite Realty Group Trust, a retail REIT, has raised total gross proceeds of about $237.9 million, including exercise of the over-allotment option, from a recent IPO of 18.3 million common shares at $13 each. * SL Green Realty is selling 6...

Student Housing Is Hot Market.
October 4, 2004... Student housing has been identified as "one of the apartment industry's most important niche opportunities" by the National Multi Housing Council, which has conducted a study of market conditions for off-campus, privately owned housing in 64...

Analyst Backs Off Negative Outlook for Builders.
October 4, 2004... An equity analyst with Standard & Poor's has upgraded his recommendation on the shares of five major, publicly traded homebuilders, saying that low interest rates and tame inflation improve the outlook for home construction. Michael Jaffe,...

At a Glance: S&P Outlook For Homebuilders Improves.
October 4, 2004... Old 12-mo. New 12-mo. Firm/Ticker Symbol Target Target Standard Pacific/SPF $41 $57 Toll Brothers/TOL $32 $49 KB Home/KBH $51 $86 ...

AmNet Moves Stock To Nasdaq.
October 4, 2004... AmNet Mortgage, the parent company of wholesale lender American Mortgage Network, has moved its stock from the American Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq composite index. The company's common stock began trading on the Nasdaq under its new...

1st Cross-Border Takeout Securities.
October 4, 2004... The first cross-border take-out securitization of housing development loans has received a provisional rating from Moody's Investors Service, the rating agency reported. Moody's assigned its Baa1 provisional global, local and foreign...

Habitat Designs Home Suitable for Mexico.
October 4, 2004... Central Pacific Mortgage here and the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association have reported that they have funded the creation of "Mexico home" for Habitat for Humanity International. The model house, located at the housing charity's...

Spanish Bank Buys Texas Home Lender.
October 4, 2004... Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria here has agreed to buy the Texas-based Laredo National Bancshares Inc. and its national residential mortgage lending subsidiary, Homeowners Loan Corp., for $850 million. BBVA's announcement about the planned...

Moody's Keeping an Eye on Australian Property Trust.
October 4, 2004... Moody's Investors Service has placed the A3 issuer rating of Australia's Ronin Property Trust here on review for possible downgrade. Moody's said the rating action reflects the uncertainty surrounding the future business and financial risk...

Proposed Santander Purchase of Abbey Makes It Over Some Hurdles.
October 4, 2004... The path for the acquisition of Abbey National PLC here, the U.K.'s second-largest mortgage lender by Banco Santander Central Hispano, Madrid, had a major roadblock removed when HBOS, Edinburgh, declined to make its own hostile bid. In a...

Paragon Acquires Two Companies.
October 4, 2004... Publicly traded mortgage broker Paragon Financial Corp. here, has signed a letter of intent to buy First Charleston Mortgage LLC, Charleston, S.C., and, separately, agreed to buy Accent Mortgage Services Inc., Alpharetta, Ga. In announcing...

Freddie Account Manager Shares LO Staff Development Advice.
October 4, 2004... Mortgage professionals will need to pay close attention to their staff development efforts in order to both get through today and plan for the future in the ever-changing mortgage market, Kathy Herminghaus, an account manager at Freddie Mac,...

MMBA Foundation Now Official.
October 4, 2004... The Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association said publicly for the first time at the 17th Annual New England Mortgage Banking Conference here that it has formed a charitable foundation to provide financial assistance for debt management...

People.
October 4, 2004... CALIFORNIA Concord-American Mortgage Network said that Dennis Horne has been appointed vice president, regional manager to lead AmNet's East Bay regional center located in Concord. Georgeann Gunn joins the company as regional operations...

Servicers Ranked by the Yield on Their Portfolios at 6/30/04.
October 4, 2004... (Ranked from Low to High) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization, Location 1 First Republic Bank, San Francisco, CA 2 Thornburg Mortgage, Inc., Sante Fe, NM 3 B.F. Saul Mtg./Chevy Chase Bank, Bethesda, MD ...

Committee Applauds OFHEO.
October 4, 2004... House Financial Services Committee members are giving the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight high marks for blowing the whistle on Fannie Mae's accounting practices. "It looks like OFHEO's doing a good job. Maybe they are...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
October 4, 2004... B&C Stock Price Index: 248.1 Change: -7.8 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 9/30/2004 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.70 American Business Fin....

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
October 4, 2004... MIEC Index: 175.3 Change: 0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company Wkly.% Chg. % Chg. From P/E Ratio Aames (AMSF) -5% 35% na American Business Fin. (ABFI) ...

Inside Track.
October 11, 2004... EDITORIAL A Sigh Of Relief 4 OPEN FORUM Fannie Welcomes Examination 4 STREET SMARTS The Latest On Mortgage Debt And Securities 6 REFIS NEAR 50% Refinancings passed 47% this week in their steady march...

Fannie Execs Deny All Charges.
October 11, 2004... Fannie Mae officials last week struck back at its chief accuser, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, denying that it engaged in accounting fraud and blaming the regulator for denying it a fair hearing. In sworn testimony...

Top Residential 2nd Lien Servicers.
October 11, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name, Location 1 Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, CA 2 Bank of America, Charlotte, NC 3 Washington Mutual, Seattle, WA 4 Chase Home...

Vegas Bubble Ready to Pop?
October 11, 2004... The real estate runup that has seen home prices here soar by as much as 50% this year seems stretched to the breaking point, as one homebuilder has made major price cuts - up to $150,000 per house - and three others are said to have lowered...

Calls to Privatize 2 GSEs.
October 11, 2004... Advocates of privatizing the government-sponsored enterprises are seeing a new opportunity to press their views as Fannie Mae becomes mired in an accounting scandal. American Enterprise Institute fellow Peter Wallison told reporters last...

Temple Taking Hit on Mortgage Ops.
October 11, 2004... Temple Inland Corp. here will take a $13 million after-tax hit on its mortgage business in the third quarter as it prepares reserves related to key asset sales and layoffs. Temple, the parent of Guaranty Residential Lending, also of Austin,...

SS&TG Closing May Mean Firings.
October 11, 2004... Freddie Mac's planned shutdown of its Securities Sales & Trading Group and its decentralization of some of the group's functions have created some short-term uncertainty in regard to the jobs of 100 people who work for the unit, but officials...

TPO Volume Rises at Credit Suisse.
October 11, 2004... Credit Suisse First Boston table-funded $71 million in home mortgages in the second quarter, an almost fivefold sequential increase in production through that channel. In the first quarter, the Wall Street firm table-funded just $12...

CSFB's Mortgage Business Booms.
October 11, 2004... ($ Millions) SECOND QUARTER 2004: Loan Channel Fundings % chg. Correspondent $3,220 23% Wholesale $71 na Total $ 3,290 26% FIRST QUARTER, 2004 ...

Ginnie Mae President Is Tapped for Finance Board.
October 11, 2004... Ginnie Mae president Ronald Rosenfeld may by moving over to the Federal Housing Finance Board and the secondary market agency has promoted Michael Frenz to its top executive position. President George Bush has nominated Mr. Rosenfeld to be...

HUD Providing GSE Loan Detail.
October 11, 2004... The Department of Housing and Urban Development is making more data about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan purchases available to the public, and it will give researchers a better take on how the government-sponsored enterprises contribute to...

Promotion Spotlight: Craig I. Deroy.
October 11, 2004... Mr. DeRoy has been named president of The First American Corp., a Santa Ana, Calif.-based provider of title insurance and mortgage data. Mr. DeRoy, who was most recently senior executive vice president, will succeed Parker S. Kennedy, who will...

Cendant Auctioning $10 Billion of Servicing.
October 11, 2004... Cendant Mortgage Corp., Mount Laurel, N.J., recently put out for auction a $10 billion portfolio of mortgage servicing rights, industry sources told this newspaper. Late last week it was unclear whether the portfolio had traded. A...

A Sigh of Relief.
October 11, 2004... At last year's League of Mortgage Lenders conference in Atlantic City, a fire alarm cleared the casino hotel where the meeting was being held. Physically, the false alarm was a nuisance. Metaphorically, it perfectly fit the meeting, at which...

We Welcome Examination.
October 11, 2004... Written testimony by Mr. Raines before the House GSE Subcommittee last week is presented as our Open Forum. I would like to begin by noting that this is the first opportunity that Fannie Mae and its board are taking to respond in an...

Employment Likely to Determine If Higher Loan Rates Continue.
October 11, 2004... Mortgage rates had taken a notable move upward at press time but given the pending release of a potentially market-moving employment report Friday, market direction was unclear. The weekly average mortgage rate has risen to 5.82% at press...

Commercial Debt Up by 2.9%.
October 11, 2004... Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased by $60.8 billion, 2.9%, to $2.17 trillion from the first quarter to the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. Multifamily debt alone grew by $14.9 billion,...

Commercial Transactions.
October 11, 2004... * CBL & Associates has arranged a $118 million fixed rate mortgage loan - with a 5.09% rate on the A-note portion and a 7.75% rate on the B-note portion - for a 902,000 sq. foot Myrtle Beach, S.C., retail property. * Holliday Fenoglio...

Apartment REITs Combine in $1.9 Billion Deal.
October 11, 2004... In a major multifamily real estate investment trust merger, Camden Property Trust is acquiring Summit Properties, Charlotte, N.C., for about $1.9 billion, including the assumption of Summit debt. The deal places a value of $31.37 per Summit...

Commercial Realty Lending Market Remains 'Heated'.
October 11, 2004... The Commercial mortgage market is seeing good lending volumes this year, according to lenders represented at a panel session on "the debt market for New York City real estate" at the third RealShare New York conference. Indeed, the market...

Patriot Act Affects Lenders.
October 11, 2004... Following the recent headlines made by Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, the Patriot Act is back in the news. In order to dispel confusion about the law, one attorney and a technology and fraud professional, discussed the...

Mortgage Lenders in the Chicago, IL MSA.
October 11, 2004... ($ in thousands) (part 1 of 2) Rank Company 1 Washington Mutual Bank, FA 2 Countrywide Home Loans 3 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage 4 Lasalle Bank N.A. 5 Bank of America N.A. 6 ...

Consumers Clueless About Scores.
October 11, 2004... Most consumers are clueless when it comes to understanding credit scores, according to a survey administered by Opinion Research Corp. International for the Consumer Federation of America and Providian Financial. The survey reveals that a...

Emergency Regulation to Seal Fate of MA Loans.
October 11, 2004... As regulators prepare to implement the new Massachusetts predatory lending law, it is likely that emergency regs will be issued on or before Nov. 7, according to Jim Dougherty, executive director of the Massachusetts Mortgage Association here....

Is Kerry Better For GSE's Stock?
October 11, 2004... If Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., becomes the next president of the U.S., the share price of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's stock could see a "surge." That's the view of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts Jonathan Gray and Adam Weinrich who...

BHC Will Prepay And Take Charge.
October 11, 2004... Commercial National Financial Corp., a bank holding company here, said it would undertake a balance sheet restructuring by prepaying $55 million of Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings. These borrowings have a weighted average cost of 5.22%....

Servicing Veteran Cronin Bolts IMA for Murray Hill.
October 11, 2004... Industry servicing veteran Tom Cronin has left Interactive Mortgage Advisors here to take a senior position with the Murray Hill Co. Mr. Cronin, who has been a director at Murray Hill for almost seven years, will serve as vice chairman of...

'No Criminal Referral'.
October 11, 2004... Fannie Mae's regulator told Congress last week that his agency has not filed a "formal criminal referral" with the Department of Justice regarding the mortgage giant's accounting irregularities. In testimony before the House Financial...

Fannie 'Whistleblower' Contacted by DOJ.
October 11, 2004... The Fannie Mae "whistleblower" who helped regulators understand how the mortgage giant allegedly manipulated its earnings has been contacted by the Justice Department, his attorney told National Mortgage News last week. Debra Katz, who...

Baker Questions Executives' Bonuses.
October 11, 2004... One reason Fannie Mae has fought higher affordable housing goals and tougher regulation, according to Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., is to protect the company's profitability and its ability to pay executive bonuses. The chairman of the House...

Emerging Markets: Closing The Gap.
October 11, 2004... National homeownership rates have constantly increased since 2000, reaching - especially during the past few years - record highs near 68%. The new data, however, have also made more obvious the homeownership gap that exists between minorities...

Emerging Domestic Markets Moving Into Mainstream Housing.
October 11, 2004... Mortgage industry experts see lending to underserved communities and individuals turn into a key driver to U.S. economic growth over the next 50 years. Therefore, community development finance institutions and other mortgage professionals who...

Alaska Natives Get Fed Help.
October 11, 2004... For the first time in history, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior have joined forces to address the housing needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The "Memorandum of...

Mortgage Promotes Public Transportation and Affordability.
October 11, 2004... In coalition with various lenders and other partners, Fannie Mae has introduced the New Jersey statewide "Smart Commute Initiative," which provides homebuyers with a financial incentive to purchase a home near public transportation. SCI is...

Fannie Houses Montana's Underserved.
October 11, 2004... Fannie Mae has expanded its five-year American Dream Commitment for Montana with a $2.5 billion housing investment plan that provides affordable homeownership and rental opportunities for over 25,000 working families in Montana, in partnership...