National Mortgage News articles from September 2003

National Mortgage News archives from September 2003

Inside Track.
September 1, 2003... EDITORIAL Meltdown 4 OPEN FORUM The Prez on Housing 4 EQUITIES Offerings Raise Cash for Affordable Multifamily 6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING FHLB-NY Offers Incentives Program 12 PEOPLE 28 ...

Who Will Head Freddie Mac?
September 1, 2003... Jim Johnson as the next head of Freddie Mac? Nope. Angelo Mozilo? He can't do it right now. MBS "Godfather" Lewis Ranieri? Hmm... And what about former thrift regulator Timothy Ryan? As National Mortgage News went to press last week, the...

Despite Turmoil, Another Freddie Record.
September 1, 2003... Freddie Mac - which has been in turmoil since early June when it ousted its three top officers - acquired $80 billion in mortgages during July, a new record for the mortgage giant. (See table on page 34) However, its purchase...

Enormous Half for Top 10.
September 1, 2003... During the first half of 2003, the nation's top 10 residential funders originated $1.2 trillion in home mortgages as interest rates hit new, 40-year lows. According to figures compiled by this newspaper, the top 10 as a group funded -...

AGs vs. OCC.
September 1, 2003... State attorneys general and bank supervisors are taking a major stand in a Connecticut lawsuit to block the Comptroller of the Currency from shielding mortgage subsidies of national banks from state regulation. The state officials are...

The Top Ten Residential Funders.
September 1, 2003... (Dollars in Billions) How They Stacked Up in the First Half Lender 1Q Ln 2Q Ln 1H Ln % Chg. Volume Volume Volume 1Q/2Q Wells Fargo $103 $135 $238 ...

Warehousers Scramble for CapCom Collateral.
September 1, 2003... Three weeks after Capitol Commerce Mortgage here closed its doors, warehouse lenders are still scrambling to secure the collateral on the lines of credit they provided the wholesale giant. Industry sources say the warehouse provider with...

Warehouse Exposure To CapCom Collapse.
September 1, 2003... UBS Securities Countrywide First Collateral Services RFC-GMAC Washington Mutual Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com

Home Sales Hot but Is Boom Slowing?
September 1, 2003... Home sales continued at a frenzied pace in July and all the indicators are pointing to a record year for new and existing home sales. But it also appears that sales may have peaked in July, although economists believe any decline in sales...

Meltdown.
September 1, 2003... The departure of a second chief executive at Freddie Mac in three months shows the extent of the meltdown in the corporate offices of the second-largest company in the mortgage industry. We don't believe that Freddie Mac itself is...

Closing Minority Ownership Gap: President Bush recently addressed the 2003 Urban League Conference in Pittsburgh xcerpts of his speech, which addressed housing, are presented as our Open Forum.
September 1, 2003... A good way to make sure this economy remains strong is a housing policy which closes the minority homeownership gap in America. We need greater tax incentives for people to build homes in inner cities. I believe our government should...

Has The Refinance Boom Officially Come to an End?
September 1, 2003... Refinances have passed below the 50% mark and no longer dominate the market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's weekly applications survey for the week ended Aug. 22. The refi share of mortgage activity reported by...

Two Raise $75 Million in Equity for Affordable Multifamily Investments.
September 1, 2003... Two affordable housing financing companies have raised a total of $ 87.8 million from equity offerings for deployment in affordable multifamily housing investments. Charter Municipal Mortgage Acceptance has netted approximately $58.7...

MBA, NAMB Ask Do-Not-Fax Delay.
September 1, 2003... A coalition of mortgage lending groups has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to amend its do-not-fax rule. Under pressure, the FCC voted two weeks ago to postpone the effective date of its do-not-fax rule, which is...

Kentucky: You Don't Need Lawyer to Close a Mortgage.
September 1, 2003... The Kentucky Supreme Court on August 21 overturned an opinion by the Kentucky Bar Association which said that only attorneys could close real estate deals. The ruling came after several groups, including the Kentucky Association of Realtors,...

Fitch Rates OTS-Regulated MBS.
September 1, 2003... Fitch Ratings will rate residential mortgage-backed securities transactions containing loans originated by Office of Thrift Supervision-regulated entities throughout the country, the agency announced on Aug. 21. In the same statement,...

$118 Million LOC for Freedom.
September 1, 2003... FleetBoston Financial Corp., Boston, has provided a $118 million warehouse line of credit to Freedom Mortgage Corp. here. Freedom also received an $11.5 million servicing facility from FleetBoston. Fleet National Bank is the...

Federal Reserve Increases Trigger for HOEPA.
September 1, 2003... The Federal Reserve Board has adjusted the fee-based trigger for high-cost mortgage loans that are subject to Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act disclosures and restrictions. Based on an inflation index, the Fed increased the dollar...

Promotion Spotlight.
September 1, 2003... Mr. Saenz has been named executive vice president of business development, emerging markets, for Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif. He will be responsible for integrating and coordinating the strategic planning, business development...

Incentives Encourage Families to Save for Downpayment.
September 1, 2003... Incentive-based programs such as the First Home Club designed to assist low- to moderate-income aspiring homebuyers through a savings match grant system are serving their purpose well, according to Federal Home Loan Bank of New York president...

Promotion Spotlight: Rodolfo Saenz.
September 1, 2003... Mr. Saenz has been named executive vice president of business development, emerging markets, for Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif. He will be responsible for integrating and coordinating the strategic planning, business...

Neighborhood Gold Links With Lenders.
September 1, 2003... Downpayment assistance provider Neighborhood Gold has launched a free online secured Grant Processing System and management tool for lender and broker users that allows for fast application submissions from any remote computer. Through...

BWC Partners Shun High-Cost Loans.
September 1, 2003... Fannie Mae, the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors and the Tennessee Association of Realtors have launched "Borrow With Confidence," a multifaceted campaign that aims to help area homebuyers get the best mortgage financing they qualify for...

Dixon Joins American Equity As Chief Technology Officer.
September 1, 2003... American Equity Mortgage here has named Wayne M. Dixon head of technology. In his new position, he manages the company's technology functions, including purchasing and maintaining computing, communications and telephone equipment. Mr....

Elliot Has Automated Appraisals.
September 1, 2003... Elliot & Company Appraisers here has developed an alliance with Oxford, Miss.-based FNC Inc. to provide an Internet-based Automated Appraisal. The appraisal company, which says it has served some 5,500 lenders nationwide during the past 12...

Block Adds to Mortgage Revenue.
September 1, 2003... Mortgage banking revenue for H&R Block Inc. here increased 21% in the company's first fiscal quarter 2004 over the same three-month period the previous year. The quarter ended on July 31, 2003. Because of its strong results in mortgage...

Foreclosure Laws May Add POS Cost.
September 1, 2003... A study by a Federal Reserve System economist suggests that states with "defaulter-friendly" foreclosure laws impose costs on borrowers at the time of loan origination. Using data from adjacent census tracts that happen to be in different...

Sierra Capital Chooses McCracken.
September 1, 2003... Sierra Capital Partners, Irvine, Calif., has chosen McCracken Financial Software Inc.'s Strategy loan servicing software to manage its multifamily loan portfolio, the technology vendor has reported. McCracken will deploy the servicing...

Industry Moving Steadily Toward Electronic Recording; Counties Lag.
September 1, 2003... Even though the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is still working on model legislation that would allow for the electronic recording of real estate liens, a number of technology vendors around the nation continue to...

Roundup: Home Values Prove Sticky.
September 1, 2003... ClickRSVP, Hopedale, Mass., and ILS-Fiserv, Rocky Hill, Conn., have released HomeValueBot, a tool that allows website visitors to get free home value reports in an effort to keep them interested in a mortgage lender's online offerings. One...

Basis100 Enhances Offerings.
September 1, 2003... In what it is calling the "first step to creating a full-collateral assessment and settlement service offering," Basis100, Toronto, has partnered with Realink to enhance its product offering on the BasisValues delivery platform to include an...

Real Info Launches Products.
September 1, 2003... Real Info Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., has introduced two new products, the i-Val Report, an instant, online AVM service, and realAssessment, an index-based AVM. The i-Val Report, which is electronically ordered and delivered, uses sale price...

Roundup: 'Significant Losses' Drive Downgrade of Metropolitan Deal.
September 1, 2003... Three classes of Metropolitan Mortgage Funding mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2000-A, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: class M-1, from Aa2 to A2; class M-2, from A2 to B3; and...

Oakwood Homes.
September 1, 2003... Thirty classes in 10 Oakwood Homes manufactured housing transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. Fitch also affirmed the ratings on 33 other classes in the deals. The rating agency attributed the downgrades to the "continued poor...

Starwood Deal.
September 1, 2003... The ratings on classes C-1 and D-1 of Starwood Commercial Mortgage Trust's commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1999-C1, have been lowered by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. The downgrades were as follows: class C-1,...

Standard and Poor's Downgrades One Class of MH ABS.
September 1, 2003... The rating on class IB-1 of Manufactured Housing Contract Trust series 2000-3 has been lowered from CC to D by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services. S&P attributed the downgrade to a shortfall on the loss liquidation interest amount due to...

Concern On Tenancy-In-Common CMBS.
September 1, 2003... Moody's Investors Service is seeing more tenancy-in-common properties in commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions and is concerned about some aspects of tenancy-in-common structures. The rating agency "reviews such arrangements...

CMBS Issuance Could Hit $70 Billion This Year.
September 1, 2003... Issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities should reach approximately $70 billion for 2003, according to Standard & Poor's, even if interest rates rise modestly. CMBS issuance in 2002 was about $60 billion and issuance reached a...

Commercial RE At a Glance: Multifamily Transactions.
September 1, 2003... Arbor Comm. Mortgage has funded 12 loans - including nine Fannie Mae DUS loans at 4.94% - totaling $136 million for the acquisition and rehabilitation of 15 Baltimore area properties. Collateral Mort. Capital has provided $74 million...

ICM Capital Gets Fannie DUS Status.
September 1, 2003... ICM Capital, a newly formed subsidiary of Independence Community Bank, has been granted Delegated Underwriting and Servicing Lender status by Fannie Mae. The approval will aid Independence Community Bank in expanding its multifamily mortgage...

Bascom Seeking $300 Million MF.
September 1, 2003... Bascom Northwest Ventures, an apartment redevelopment company formed by the Irvine, Calif.-based Bascom Group, is looking to acquire $300 million of apartments over the next three years. Brian Wirtz, a former vice president of acquisitions...

Home Equity Losses Widen at Irwin, Which Still Had Record 2Q.
September 1, 2003... Irwin Financial Corp., Columbus, Ind., a bank holding company focusing on mortgage banking, small business lending, and home equity lending, had a good second quarter, but its losses on home equity widened. Irwin earned second-quarter net...

Turning into a Hedge.
September 1, 2003... With interest rates rising, mortgage servicers are suddenly in the spotlight again. For the past three years, the value of mortgage servicing rights steadily declined as falling interest rates shortened the expected duration of the asset....

Modifications Help Navy Federal Credit Union Boost Retention.
September 1, 2003... Navy Federal Credit Union, the biggest mortgage lender in the credit union industry, historically has not had trouble replenishing its portfolio during times of heavy refinancing. In fact, even during periods of heavy refinancing, Navy...

Commercial Realty Poses Tax Challenge.
September 1, 2003... Tracking and making sure taxes are paid on residential properties is often a vexing issue for mortgage servicers. And for commercial mortgage servicers, the stakes are even higher. Possible penalties and problems multiply when the size of...

Low Cost Servicers?
September 1, 2003... (Annualized Cost to Service at 6-30-03) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 CDC Mortgage Capital, Inc. New York, NY 2 Charter One Bank Cleveland, OH 3 Homestar...

American Foreclosure Network Will Evolve with Industry.
September 1, 2003... Anew organization, the American Foreclosure Network, has been formed to serve the financial services industry. The AFN's new executive director, William LeRoy, says the group will remain flexible and likely see its mission grow beyond just...

Voice Response Units Handling Many Payoff Requests for Lenders.
September 1, 2003... Lenders are finding many ways to harness the data in their mortgage servicing portfolios, and increasingly it's not just customer service representatives who are doing the talking. Many lenders actually use interactive voice response...

IndyMac Selects Default Technology.
September 1, 2003... First American Default Technologies has been chosen by IndyMac as its foreclosure and bankruptcy process outsource provider. Under this relationship, First American said it will provide default-related services to IndyMac and its national...

Residential Servicers.
September 1, 2003... (Ranked by Number of Loans Serviced at 6-30-03) (part 1 of 2) Rnk Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 3...

New Scores Guide Servicers In Evaluating Their Borrowers.
September 1, 2003... People tend to think of Fiserv's MortgageServ platform as an automation tool to help manage entire portfolios, but within the body of that software are borrower performance scores that can help lenders evaluate their experience with individual...

Moody's Monitors 3,000 MBS Deals, 5K Pools.
September 1, 2003... Moody's Investors Service has rated and now follows 3,000 outstanding residential mortgage-backed securities comprising almost 5,000 pools and almost 20,000 tranches. Moody's recently issued a report by analyst Warren Kornfeld outlining...

People.
September 1, 2003... CALIFORNIA Poway-Mark Chapin has joined eAppraiseIT LLC. With more than 22 years experience building multifaceted business-to-business valuation and portfolio risk analysis solutions, he has been named vice president of public affairs...

GSE Day of Reckoning Looks to be September 10.
September 1, 2003... No one knows what Treasury Secretary John Snow is going to say, but his testimony before Congress on Sept. 10 is expected to determine the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be supervised and regulated in the years ahead. The management...

Freddie Mac Holdings-Purchases 2003-2001: Loan purchases reach new high.
September 1, 2003... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Year/ Total Retained PCs Held in Port. Growth Month Portfolio Portfolio Rate(1) Jan-02 $508,238 $319,470 26.90% Feb ...

BofA Starts Minority Advertising Campaign.
September 1, 2003... Bank of America Corp. here has started separate advertising campaigns aimed at attracting African-American and Hispanic-American consumers. The company is undertaking a $50 million multicultural advertising campaign. During September, BoA...

Idaho Tax Credit Deadline Looms.
September 1, 2003... The Idaho Housing and Finance Association announced that Idaho developers of affordable housing rentals interested in competing for the over $1.3 million in 2004 Housing Tax Credits need to apply before the Sept. 15, 2003 deadline. Under...

Dynatek Offers LOS Link to Documents.
September 1, 2003... Dynatek Inc. here, the developers of the MORvision loan origination system, has added another interface category to its Integration Suite offering that will make it easy for providers of electronic mortgage documents to do business with...

New Firm for Ex-Long Beacher.
September 1, 2003... Another former top official of Long Beach Mortgage is sticking his toe back into the subprime origination business. Frank Curry who managed Long Beach along with Jack Mayesh before the California non-depository sold out to Washington Mutual...

Did OFHEO Have the Power to Oust Parseghian?
September 1, 2003... Did the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight have the legal authority to remove Greg Parseghian as Freddie Mac's chief executive? A two-year old opinion penned by the General Accounting Office says no. An OFHEO spokeswoman,...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
September 1, 2003... MIEC Index: 165.8 Change: 0.5 (part 1 of 2) 8/21/03 8/28/03 Wkly % Chg 52 wk/lo Alltel (AT) 46.17 45.81 -1% 39.19 Countrywide Financial Corp....

Publicly Traded 'Subprime' Related Firms.
September 1, 2003... B&C Stock Price Index: 194.4 Change: -1.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 8/28/03 Aames (AMSF) 0.35 3.47 1.95 American Business Fin. (ABFI)...

Inside Track.
September 8, 2003... OPEN FORUM Risk Management Strategies 4 EQUITIES Suntrust's MSRs Help Boost Stock 6 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Loyalty Is Reward for Spending Time on Lower Income Home Buyers 8 COMMERCIAL Banks Wants More...

NYC CRE Still Hurting.
September 8, 2003... Two years after the horrendous terrorist attacks of 9-11 that wiped out a big chunk of Manhattan's commercial space with the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, plans are in full swing for rebuilding at the WTC site. And while...

HUD Presses On Fee Disclosure.
September 8, 2003... Loan brokers take note: Housing secretary Mel Martinez is still wedded to the idea of having broker fees disclosed to the consumer. Last week, Mr. Martinez promised that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would "soon" release...

More Layoffs, This Time at DiTech.
September 8, 2003... DiTech, an affiliate of GMAC Mortgage, Horsham, Pa., confirmed to National Mortgage News that it has begun making cuts in its residential lending staff. A spokeswoman for GMAC said "staff reductions have been in-line with market...

A Change of Course at FHFB.
September 8, 2003... In a sudden change in course, Federal Housing Finance Board chairman John Korsmo announced that the agency is working on a proposed rule that would require the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks to register their stock with the Securities and Exchange...

Short Positions in Mortgage Stocks Are on the Rise.
September 8, 2003... Short Pos. at % Chg fr Company Name/Symbol Mtg Sector 8/15/03 7/15/03 Accredited (LEND) subprime 1,365,782 82% E-Loan (EELN) online lender 5,706,709 59% ...

Tax, Flood Units To 1st American.
September 8, 2003... The First American Corp., already among the nation's largest providers of real estate information and related services, has reached an agreement with Transamerica Finance Corp. to buy its tax and flood companies. First American said the...

No Squeeze for FHA This Year.
September 8, 2003... Despite earlier concerns, Federal Housing Administration officials are now pretty sure there is enough loan commitment authority to avoid a shutdown and keep the single-family loan program running through September. "We now feel that we...

Ginnie Mae Ready To Package Hybrids.
September 8, 2003... Ginnie Mae will be ready to guarantee pools of Federal Housing Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages starting Oct. 1. However, the Department of Housing and Urban Development isn't ready to start a...

LandAmerica Paves Way for Bundled Services with Purchase of Two Firms.
September 8, 2003... LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. here, preparing for the new face of the mortgage banking industry, has made separate deals to acquire INFO1 Holding Co. Inc., an Atlanta-based mortgage credit report provider, and Lereta Corp., a national tax...

New Mortgage REIT Plans to Issue IPO.
September 8, 2003... Luminent Mortgage Capital, a real estate investment trust formed in April 2003 to invest in single-family mortgage-backed securities through the secondary market, has registered its intent to make an initial public offering of its common stock...

Gearing Up.
September 8, 2003... Right now, a stunning one out of every eight subprime mortgages is overdue, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. And on top of that 12.4% first-quarter delinquency for B&C loans, mortgages insured by the Federal Housing...

Risk Management Strategies.
September 8, 2003... Mr. Greenspan addressed a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Jackson Hole, Wyo., recently, mentioning the mortgage and housing markets xcerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. Uncertainty is...

Homeowners Taking Cash Out at $800 Billion Pace.
September 8, 2003... In recent years, an increasing number of homeowners have taken cash out of their homes when they refinanced a home loan, and the dollar volume of cash-out activity is on pace to break a record this year. Through the second quarter,...

Vision Sets Sights On Upstate New York.
September 8, 2003... Vision Real Estate Management and Development has closed its merger with Future Capital Investments, a deal Vision says will position the firm "to be a force in the distressed real estate market in upstate New York." In June, the company...

Underwriters Issue More Hanover Shares.
September 8, 2003... Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings here said the underwriters of its recent public offering of common stock have exercised their overallotment option in full to purchase an additional 450,000 shares of common stock at the public offering price...

SunTrust's MSRs Help Boost Stock.
September 8, 2003... SunTrust Banks, the 10th largest bank in the U.S., is poised to reap greater benefits from an improving economy than some of its rivals, according to a recent report from Sandler O'Neill. And mortgage servicing is one of the business lines...

Loyalty Is Reward for Spending Time on Lower Income Home Buyers.
September 8, 2003... Among what he says are "multiple reasons" a broker should work with low-to-moderate income borrowers, Tim Klyela, president of The Mortgage House, a firm that focuses on the affordable housing market, says loyalty is the most important. "I...

Dispute Leads Radian to Exit MICA.
September 8, 2003... The Radian Group here has left the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America, the trade group that represents the private mortgage insurance industry. MICA and the other members of the group opposed Radian's efforts to get its Radian Lien...

Bank Investments Grow at 24% Clip.
September 8, 2003... Commercial bank investments in 1-4 family loans and mortgage-backed securities have grown at an annual rate of 24% over the last four quarters ending June 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In the second quarter of this...

GSE Ties Put OFHEO Nomination on Shaky Ground.
September 8, 2003... The man picked by the White House to be the next regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tried to do business with the two secondary market giants before he was nominated, according to correspondence released by the Senate. The nominee,...

CA Enacts Nation's Toughest Financial Privacy Protections.
September 8, 2003... After gaining the grudging neutrality of the financial sector, California's financial privacy bill, SB1, was signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis on Aug. 27. The California Mortgage Bankers Association, like other financial trade...