National Mortgage News articles from September 2004

National Mortgage News archives from September 2004

Inside Track.
September 6, 2004... EDITORIAL At Ground Zero 1 OPEN FORUM Abusive Lending 4 EQUITIES Drop in Earnings 7 INTERNATIONAL MORTGAGES GMAC: No India 8 SECURITIZATION REMIC Treatment 10 PEOPLE 21...

Officials Try to Raise Visibility of Housing.
September 6, 2004... Leaders of the real estate finance industry found themselves in something of a quandary at last week's Republican national convention. A host of critical policy issues - including predatory lending and oversight of the government-sponsored...

1st 'Non-Pilot' Paperless Loan.
September 6, 2004... Document Processing Systems Inc. has launched the nation's first successful non-pilot closing of a fully paperless, all-electronic mortgage loan. The loan was originated by Chicago-based 1st Advantage Mortgage using DPS' patent-pending...

FHLB-Seattle To Sell MBS?
September 6, 2004... The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is seeking regulatory approval to purchase mortgage-backed securities from member banks and thrifts and, for the first time, to sell MBS to outside investors. The proposal, if approved, would bring the...

Top Retail Lenders in Q2 2004.
September 6, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage 2 Washington Mutual 3 Countrywide Financial Corp. 4 Chase Home Finance 5 Bank of America 6 ...

WTC Freedom Tower to Rise in '06.
September 6, 2004... Three years after the destruction of the World Trade Center complex by terrorists, commercial real estate market conditions in Downtown Manhattan continue to improve. And concrete steps have been taken to rebuild at ground zero, with the...

Thomas Heads Chicago's FHLB.
September 6, 2004... The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago last week named investment banker Mike Thomas as its new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Thomas replaces mortgage partnership finance founder Alex Pollock, who resigned from the bank this...

Ground Zero, 3 Years Later.
September 6, 2004... Six young ladies wearing blue Statue of Liberty hats peer excitedly through the viewing wall at the World Trade Center site in Downtown Manhattan. "Active Driveway," says the sign on the fence where a roadway goes down towards the still-gaping...

Downey CEO Resigns Amid $21 MM Hedge Loss.
September 6, 2004... Downey Financial Corp. president and chief executive Marangal Domingo has resigned from the California-based thrift after just seven months on the job. The resignation of Mr. Domingo, who joined Downey from Washington Mutual, Seattle,...

MILA Bullish But Has Some Concern.
September 6, 2004... MILA Inc., one of the nation's fastest growing subprime firms, continues to be bullish about its future, but is showing some concern about whole loan price compression in the market. In a recent interview with National Mortgage News,...

Conventional FRMs At 6.25% by Dec. 31?
September 6, 2004... Mortgage rates are expected to rise slightly by year-end with 30-year fixed-rate conventional loans averaging about 6.25%, according to some of the nation's top housing and mortgage economists. Currently, conventional FRMs carry a coupon of...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 6, 2004... In the Aug. 30 issue of NMN regarding the Inner City Press/Fair Finance Watch challenge to the proposed acquisition of Riggs National Corp. by PNC Financial Services Group, Riggs was incorrectly described as having been charged with accounting...

Deceptive Lending Practices.
September 6, 2004... In a town hall meeting with middle-class families in Daly City, Calif., on Aug. 27, Democratic presidential nominee Kerry unveiled a series of new proposals to ensure fairness in the economy by helping hardworking families save for the future...

Consumer Confidence 'Soft,' Jobs Are More Indicative of Rates.
September 6, 2004... It looked at press time like we might be heading into a period of slightly lower rates, but that outlook was uncertain as it was a day before the latest release of potentially market-moving employment numbers was due. The rate-indicative...

Commercial Volumes Booming, Too.
September 6, 2004... Commercial mortgage originations for the second quarter were at $33.2 billion, up 17.4% from the second quarter of 2003 and also up 54.1% from the first quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. The mortgage bankers' trade...

Vision Mortgage Group Acquired by UFMC.
September 6, 2004... United Financial Mortgage Corp. here has completed its acquisition of Rockford, Ill., originator Vision Mortgage Group Inc. Vision's founders, Cass Wolfenberger and Michael Urnezis, will be president and vice president, respectively, of the...

California Adopts Foreclosure Rules.
September 6, 2004... California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a Senate bill amending the foreclosure statute to clarify lender requirements and defined terms. The new law, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2005, does not make substantive changes,...

HomeBanc Earnings Drop $16 Million.
September 6, 2004... HomeBanc Corp. here has reported earnings for the period ending June 30, 2004 for HBMC Holdings LLC and its subsidiaries, prior to its public offering. For the six months ended June 30, the company saw $33.3 million in total revenue, down from...

Wisconsin Lender Sees Lower Mortgage Banking Revenue.
September 6, 2004... Associated Banc-Corp here reported higher second-quarter earnings despite seeing mortgage banking revenue contract in the quarter. Associated earned $0.58 per share in the second quarter, up 13.7% from the same period in 2003, the bank...

Mexican Loan Comes to US.
September 6, 2004... Conficasa Holdings has formed an alliance with Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. here through which the former company plans to market its Mexican home loans in the United States. "With this new alliance, Conficasa loan programs will be...

GMAC Says India Not in Plans.
September 6, 2004... GMAC Mortgage here, the nation's seventh-largest residential servicer, said outsourcing call centers to India is not in its plans. "It's just too far away," said Ralph J. Hall, chief operating officer of the company. However, Mr. Hall...

'Offset' Offered in United Kingdom.
September 6, 2004... NatWest here has launched a new "offset banking service" that allows United Kingdom homeowners to use the interest they would otherwise earn on their depository account to accelerate their payments and reduce interest on their mortgage. ...

Lend Lease Executives Buy Firm.
September 6, 2004... Executives of Lend Lease Rosen Real Estate Securities here have acquired the company from Australia's Lend Lease Corp. Ltd. and renamed it Adelante Capital Management LLC. The buyers, led by chief executive officer Michael A. Torres, have...

S&P Has Deadlines for Rating Data.
September 6, 2004... Standard & Poor's is setting deadlines for when it should receive essential data needed for rating U.S. residential mortgage-backed security transactions. S&P said for most mainstream deals, the data should be submitted for review by 9...

IRS Looking at REMIC Treatment.
September 6, 2004... Government tax experts are reconsidering the way losses on interest-only strips are treated when investors get hit with heavy refinancings and interest payments disappear. The current treatment has forced most individual investors away...

Roundup: Accredited Closes Deal; Fitch Stays the Course; Downgrades.
September 6, 2004... Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. here has closed a securitization of $1.01 billion of first-lien residential mortgages through its real estate investment trust subsidiary. "This is the largest securitization that Accredited has ever...

ABFS Completes Debt Exchange.
September 6, 2004... American Business Financial Services said it has exchanged $208.1 million of its investment notes for $98.8 million of senior collateralized subordinated notes and approximately 109.3 million shares of Series A convertible preferred stock over...

Fitch Steady in NJ.
September 6, 2004... Fitch Ratings is maintaining its criteria on New Jersey's predatory lending laws following the amendment to New Jersey's Homeownership Security Act of 2002. While it believes the removal of "covered home loans" and "flipping" should...

Bear Downgrades.
September 6, 2004... Two classes from a pair of Bear Stearns securitizations have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: Bear Stearns Home Loan Owner Trust series 2001-A, class M-2, from BB to BB-minus; and Bear Stearns Global...

Notes Downgraded.
September 6, 2004... Three classes of notes issued by Bleecker Structured Asset Funding Ltd. and Bleecker CBO Delaware Corp., and supported in part by residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades...

Class now AA-Minus.
September 6, 2004... Class M-1F of ContiMortgage Home Equity Loan Trust series 1997-2 group 1 has been downgraded to AA-minus by Fitch Ratings and removed from Rating Watch Negative. In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on three other classes in the deal...

Passthroughs Downgraded.
September 6, 2004... Five classes of Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-CF2, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: class J, from Ba2 to...

Freddie Prices $1 Billion Reopening.
September 6, 2004... Freddie Mac has priced a $1 billion reopening of 4.25% five-year Reference Notes due July 15, 2009, bringing the government-sponsored enterprise's total issuance for 2004 to $32 billion. The issue (CUSIP 3134AUS1) was priced at 102.455 to...

'Earn-Out Agreement' Cut Hanover's Net in Half, to $613,000.
September 6, 2004... Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings reported net earnings for the quarter of $613,000, or $0.07 per share, in the second quarter, compared to $1.2 million, or $0.25 per share, during the second quarter of 2003. However, the company said...

Redwood Beefs Up on ARMs.
September 6, 2004... Redwood Trust reported second-quarter earnings of $55 million, or $2.58 per share, and the company also said it added a large volume of adjustable-rate mortgages to its portfolio during the quarter. For the first six months of this year,...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 6, 2004... In the July 19 issue of NMN, a story regarding HomeVestors of America Inc. should have stated that HomeVestors "aims to work with lenders interested in selling these notes in large quantities." We regret the error. Copyright 2004 Thomson...

Fannie Mae Expanding Its Wyoming Affordable Housing Effort.
September 6, 2004... Fannie Mae has expanded its "House Wyoming" housing investment plan to provide up to $2 billion in affordable homeownership and rental opportunities for more than 20,000 working families in Wyoming through a seven-year strategy that will be...

Builder, Broker Inroads Growing, Says Study.
September 6, 2004... Although real estate agents continue to lose control over their clients because of the Internet, they and their brokers will increase their level of mortgage captures, according to the latest study by Weston Edwards and Associates here. ...

CA Sets Disclosure For Lender Name Use.
September 6, 2004... The governor of California recently signed a law, which prohibits any person from using or referring to the name, trade name, logo, or tagline of a lender in a solicitation for financial services without providing the newly mandated disclosure....

LendersLogic Further Streamlines LP.
September 6, 2004... Boston Web Services here has released LendersLogic to further streamline getting an automated underwriting decision from Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector. LendersLogic is being billed as a Web-based business-to-consumer mortgage application...

Fitch: CMBS Defaults To Hit 5%?
September 6, 2004... Fitch Ratings expects the cumulative default rate on commercial mortgage-backed securities to touch 5% by year-end, based on the 13-year timeframe that the rating agency has been tracking the securities. Fitch also predicts an average...

Commercial Transactions.
September 6, 2004... * Holliday Fenoglio Fowler has arranged $51.5 million in financing for two Brookline, Mass., office buildings, with Citigroup's CMBS group providing an $8.9 million, fixed rate loan and CIGNA Investments a $42.6 million fixed rate loan. *...

$1 Billion Sought In CRE Lawsuit.
September 6, 2004... An ex-joint venture partner of Simon Property Group, has filed a lawsuit against the Indianapolis real estate investment trust seeking more than $1 billion in damages. The lawsuit - filed by GKLV, a California limited partnership which is...

Kerry Favors National Predatory Bill.
September 6, 2004... Presidential hopeful John Kerry said he will press for national predatory lending legislation to limit prepayment penalties and the financing of residential loan origination fees. In a recent policy statement, the Kerry-Edwards campaign...

Mortgage Insurers Offer Forbearance to Hurricane Charley Victims.
September 6, 2004... All of the private mortgage insurers have implemented relief plans for borrowers who were hurt by Hurricane Charley (and by Tropical Storm Bonnie, which did much less damage). United Guaranty Corp., the Greensboro, N.C., unit of American...

MH Lenders Will Help Those Who Lost Homes.
September 6, 2004... Origen Financial Inc. here, a national consumer manufactured home lender, is providing special home financing opportunities for residents who lost their homes due to Hurricane Charley. Origen's Hurricane relief program allows qualified...

People.
September 6, 2004... CALIFORNIA Brea-ResMAE Mortgage Corp. said that Tino Martinez has joined the company as senior vice president, division manager. Mr. Martinez has more than 17 years experience in wholesale and retail mortgage banking. Prior to joining...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
September 6, 2004... MIEC Index: 178.5 Change: -3.2 (part 1 of 3) Company 8/26/2004 9/2/2004 Astoria Federal (AF) 36.33 36.46 Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) 69.45 36.45 E-Loan...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
September 6, 2004... B&C Stock Price Index: 238.6 Change: 6.0 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 9/2/2004 Aames (AMSF) 2.00 5.40 2.65 American Business Fin. (ABFI) ...

Inside Track.
September 13, 2004... EDITORIAl Meet And Greet 4 OPEN FORUM Gop's Housing Plank 4 STREET SMART Rates Should Stay Moderate 5 HOUSING SCENE Home Prices Zoom 6 TECHONLOGY Doc Prep Compliance 8 SECURITIZATION...

Alt-A Market Up 50% As Street Wants More.
September 13, 2004... Residential lenders funded a record amount of alt-A loans in the second quarter, driven in part, by Wall Street's insatiable appetite for nonconforming product. According to exclusive survey results compiled by National Mortgage News,...

Top 'Alt A' Lenders in Q2 2004.
September 13, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. 3 Novelle Financial Services (BC) 4 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BC) 5 GreenPoint...

Delinquencies Edging Up.
September 13, 2004... The overall delinquency rate edged up in the second quarter, according to the MBA. But the organization's chief economist believes the increase may be an aberration. The MBA points to the fact that the overall delinquency rate, with 4.43%...

At a Glance: Delinquencies Blip Back Up in Second Quarter.
September 13, 2004... 3 Months 12 Months Loan Type June 30 Earlier Earlier Overall 4.43% 4.53% 4.97% Prime 2.40% 2.26% 2.60% Subprime 10.04% 11.19% 12.99% FHA 12.52% ...

Owner Society Is Bush Goal.
September 13, 2004... President George Bush wants to establish a new housing goal for his second term that fits in with his re-election theme of creating an "ownership society." The president outlined his ideas for an ownership society during his speech at the...

Fidelity Delays IPO of Tech Unit.
September 13, 2004... Title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial has delayed - and may even scrap - the spin-off of its mortgage technology unit. Late last week, FNF management blamed the delayed spin-off/initial public offering on a "relatively weak and...

FBI Opens Probe of Former Freddie Lobbyist.
September 13, 2004... The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into alleged violations of campaign finance laws by Freddie Mac's former top lobbyist, according to an attorney who filed a civil complaint with the Federal Elections Commission. Public...

Freddie: ARM Market Peaking Now.
September 13, 2004... The consumer's thirst for adjustable-rate mortgages may be peaking now, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. In 2003, ARMs accounted for just 18% of the $3.9 trillion in residential loans funded. But this year, thanks to rising...

Hawke To Quit Comptroller Post.
September 13, 2004... Comptroller of the Currency John Hawke Jr. has decided to step down as the chief supervisor of national banks on Oct. 13 when his five-year term ends. "I am pleased to report as I take my leave that the [national banking] system is strong...

CF Set to Merge Its TCF Units.
September 13, 2004... CF Financial Corp. here said it will merge the residential mortgage loan origination activities of its TCF Mortgage Corp. unit into TCF National Bank. "Effective Dec. 1, all residential mortgage loans will be made by the consumer lending...

Prepay Speeds Rise Modestly.
September 13, 2004... Prepayment rates for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities recorded "very modest gains" in August despite the fact that mortgage rates were about 25 basis points lower than in the previous month, according to Bear Stearns. ...

Selected 30-Year Fixed-Rate Prepayments.
September 13, 2004... (For August Period) Cpn Year WAC Fctr Aug '04 Jul '04 Fannie Mae 6.00 2004 6.43 .955 14.0 12.3 Fannie Mae 6.00 2003 6.50 .649 26.6 24.3 Fannie Mae 6.00...

More Lenders Adding 2nd Liens.
September 13, 2004... It doesn't look as though homeowners are quite done tapping into their home equity to fund various expenses, going by the rise in second-lien lending for the second quarter. This period saw the top 20 lenders in the second-lien lending...

Restoration Rituals.
September 13, 2004... The mortgage industry, which numbers about 450,000 employees currently, has a lot in common with a typical American community. If the business was ranked as a metropolitan statistical area, in fact, it would just crack the top 100 nationwide,...

The Bush Housing Platform.
September 13, 2004... This week's Open Forum is the Republican Party's housing plank that was presented at the recent Republican National Convention in New York. The American dream is universal - the dream of economic opportunity that allows every American to...

Mortgage Interest Rates Should Stay Moderate Going Forward.
September 13, 2004... The employment numbers that came in the Friday previous to last initially gave the rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield and mortgage rates a little bit of a boost. But at press time last Thursday the 10-year yield was only slightly up from...

Letter to the Editor.
September 13, 2004... To the editor: Your Sept. 6 retraction, in the face of PNC Bank's complaints, of your Aug. 30 misreport that Riggs Bank "not long ago was charged with accounting fraud" should have said more, much more. Yes, it was PNC that was charged...

Average Home Price Surges Past $275,000, Says Finance Board.
September 13, 2004... The average price of housing nationally rushed past the $275,000 mark in the second quarter, according to the latest government figures. Fueled largely by buyers who were worried they would be disqualified by higher mortgage rates, the...

DocuTech Expands Compliance Role with New Web-Based Services.
September 13, 2004... DocuTech Corp. here has released two Web-based products this year, ConformX and Lender Advocate, that have this document preparation and delivery company calling itself a compliance company as well. While this may seem out of the ordinary,...

Framework/BofA An Uneasy Fit.
September 13, 2004... The sale of Framework here to Bank of America is said to be making it difficult for Framework to market its product to other top 20 lenders and rumors persist that BoA may be thinking of selling Framework as a result. Framework...

AAMG Channel Volumes Year-to-Year.
September 13, 2004... Channel July 2004 July 2003 % Change InterFirst Wholesale $2.9 Bil $11.9 Bil -75% Standard Fed./LaSalle Bank $854 Mil $2.4 Bil -55% National Lending Center $263...

Declines for Most ABN Channels.
September 13, 2004... The U.S. mortgage subsidiary of the Dutch-owned ABN Amro, based here, recently reported notable year-to-year declines in all of its loan channels except for the smallest, the financial institutions group, which has skyrocketed to a 767% gain in...

Wisconsin Defines Mortgage Transaction.
September 13, 2004... The Wisconsin Division of Banking here has proposed a new administrative rule relating to responsible high-cost mortgage lending. Under the rule, a consumer credit mortgage loan transaction is defined as any loan secured by the borrower's...

Nevada Considers New Regulations for Lending.
September 13, 2004... Scott Bice, the Nevada commissioner of mortgage lending, has proposed amended regulations for mortgage bankers. If passed, the proposed regulations would define the term "affiliated business," provide requirements for the maintenance of records...

Freddie Mac Urges Storm Assistance.
September 13, 2004... Freddie Mac is encouraging its servicers to provide relief for borrowers whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Frances. The company's disaster relief guidelines give servicers the discretion to reduce or suspend mortgage...

Downgrades for 3 SASCO Classes.
September 13, 2004... Three classes of Structured Asset Securities Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: series 2000-3, class B-3, from BB to B; and series 2001-9, class B-3, from BBB...

NV Bank Targets Construction.
September 13, 2004... Over the next several years, Business Bank of Nevada is looking to capture a significant share of the single and multifamily construction lending business. The bank, with $308.8 million in total assets, said it anticipates lending $100...

NC Bank Acquires Two More Offices.
September 13, 2004... Southern Community Financial Corp. here has reported that its subsidiary, Southern Community Bank and Trust, acquired two residential mortgage offices from Davidson Mortgage and that the company's president, James Davidson, and the employees of...

Flood Agency Hires New Managers.
September 13, 2004... The Flood Insurance Agency has appointed two new managers at its headquarters here. Alisa T. Johnson, formerly of Computer Sciences Corp., will assume the role of agency underwriting manager. And Judy L. Marvel, also formerly of Computer...

First American Teams Up with WRQ.
September 13, 2004... First American Default Technologies has automated its loan foreclosure process by adopting WRQ Verastream host integration software, the technology company announced. Verastream said its system enabled First American Default Technologies...

SN Offers Workout Help to ACBI.
September 13, 2004... SN Servicing Corp. has entered into an exclusive arrangement with America's Community Bankers to provide the trade group's members with workout services on problem assets. As part of the agreement, the Eureka, Calif.-based workout and...

TFIA to Automate MPPP Option.
September 13, 2004... The Flood Insurance Agency here has entered into an exclusive underwriting agreement with American Bankers Insurance Co. of Florida to introduce a new lender-placed flood insurance program, known as MPPPFlood.com. And Evan Hecht, the CEO...

Roundup: Fitch Negative On Some GMAC Commercial Securities.
September 13, 2004... Classes D, E and F of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Securities Inc.'s mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2002-FL-1, have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. In addition, Fitch affirmed the ratings on four other classes...

Bombardier Downgrade.
September 13, 2004... Ten classes of Bombardier Capital Mortgage Securitization Co. manufactured housing transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: series 1998-A, class M, from AA to A, and class B-1, from CCC to C;...