|
|
Mortgage Headlines
|
powered by
|
 |
|
|
Last Updated Monday, February 23, 2004 08:13 AM CST
|
|
WaMu to Add 250 Retail Stores, Including Some Originator Positions
Washington Mutual recently announced that it will aggregate 250 more financial center stores this year to its nationwide network of approximately 1,800. The planned new branches will create 1,500 new banking jobs of which some will be loan officer jobs, said a spokesman, but that number could not be confirmed.
12 Brokers Become One
Newly formed Q10 Capital LLC is keeping power at the local level so it can carry out the activities required to function efficiently in the commercial financing world, according to the company's chairman. After over 10 years of working together in various ventures, twelve founding companies built the national infrastructure to streamline operations, reduce operating costs, and invest in technology, said Q10. The company claims to rank among the top ten commercial loan producers in the nation.
Traditional Advertising Not Always Best Way to Reach Many Groups
A survey of 1000 borrowers showed that "Hispanics were more than twice as likely as any other racial or ethnic subgroup to get their primary information from family," the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist said. The 1998 study indicated that African Americans were not using the newspaper to find mortgage information, but were likely to get it from housing fairs and television. The economist said the study will be repeated soon.
Mortgage Market Strengthens
The 30 year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.58% this week -- falling 8 basis points from last week and standing at the lowest level since July 11, 2003, according to Freddie Mac's latest survey of 125 lending thrifts. Seventy-three percent of the panelists surveyed by Bankrate.com predicted that rates will remain unchanged over the next month, while the rest predicted a downturn. The Mortgage Bankers Association of America's Market Composite Index increased 4.9% from the previous week to 837.1. Last year at this time, the index stood at 1082.8.
Commercial Originator Talks About Secrets to Success
While eloquent dialogue helps in the many instances when prospective borrowers are asked to discuss aspects of their loan application, it is also true that "choppy or poor verbal dialogue can be detrimental to the process," according to Jeffrey Davis of Cambridge Realty Capital Companies -- a commerical mortgage broker based in Chicago. He noted that lenders and bankers like to hear positive things and get the sense that the borrower understands every element of the transaction, Davis said in a written statement. However, "talk doesn't make deals. Successful applications are all about quality paperwork and data."
Wells to Add 100 L.A. Loan Consultants
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage will open six new centers in low-to-moderate income and multicultural areas of Los Angeles, and plans to hire more than 100 home loan consultants this year. The mortgage banking behemoth reported that it is influenced by the potential of the large Hispanic population. Wells noted that since it started accepting the Mexican matricula card as valid identification two years ago, the majority of new accounts stemmed from the Los Angeles area.
National City, GreenPoint in Acquisition Deals
National City Corp. announced Tuesday it will acquire Provident Financial Group Inc. for an approximate $2.1 billion. National City, which reported mortgage originations of $17.2 billion during the fourth quarter, said completion of the transaction is expected in the second quarter of 2004. Meanwhile, New York-based North Fork Bancoporation Inc. announced that it reached a $6.3 billion all-stock agreement to acquire GreenPoint Financial Corp. -- a New York retail bank with 90 branches and a national mortgage business that reportedly originated $8.7 billion in loans during the fourth quarter.
70 Cendant Employees Treated for Food Poisoning
During a recent Cendant Mortgage conference at the Lowes Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, employees were stricken by illness. As many as 70 employees at the Mount Laurel, N.J.-based company were treated at area emergency rooms for apparent food poisoning. But none on of the cases were severe. A company spokeswoman did confirm that Philadelphia public health inspectors are investigating and that all of the employees who were stricken are better now and did not require lengthy hospital stays.
Trouble, Alaskan Style
The former owner of a bankrupt Anchorage mortgage company has settled for $35,000 with the Alaska consumer protection office over allegations of unfair business practices and fraud claims. The settlement will be used to help nine consumers who were cheated of about $40,000 that they had deposited into escrow accounts -- the consumers never received the money as they should have, said the Alaska assistant attorney general who handled the case. City Mortgage -- reportedly once a top source of home loans in Anchorage -- was closed down in 2001 after the company was forced into bankruptcy court by some of its creditors.
NY Vs First Horizon
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently filed a lawsuit against First Horizon Home Loan Corp. for illegally threatening to foreclose on a property that had already been paid off, according to the filing. Despite that the borrower made the last of 300 timely payments required to fulfill the loan in October 1999, First Horizon continued to debit the monthly amount from his account, said the AG. "Horizon knew, or had reason to know, that it had no right to take the actions set forth," Spitzer said in the lawsuit -- which seeks civil penalties against the bank for illegal and deceptive practices, among other things.
Rates Are Still Low, So Where Are the Loans?
The Market Composite Index -- a measure of total mortgage applications -- declined 6.8% from the previous week to 797.8, according to the latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA). The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.66% -- a decrease of 6 basis points from last week -- Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed. Freddie's chief economist Frank Nothaft said mortgage rates will remain tame for some months to come due to Alan Greenspan's semiannual testimony about the state of the economy to House members Wednesday.
Service Offers Renters Online Credit History
Pay Rent Build Credit recently launched its Data Network -- an Internet-based program that it says tracks electronic data of consumers' rent, mortgage, phone, insurance, and other recurring bill payments. The company suggests the payment histories can be incorporated into automated underwriting systems for credit pricing decisions. The Pay Rent Data Network requires that consumers build an electronic file of their rental and utility payments on its Web site in order for lenders to consider this information when applying for a loan. Consumers can record up to 36 months of past payment data which is verified through Pay Rent-approved sources.
Mortgage Lender Takes $500k Hit Over Language Issues
An Oregon jury voted 11-1 to award a Spanish-speaking couple $545,000 in damages after finding they were defrauded by signing loan documents they could not read. The couple was approached by a Spanish-speaking sales associate from Beneficial Mortgage Corp. who reportedly offered a second mortgage at 7.8 percent. The payments were to include property taxes and insurance. But when they unexpectedly received a delinquent tax bill they discovered the interest rate on their loan was nearly 13 percent. So they went to court and won.
95% LTV on Manufactured Housing
Fannie Mae announced Tuesday that it will buy 95% LTV purchase money mortgages secured by manufactured homes -- an upgrade from the previous 90% LTV limit. Nine lenders were approved to sell Fannie the higher loan-to-value 30-year mortgages for the purchase of a manufactured home. Fannie said its research showed that lenders with the best performance in manufactured housing loans were those who employed processes and procedures that included close monitoring of the origination, appraisal, and closing functions.
Fundings Fall at Countrywide
Countrywide Financial Corp. reported loan fundings of $21 billion for last month, declining from December's $25 billion. Direct fundings were $6.2 billion, according to the announcement, while wholesale fundings were $3.8 billion and correspondent fundings were $8.2 billion. The servicing portfolio reached $658 billion, marking a 2% increase from the previous month.
9.5 Million Loans Underwritten by Loan Prospector in 2003
Freddie Mac recently announced that Loan Prospector -- its automated underwriting system -- assessed a milestone 9.5 million individual mortgage loans in 2003, up from 8.2 million the prior year. With Loan Prospector, lenders input a borrower's credit, loan and property information and the system provides risk assessment based on the past performance of loans with similar characteristics, said the McLean, Va.-based company. Since its launch in 1995 -- when it reviewed 38,248 loans and three years later 2.07 million -- the system has reportedly handled over 35 million individual mortgage loans.
WaMu Suing IndyMac
Washington Mutual Mortgage Securities Corp. of Seattle has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against IndyMac Bancorp in an attempt to recover $50 million. WaMu claims it lost the $50 million in residential mortgage loans that IndyMac sold to PNC Mortgage Securities -- a company WaMu subsequently acquired. "Over the course of the relationship with IndyMac, PNC and/or WaMu identified numerous loans which had been purchased from IndyMac that failed to meet the requirements of the contract" between IndyMac and PNC, WaMu said in the lawsuit. Despite the lawsuit, IndyMac said it will continue to try and settle the matter out of court.
Sister Pressured to Take Fall for Brother in Fraud Case
A father and son meet with a female family member in an underground hotel parking garage. The men want the woman -- the daughter and sister to the pair -- to take the fall for a crime the son has committed. They plead, beg, try to convince and even threaten the woman to lie to federal authorities about her role it what has already been exposed as a $33 million bank fraud and mortgage scheme. "If the family sticks together," the brother tells the sister, "you can't beat the f*****g family." Only the family here is not a New Jersey Mafia clan, but a once successful group of Kentucky homebuilders and developers who were trying to lie their way out of a long prison sentence for one of their own.
December Production Off at New Century
New Century Financial Corp. announced that in January it originated $2.5 billion in loans, declining from the previous month's $3.0 billion. In the announcement, company executive, Robert K. Cole, indicated that the lower volume reflected the "seasonal nature of loan production following the holidays."
$139 Billion in Cashouts During 2003
Freddie Mac's fourth quarter Refinance Review revealed that 45% of the company-owned refinance loans included cashout -- where the new loan amount was at least 5% over the amortized unpaid principal balance of the original amount. In all of 2003, homeowners took out almost $139 billion from their home equity, but rising home values put that equity right back in and then some, said Freddie.
|
|
This mortgage news summary reprinted with permission of
|
|
|
For the entire text of any of these stories please visit
|
|
|
|
