Redwood started acquiring agency mortgages from correspondent lenders in mid-October. The REIT noted that the activity helps create mortgage servicing rights for it to invest in.
How many loans per month should a loan officer be closing when times are lean? According to Dave Lykken of Mortgage Banking Solutions, if an LO isnt closing at least six loans per month, they might want to consider employment elsewhere.
Figuring out the details on how to structure, capitalize and operate new secondary-market facilities for small lenders are key challenges for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee as it pushes to mark up mortgage reform legislation by the end of this year. This week, lawmakers pushed lender trade groups to come together and find answers. The bipartisan Senate blueprint for secondary mortgage market reform includes several key provisions designed to facilitate small-lender access when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer around, including creation of a new mutual or cooperatively-owned institution through which lenders could issue conventional mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the government. If a new MBS mutual for small lenders is going to be competitive, it will have to be capitalized...[Includes one data chart]
Despite this years implementation of a new Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac representations and warranties framework that offers some repurchase relief three years after a loan is sold, officials from the two government-sponsored enterprises agree that the best way to beat a buyback request is to focus on quality control. Participants during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week said the new reps and warranties policy has brought greatly increased scrutiny of new mortgages guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. Quality in the loan-manufacturing process is...
SunTrust Mortgage like many large banks before it is pulling the ripcord on the wholesale-broker channel, though it will remain as a correspondent buyer of closed mortgages. The company ranked 12th in wholesale-broker lending during the first half of 2013, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. A company spokesman confirmed the banks exit from the sector, but declined to provide any explanation. Clients with applications currently pending in this channel are not affected by this announcement, he said. We will continue to work to close their loans. Brokers were...
A little-known case about disparate impact in housing and lending discrimination now before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will likely be the stage for the next legal debate on the question whether disparate-impact claims are permissible under the Fair Housing Act. It could also decide whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can apply disparate impact in its examinations and investigations. With the Mount Holly, NJ, town council reportedly poised to vote on a proposed settlement, the U.S. Supreme Court, for the second time in two years, would be deprived of the opportunity to decide the fate of disparate impact. Reports indicate the town council may have a decision by Nov. 7 and a settlement could end the case, Mount Holly v. Mount Holly Garden Citizens in Action, Inc., before scheduled oral arguments on Dec. 4. The Supreme Court was poised...
Expect Senate Democrats and the White House to continue their push to see Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, confirmed as the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency despite falling four votes short in a key procedural vote in the Senate last week. On Oct. 31, Senators voted 56 to 42 to limit floor debate on Watts nomination, well below the 60-member supermajority required to invoke cloture and shutter any potential filibuster under current Senate rules. Had Democrats been able to clear the 60-vote threshold and invoke cloture, its all but certain that Watt would have become the new FHFA director: the final vote on his nomination would then need only a simple majority of 51 votes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, has expressed...
A few weeks back, many servicing brokers were predicting a land rush to close deals by year-end, but theres a new school of thought that predicts sellers might wait until early 2014 to unload some of their deals. While we dont expect the [mortgage servicing rights] deal flow to turn off completely for 2013 just yet, we have noticed quite a slowdown in the marketplace as compared to the summer and early fall, said George Christo, executive vice president of The Prestwick Group. Many of our conversations with buyers and sellers have pivoted to setting the table for the first quarter of 2014 settlements. Moreover, the frothy prices being offered for MSRs are...