Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae maintained a healthy appetite for interest-only mortgages during the first half of the year – a period that saw many major players split their volume among the rival GSEs, a new Inside Alternative Mortgages analysis reveals. Combined, Fannie and Freddie purchased $76.32 billion in prime IO loans during the first two months of the year. That put the GSEs on pace to obliterate the record they set in 2005,…
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On second thought, keeping its reverse mortgage unit in-house seems like a pretty good idea to IndyMac. The California-based lender made headlines earlier this year when it revealed plans to spin off its Financial Freedom reverse mortgage shop through an IPO, though it planned to keep a majority stake. But in a reversal, IndyMac said last week that it has decided to take a 100 percent stake in the business, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary.…
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The largest originator of option ARMs, Countrywide Financial, also has the most problems with late payments by its borrowers. That was one of the key findings of a recent study by analysts at RBS Greenwich Capital, which looked at delinquency performance on option ARMs securitized in 2004 and 2005, based on information in a database maintained by research firm LoanPerformance. …
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A Wall Street investment bank, Deutsche Bank, hopes that a series of recent acquisitions will make it a major player in the alternative mortgage market. Last week, Deutsche Bank announced that it has agreed to pay an estimated $429 million to acquire wholesale lender MortgageIT. The New York-based lender operates out of 50 branches around the country and touts itself as one of the fastest growing lenders in the U.S., with originations that have…
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Another alternative mortgage lender is testing the waters with a 50-year loan product. But while Mortgage Investment Lending Associates, better known as MILA, prides itself on innovation, officials aren’t sure that there is much bang-for-the-buck in going beyond the half century mark. MILA rolled out its suite of 50-year products for its nonprime and Alt A loan programs in late June. On the subprime side, the 50-year option is offered on 2/6, 3/6, and…
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A Florida-based firm is offering borrowers the chance to determine if they paid too much on their adjustable-rate mortgages by putting a new twist on an idea that has been around for a while – loan audits. “Adjustable rate mortgages involve changing index values and computer calculations that invite human and software errors,” cautions Mortgage Audit Services, a division of consulting firm Golden & Associates headquartered in Winter Garden, on its Web site. “You…
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