Interest-only loans have become the mainstay of the conventional alternative mortgage market, accounting for the bulk of the estimated $38 billion in alternative mortgage originations completed during the second quarter. A new analysis by Inside Alternative Mortgage reveals that $35 billion of interest-only loans were originated during the second... [Includes one chart and one graph]
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Delinquency rates on Alt A mortgages continued to climb higher in the second quarter of 2008, pushing top servicers to more aggressively pursue loan modifications and other loss mitigation strategies, according to a new report from federal banking agencies.Some 5.83 percent of Alt A mortgages had reached seriously delinquent status as of the end of June, according to the...
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week implemented new restrictions on an FHA home-equity conversion mortgage program that is holding its own in a mortgage market that has seen an eruption in FHA lending. HUD is working to implement new requirements included in the 2008 housing act designed to protect seniors from coercive... [Includes one chart and one graph]
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The continuing upheaval on Wall Street reverberated all the way to Seattle this week, as Washington Mutual, still a top Alt A lender in 2008, accelerated its efforts to drum up more capital or solicit a buyer as losses mount on its option ARM portfolio. This week, private-equity firm TPG Inc., which spearheaded a $7.2 billion capital infusion into the lender in April, gave a boost to that...
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Reflecting bad times in the housing and mortgage markets, higher-priced lending plunged as did other segments of the market in 2007. However, the full extent of the decline may not be known because a good chunk of higher-priced loans originated last year by now-defunct lenders went unreported. The share of closed loans meeting the “higher-priced loan” definition under the Home...
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The bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers early this week puts in play one of the largest Alt A servicing portfolios in the market, although the company’s close ties to the non-agency MBS sector suggest that it will be carefully taken care of. Lehman’s Aurora Loan Services, a subsidiary of a Lehman-owned thrift institution, was administering an estimated $124.5 billion of mortgage...
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Despite tumbling real estate values across the country, a handful of lenders are betting on the long-term revival of the market and the increased difficulty of using traditional financing to extract equity from the home. EquityKey, a San Diego-based real estate investment company, is offering a real estate option product targeted to homeowners between the ages of 65 and 85 and...
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