| Settlements Actually Mean Anything? FinCen's Impact on Non-bank Mortgage Lenders |
| Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:31:56 GMT |
Posted To: Pipeline Press "Fat, drunk & stupid is no way to go through life son." One probably doesn't hear that admonishment much in the halls of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which finalized regulations that require non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators to establish anti-money laundering (AML) programs and file suspicious activity reports (SARs) , as FinCEN requires of other types of financial institutions. Law firm Ballard Spahr was quick to set up a free webinar for its attorneys to explain the new requirements and discuss the steps non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators must take now to comply with the new requirements. Mortgage banks, who now have this new regulatory worry on their plate, may want to have someone sit in next Thursday (2/16) from 12-1 EST...(read more) |
| The Day Ahead: Deja Vu All Over Again For Greece |
| Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:47:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary How many times must we go through the same motions surrounding the various bailout/solvency/reform issues in Greece? Granted, things are just slightly different each time, but the aspects of "seemingly urgent decisions required" as well as "certain deadlines needing to be hit" or else face the consequences of "almost certain Greek default and probable exit from the Eurozone" feel like they've been present in each iteration of the broader situation that we refer to as "Greek Drama." After all the sturm and drang of the most recent installment of Greece bailout drama, and even after several Eurozone officials said today in several different ways that said drama was resolved, we now have several other Eurozone officials saying that, while the drama is resolved, it actually, possibly, maybe isn...(read more) |
| MBS RECAP: 2/9/2012 |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:22:41 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary MBS Live : MBS RECAP Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 103-22 : -0-05 FNMA 4.0 105-13 : -0-08 FNMA 4.5 106-19 : -0-07 FNMA 5.0 107-30 : -0-04 GNMA 3.5 105-02 : -0-06 GNMA 4.0 107-24 : -0-07 GNMA 4.5 109-03 : -0-06 GNMA 5.0 110-28 : -0-04 FHLMC 3.5 103-13 : -0-06 FHLMC 4.0 105-00 : -0-07 FHLMC 4.5 106-03 : -0-06 FHLMC 5.0 107-27 : +0-02 Pricing as of 4:02 PM EST Afternoon Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 2:06PM : ALERT: Treasuries, MBS Attempting to Turn a Corner Following 30yr Auction Volume surged briefly following the 1pm 30yr Bond Auction, but has since died down. In the process, Treasury yields and MBS prices experienced a bit of volatility, but that now seems to be resolving itself in a favorable manner....(read more) |
| Mortgage Rates at a Tipping Point After Rising Today |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:06:00 GMT |
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgages Rates moved higher today at the quickest pace of the week. For the second time this year, the 3.875% Best-Execution rate on 30yr Fixed Conventional loans is in question. If rates move much higher from here, the average Best-Execution rate across multiple lenders will have risen back to 4.0% and for quite a few lenders, is already there. (We explain more about Best-Execution calculations in THIS POST ). Today got started off on a sour note for rates with the late night news that Greece was very close to finalizing the terms of their most recent bailout. This isn't some surprising game-changer, but has done enough damage to bond markets, which tend to offer lower interest rates in times of economic uncertainty. As a successful bailout relieves some uncertainty, rates generally moved...(read more) |
| FHA Claims Against Bank of America / Countrywide Resolved |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:42:18 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced the settlement of claims her office had brought against Bank of America, Countrywide Financial Corporations and some of its affiliates for underwriting and origination mortgage fraud. The settlement ends an inquiry into whether Countrywide, acquired by Bank of Boston in 2008, had knowingly made loans insured by FHA to unqualified home buyers. The settlement, in the amount of $1 billion requires an immediate payment of $500 million to correct some of the harm done to FHA by Countrywide's conduct. The remaining $500 million will be deferred to fund a loan modification program for borrowers across the nation with Countrywide mortgages that are under water. If, after the expiration of three years, the bank has not applied...(read more) |
| MBS And Treasuries Off Their Lows. Long Term Trends In Play |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:27:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary Latest Alert From MBS Live: Treasuries, MBS Attempting to Turn a Corner Following 30yr Auction - 2:06PM Volume surged briefly following the 1pm 30yr Bond Auction, but has since died down. In the process, Treasury yields and MBS prices experienced a bit of volatility, but that now seems to be resolving itself in a favorable manner. Fannie 3.5 MBS are down only 4 ticks on the day at 103-23, and 10yr yields are down to 2.045 after being as high as the 2.07's before the auction. New and meaningful headlines out of Europe have slowed to a trickle and there are no other major decisions or announcements scheduled to be made today. Several officials are on record as saying that the Greek bailout agreement is a done deal but other officials note that nothing official will be announced today. Whether...(read more) |
| NAR: Home Affordability Increases Nationwide |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:38:19 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire As prices continued to decline during the fourth quarter of 2011 in most metropolitan areas of the U.S., housing affordability rose due not only to the lower prices but also because of record low interest rates . The National Association of Realtors® released its Housing Affordability Index (HAI) including a new annual metro-level housing affordability index which shows historically favorable conditions dominating across the country. The median price of an existing single-family home rose in 29 out of 149 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Prices were unchanged in two MSAs and fell in 118. The national median existing home price was $163,500 in the fourth quarter compared to $170,600 one year earlier, a decrease of 4.2 percent...(read more) |
| Mortgage Servicer Settlement Finally Reached |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:51:05 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire A final settlement between the nation's five largest mortgage servicers , two federal agencies and 49 of the states' attorneys general (AGs) was announced this morning by officials representing the AGs, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The settlement, the result of a 16 month nationwide investigation into foreclosure abuses, fraud, and unacceptable mortgage servicing practices is, as anticipated, for $25 billion dollars but there was no information released as to which state was not participating in the action. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Company, Citibank, and Ally Financial, (formerly GMAC) and their servicing subsidiaries have agreed to commit a minimum of $17 billion directly to borrowers through a series of relief...(read more) |
| MBS MID-DAY: 2/9/2012 |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:17:36 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary MBS Live : MBS MID-DAY Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 103-18 : -0-09 FNMA 4.0 105-14 : -0-07 FNMA 4.5 106-20 : -0-06 FNMA 5.0 108-00 : -0-02 GNMA 3.5 105-02 : -0-06 GNMA 4.0 107-25 : -0-06 GNMA 4.5 109-03 : -0-06 GNMA 5.0 110-30 : -0-01 FHLMC 3.5 103-10 : -0-09 FHLMC 4.0 104-31 : -0-08 FHLMC 4.5 106-03 : -0-06 FHLMC 5.0 107-27 : +0-01 Pricing as of 11:04 AM EST Morning Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 10:05AM : ECON: Wholesale Inventories and Sales, Rise More Than Expected The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that December 2011 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were...(read more) |
| Ally to Sell ResCap? NCUA on Loan Workouts; Thoughts on the FHA Streamline Situation |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:51:13 GMT |
Posted To: Pipeline Press Top Realtors and loan officers know that words make a difference in dealing with buyers and borrowers. It may seem obvious, but word choice, be it in advertising or client relations, has a big influence on what customers think about any given organization. Take, for example, the statement that "we can get you more loan business, trust us." The reader is highly unlikely to do so; in fact, he or she would likely be rather suspicious. The phrase "trust us" is a "negative transfer phrase"; that is, it elicits a psychological response that is the opposite of its intention. However, if told to "imagine if we can show you how to generate enough loan growth to not only meet your budget, but easily surpass it," the customer would be both interested to hear the solution and inclined to, yes, trust that...(read more) |
| "House Lock" - Negative Equity not Hurting Employment Numbers |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:06:09 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire " House lock " is not a major factor when it comes to a homeowner's ability to find a job. A working paper commissioned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that, while many Americans lack mobility because their homes are "underwater" in respect to their mortgages, this is only a marginal contributing factor to continued unemployment. Migration across states and among homeowners has fallen sharply at the same time as a widespread drop in housing prices has resulted in wide-spread negative home equity. According to CoreLogic, 10.7 million homes, 22.1 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, were worth less than their mortgages at the end of the third quarter of 2011 and an additional 2.4 million borrowers had less than 5 percent equity. The nation's unemployment rate has...(read more) |
| The Day Ahead: Digesting Greek Headlines and Week's Last Auction |
| Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:07:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE As it turns out, the reason we’d heard about the meeting of Greek officials and the troika starting earlier in the day yestersday while never hearing anything else before domestic markets closed, was that the closed door meeting was going on the entire time. Even though the portion of the meeting with the heads of Greece’s political parties concluded shortly after 5pm (EDT), Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said that additional issues needed to be worked on immediately so a deal could be reached ahead of Thursdays Eurogroup meeting. EU/IMF Officials weren’t seen emerging from his office until 10:50pm, almost 6 hours later. Here are a few of the relevant Reuters wires ranging from 5pm-11pm: · RTRS - GREEK PARTY CHIEFS' MEETING...(read more) |
| MBS RECAP: 2/8/2012 |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:17:31 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary MBS Live : MBS RECAP Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 103-28 : +0-04 FNMA 4.0 105-21 : +0-02 FNMA 4.5 106-25 : +0-01 FNMA 5.0 108-01 : +0-01 GNMA 3.5 105-08 : +0-02 GNMA 4.0 107-32 : +0-03 GNMA 4.5 109-09 : +0-03 GNMA 5.0 110-31 : +0-02 FHLMC 3.5 103-18 : +0-05 FHLMC 4.0 105-07 : +0-01 FHLMC 4.5 106-08 : +0-02 FHLMC 5.0 107-24 : +0-03 Pricing as of 4:04 PM EST Afternoon Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 1:28PM : ALERT: Limited Reaction to Good-But-Not-Great 10yr Auction Bond markets have reacted in a generally positive way to today's 10yr note auction. The high-yield awarded was 1.1 bps lower than "when-issued" yields just before the release (this is bond-market friendly as it means that yields were...(read more) |
| Mortgage Rates Flat to Slightly Improved After Auction, Greece News |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:46:00 GMT |
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch For several sessions in a row, Mortgages Rates have moved in the opposite direction from the previous session, although even the bigger examples of these movements haven't been enough to nudge 3.875% out of the "best-execution" position. The same back-and-forth movement continued today as rates improved ever so slightly after rising slightly yesterday. Keep in mind, that the term "rates" in this context refers to the combination of the interest rate itself and the closing/borrowing costs required to obtain that rate. We explain more about Best-Execution calculations in THIS POST . Also in the same vein as yesterday, today's market movement began in reaction to headlines surrounding Greece's ongoing negotiations with creditors (the 3 official creditors, the ECB, IMF, and European Commission...(read more) |
| Mortgage Rates Flat to Slightly Improved After Auction, Greece News |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:10:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary For several sessions in a row, Mortgages Rates have moved in the opposite direction from the previous session, although even the bigger examples of these movements haven't been enough to nudge 3.875% out of the "best-execution" position. The same back-and-forth movement continued today as rates improved ever so slightly after rising slightly yesterday. Keep in mind, that the term "rates" in this context refers to the combination of the interest rate itself and the closing/borrowing costs required to obtain that rate. We explain more about Best-Execution calculations in THIS POST . Also in the same vein as yesterday, today's market movement began in reaction to headlines surrounding Greece's ongoing negotiations with creditors (the 3 official creditors, the ECB, IMF, and European Commission...(read more) |
| Ally said to be Shopping Mortgage Unit |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:05:52 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire One of the financial institutions that are party to the reported settlement agreement with the attorneys general of the majority of the states is reportedly on the auction block. According to Bloomberg News, Ally Financial is talking with private equity firms about selling its mortgage unit, Residential Capital LCC , through a pre-package bankruptcy. Any sale of the company would be complicated by its recent financial history. The company was founded as General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) in 1919 by General Motors as an intermediary to provide financing for the purchase of its autos. Over the years it expanded into other types of lending and into real estate brokerage and adopted the acronym as its brand name. GMAC was hard hit by the housing crash and was one of the beneficiaries...(read more) |
| Bond Markets Improve Following 10yr Auction and Fed Selling |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:01:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary After the 10yr auction, production MBS and the long end of the yield curve didn't move much at first. But it now seems that some additional bid for the 10yr was on hold until after the Fed's Scheduled selling that ended at 2pm. As that was wrapping up, 10's made another move lower in yield to test the the pivot point just over 1.96% that can be seen in the chart below. First, here's the full text of the MBS Live alert that went out after the auction: Limited Reaction to Good-But-Not-Great 10yr Auction (1:28PM) Bond markets have reacted in a generally positive way to today's 10yr note auction. The high-yield awarded was 1.1 bps lower than "when-issued" yields just before the release (this is bond-market friendly as it means that yields were slightly lower than the street was expecting) and the...(read more) |
| Delinquencies, Foreclosures, and Inventories Improve in CoreLogic Data |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:54:46 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire According to CoreLogic, the Santa Ana California based provider of information and business services, there were a total of 830,000 foreclosures nationwide in 2011 compared to 1.1 million in 2010. The most recent monthly numbers, for December 2011, were down from foreclosures both a month earlier and in December 2010. There were 55,000 foreclosures during the month of December, a drop of 2,000 from the November total and a significant decrease from a year earlier when there were 67,000, a -15 percent change. According to CoreLogic, there have been approximately 3.2 million foreclosures since the beginning of the financial crisis in September 2008. The foreclosure inventory - the stock of homes in the process of foreclosure - also decreased on an annual and accelerating basis. There were 1.4...(read more) |
| Missouri Goes After Processor DocX; Wells Now #1 Servicer; Rural Streamlines |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:59:00 GMT |
Posted To: Pipeline Press What, exactly, qualifies a person as "rich"? It depends who you are - here in the States the wealth of the top 1% is about 225 times greater than that of the typical family, compared to 125 times in 1962, and the cumulative wealth of the Forbes 400 was $1.54 trillion, equal to worth of the bottom half of American families . Household net worth has been falling, and a recent Gallup poll states that the median income to be considered "rich" is $150,000 a year, up from the $120,000 that qualified a person as rich in 2003. Amongst different demographics, however, what makes one "rich" is relative. About 15% of respondents said it would take $1 million a year or more to fall into that category, but three in 10 say that they'd qualify as prosperous even pulling in less than six figures. About half...(read more) |
| MBS MID-DAY: 2/8/2012 |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:17:24 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary MBS Live : MBS MID-DAY Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 103-26 : +0-03 FNMA 4.0 105-20 : +0-01 FNMA 4.5 106-23 : -0-01 FNMA 5.0 108-00 : -0-01 GNMA 3.5 105-09 : +0-03 GNMA 4.0 107-31 : +0-02 GNMA 4.5 109-06 : +0-00 GNMA 5.0 110-30 : +0-00 FHLMC 3.5 103-16 : +0-02 FHLMC 4.0 105-03 : -0-03 FHLMC 4.5 106-04 : -0-02 FHLMC 5.0 107-22 : +0-01 Pricing as of 11:03 AM EST Morning Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 9:46AM : ALERT: Bond Markets Bounce Back To Breakeven Levels After Overnight Weakness News that the ECB would turn over it's Greek bond holdings to the EFSF in exchange for EFSF bonds of higher amounts, provides another potential reason that yesterday’s planned meeting among Greek leaders to approve the terms...(read more) |
| Refinancing Apps Rise on Record Low Rates |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:58:46 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire Mortgage rates broke another set of records during the week ended February 3, establishing several new historic lows. In response, the seasonally adjusted Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage application volume , rose 7.5 percent and 8.7 percent on an unadjusted basis. The increases were driven solely by refinancing which represented 80.5 percent of total applications for the week, up from 80.0 percent the previous week. The Index measuring applications for refinancing increased 9.4 percent over that of the week ended January 27 but the seasonally adjusted basis the Purchase Index ticked up only 0.1 percent. The unadjusted Purchase Index was 6 percent higher than in the previous week and 4.1 percent lower than during the same week in 2011. The four...(read more) |
| Day Ahead: 10yr Auction And Another Probable Greek Deadline Miss |
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:06:00 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary The theme of light economic data continues on Wednesday with MBA Mortgage Apps being the only item of note. Even then, it's only notable due to it's pertinence to our industry and is not a market mover. Both the refi and purchase indexes snapped 3 week losing streaks with the Purchase Index just barely improving. The Refi Index on the other hand, rose a hefty 9.4% from 4113 to 4500 as the MBA reported average rates dropped from 4.09 to 4.05. The other part of the weekly theme is that the light economic data is punctuated by scheduled and unscheduled market movers. On the scheduled front, the most promising contender is the 1pm Auction of $24 billion of new 10yr Notes. Refundings over the past year have generally met with lighter demand than reopenings with the last 4 averaging 3.02 as opposed...(read more) |
| MBS RECAP: 2/7/2012 |
| Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:17:19 GMT |
Posted To: MBS Commentary MBS Live : MBS RECAP Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 103-23 : -0-04 FNMA 4.0 105-18 : -0-04 FNMA 4.5 106-23 : -0-04 FNMA 5.0 107-32 : -0-05 GNMA 3.5 105-05 : -0-02 GNMA 4.0 107-28 : -0-01 GNMA 4.5 109-04 : -0-03 GNMA 5.0 110-29 : -0-04 FHLMC 3.5 103-13 : -0-05 FHLMC 4.0 105-06 : -0-05 FHLMC 4.5 106-05 : -0-05 FHLMC 5.0 107-20 : -0-05 Pricing as of 4:03 PM EST Afternoon Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 3:19PM : ECON: Consumer Credit Expands More Than Expected Novembers expansion of total Consumer Credit was revised to +$20.38 bln, very close to the original print. Today's report for December shows only a slight decrease in the pace to $19.31 bln. Economists had been expecting a bigger contraction to $7.7...(read more) |
| House Committee Acts on Bill to Protect FHA Fund |
| Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:11:47 GMT |
Posted To: MND NewsWire A sub-committee of the House Financial Services committee today approved the FHA Emergency Solvency Act which is intended to shore up the finances of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The legislation strengthens FHA's Mortgage Insurance Fund by establishing minimum annual premiums for mortgage insurance; barring unscrupulous lenders from participating in the program, improving the FHA's internal financial controls, transparency, and disclosure requirements, and requires lenders who commit fraud to repay any losses suffered by FHA as a consequence. FHA's cash reserves have been hard-hit by the housing crash and have fallen below 2 percent Congress has mandated it must maintain. According to the subcommittee's press release, the agency's finances have deteriorated to the point where a...(read more) |
| Mortgage Rates Slightly Higher as Greece, Auctions Weigh on Markets |
| Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:47:00 GMT |
Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Although the recently confirmed 3.875% Best-Execution level remains intact for 30yr fixed, conventional loans, Mortgages Rates moved slightly higher today in terms of the costs required to obtain those rates. Weakness in Treasuries today was more pronounced than MBS, the "mortgage-backed-securities most directly responsible for determining mortgage rates. (learn more about how we calculate Best-Execution in THIS POST ). Initially driving today's market movements was news that political leaders would meet in Greece to vote on a soon-to-be-drafted bailout package. Greek officials have been reluctant to stand up in favor of creditor-imposed austerity. Even though they likely realize the dire implications of such reluctance, the political backlash from Greece's populace is pretty dire in it's own...(read more) |
