Sales of vacation homes increased 30 percent in 2013 from the previous year with 62 percent of buyers using a mortgage to finance their purchase and the rest paying in cash for their new properties, according to a survey from the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s 2014 survey of investment and vacation homebuyers revealed that 717,000 vacation homes were purchased last year, the most since 2006. Overall, survey results showed that home sales in the first half of 2013 saw stronger recovery in many local markets. These sales were spurred by low mortgage interest rates and affordable house prices. However, the recovery slowed in the second half of the year in many areas due to low housing inventory. The median sales price of a vacation home last year was $168,000, up 12.5 percent from 2012. It was the second year with a price...
Originations of purchase mortgages declined in the fourth quarter of 2013, and applications for purchase mortgages have been tepid in early 2014. While tight underwriting requirements could have played a role in the downward trend, industry analysts suggest that a number of other factors are also suppressing originations of purchase mortgages. Loan-level data on agency mortgages show a decline in underwriting standards for purchase mortgages during 2013, including an increase in average debt-to-income ratios and a decrease in average credit scores. The looser underwriting wasn’t enough to stave off declines in originations. Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, said originations of purchase mortgages have been constrained in part by a lack of supply, not of loans, but of homes...
Real estate agents, homebuilders and mortgage lenders alike are hoping the sluggish market really is due to the unusually severe winter seen across the nation – and something not deeper or more systemic.However, the critical spring homebuying season is getting underway, and the next three months may have much to say about whether 2014 will be a break-out year or just a middling performer. “Over the coming months, we believe it will become increasingly clear whether our estimate for a $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion market is still achievable or if originations will come in closer to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s long-standing target for $1.1 trillion,” analysts at FBR Capital Markets said recently. “Though we had long expected refinancing volumes to slow as rates rose and the pool of borrowers with an economic incentive...
If you’re disappointed by the sluggish mortgage market where you are, you can take some comfort in knowing that the grass isn’t much greener anywhere else. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of first-quarter mortgage activity by state shows that most areas of the country produced at least 40 percent fewer mortgages in early 2014 than during the same period last year. California, still the biggest housing market of all, saw a 67.2 percent decline in mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That was a couple ticks worse than the 63.7 percent nationwide. In contrast, the market was down “only” 44.9 percent in Texas, the second-largest source of agency mortgages. Third-ranked Florida was also in a little better shape than the overall market, though business was down 53.6 percent from the first quarter of 2013...
The nonbank servicers under scrutiny from regulators have rankings at similar levels to banks, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. And while there have been concerns about loss mitigation activity by nonbank servicers, they use loan modifications more than banks. Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management’s Green Tree Servicing were among the 17 servicers that received a rating of at least three stars from Fannie Mae for their performance in 2013, the government-sponsored enterprise disclosed last week. Twelve unnamed servicers received ratings below three stars. Green Tree (four stars) and Nationstar (three) maintained...
Hisey, a former Fannie Mae executive, has been given the title of chief strategy and external affairs officer, a newly created position at the nonbank lender/servicer.
At least 46 vintage non-agency MBS took principal forbearance-related losses in March, according to industry analysts. The losses are a concern for investors because they were taken without warning, based on forbearance that happened well before March. Most of the deals taking retroactive forbearance losses in March were issued by Bear Stearns from 2005 through 2007 and were largely serviced by JPMorgan Chase, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital. Write-downs on the deals were as high as 6.8 percent for a single month. “When a servicer recognizes losses on loans previously modified with forbearance, it could significantly impact...
In the pre-crash days, newly created MSRs were selling at 6 and even 7 times the servicing fee. “I even saw prices of eight,” said Chuck Klein, managing partner for Mortgage Banking Solution.
One mortgage technology expert had this to say on the Ellie Mae shutdown: “This is going to get ugly. Real money is lost when you can’t close loans on time.”
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