Although some mortgage originators might brag – or even advertise – that they can close a loan in under 30 days, it’s not likely to happen, at least not in practice. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends over the past two weeks, a variety of factors can derail a closing – including many circumstances that an originator just cannot control. Such circumstances can include insufficient funds on the part of the borrower, scheduling mix-ups ...

When dealing with celebrity clients – TV and film stars in particular – mortgage loan officers rarely interact directly with the star talent over the loan details. Instead, they deal with a celebrity’s business manager or another intermediary, according to Barry Habib, CEO at MBS Highway and a well-known mortgage trainer and motivational speaker. Habib should know – besides being a mortgage professional, he’s also an actor and producer, whose credits include ...

Depository institutions – along with the top tier of companies that service loans pooled in mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – continued to pull back from the market during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions serviced a total of $3.218 trillion of mortgage servicing rights connected with agency MBS as of the end of the second quarter. That was down 6.9 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Although depositories remain the dominant force in the agency MSR market, accounting for 64.2 percent of servicing on outstanding single-family MBS, nonbanks continued...[Includes four data tables]

For mortgage companies that were hoping to go public this year, they might as well forget about it. As one industry analyst put it: “The IPO market isn’t even on life support. It’s just plain dead.” Although many privately held mortgage firms are enjoying a strong year in both lending and profitability, the initial public offering market is dormant for three reasons: Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management Corp. This year, the once “big three” nonbanks have paid...

Ginnie Mae issuance of government-insured mortgage-backed securities rose a whopping 47.3 percent in the second quarter of 2015 from the previous quarter, powered by a robust FHA refinancing volume, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data. Government-backed Ginnie MBS production in the second quarter totaled $117.5 billion, up from $79.8 billion in the prior quarter. Volume year-to-date also increased by 57.7 percent from the first six months of last year. From May to June, government-backed securitization increased a modest 2.9 percent. FHA loans comprised 62.6 percent of Ginnie MBS issuance in the second quarter while VA accounted for 33.7 percent. Securitized loans with a Rural Housing Service guaranty represented 3.6 percent of total Ginnie MBS issuance during the period. FHA loan securitization was robust in the second quarter, as volume ... [ Charts ]

Lending to veterans and members of the U.S. military is expected to trend up in the second half of 2015 as the economy improves further, wages rise and unemployment declines, predicts the country’s top VA lender. “We’re seeing increased activity in housing while house values have gone up modestly, which I expect will continue in the next couple of years,” said Stan Middleman, president and chief executive of Freedom Mortgage. It is a great time for veterans to purchase a home, Middleman said, and he would he like to see more vets become homeowners. However, despite the low interest rates, crisp and clear underwriting and no downpayment required, many veterans are still not taking advantage of the VA program as they should, he noted. Middleman feels he should advertise and market the VA product more. In the past seven months, Freedom Mortgage has added ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced measures lenders may employ to provide relief to VA borrowers whose lives and homes were upended by recent severe storms, tornados and flooding in Texas, Oklahoma and Guam. VA mortgage relief would be available to the families of borrowers who died during these natural catastrophes and to borrowers whose homes were badly damaged or destroyed. Relief is also available to those whose work environments were destroyed or severely damaged. Other people have been indirectly affected as well, and the impact may continue to ripple throughout the country, as evacuees travel nationwide to seek support and shelter from family members in unaffected areas, according to the VA. VA encourages holders of guaranteed loans to extend forbearance to distressed borrowers and to provide counseling to them. Lenders are also authorized under VA regulations to reapply prepayments to ...

Thanks to the recent uptick in interest rates, sellers of mortgage servicing rights are seeing strong bids on new production, but the market is being described by advisors as “sustainable,” compared to some of the frothy peaks of last year. June was actually a slow month for servicing sales, dealmakers told Inside Mortgage Finance, but that was to be expected, given all the contracts inked in April and May that needed time to close. With the second quarter having just ended, several large flow and bulk MSR transactions are...

The nation’s subservicers increased their contracts to a record high $1.350 trillion at March 31 as tougher regulations continued to play a key role in the shifting of processing chores away from depositories to nonbanks. On a sequential basis, contracts increased by 7.1 percent in the first quarter and 14.4 percent compared to March 31, 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking. Only four banks – Flagstar, Cenlar, Wells Fargo and Bank of America – were among the top 20 subservicers. Overall, at March 31, subservicers were...[Includes one data table]

Two weeks ago, specialty servicer Wingspan Portfolio Services shuttered its Melbourne, FL, office, leaving 150 servicing workers without a job. But more bad news may be on the way for the once fast-growing “contract” servicer. According to industry officials close to the company, the privately held Wingspan is in need of new contracts – badly. …