Home-equity lending fell off sharply during the first quarter of 2014, but the sector may be poised for a rebound in the months ahead. Home-equity originations totaled an estimated $13 billion during the first three months of this year, down 18.8 percent from the previous quarter. That was up 8.3 percent from the first quarter of 2013, and a handful of lenders reported increased home-equity activity in early 2014. Most closed-end seconds and home-equity lines of credit are retained...[Includes three data charts]
The market for large packages of “legacy” mortgage servicing rights is ice cold these days, throwing a monkey wrench into the aggressive growth plans of Ocwen Financial, Walter Investment Management and Nationstar Mortgage. The reason is simple: regulatory scrutiny from the New York Department of Financial Services of Ocwen’s planned purchase of $39 billion in highly delinquent MSRs from Wells Fargo has dampened both auctions and sales. “Legacy packages are still out there,” said one buyer of mortgage receivables, “but I don’t see many of them and they’re not very large.” He added...
Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s housing goal performance exceeded the benchmark levels for all of the single-family and multifamily goals set for the two government-sponsored enterprises in 2012, but preliminary figures show that Freddie is struggling to hit the mark for 2013, according to a new Federal Housing Finance Agency report. The FHFA’s annual report to Congress, released late last week, reveals official figures on each GSE’s goal performance in 2012 and preliminary data on goal performance in 2013. Both GSEs hit...[Includes one data chart]
He may know how to run a decent race, but does economics professor David Brat – the man who beat Rep. Eric Cantor in the GOP primary in Virginia – know the history of the mortgage meltdown?
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray came under sustained partisan criticism from Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee this week over the joint National Mortgage Database the CFPB is working on with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. “We have learned since Director Cordray was last before the committee that the joint database project by the CFPB and the FHFA will undeniably collect personally identifiable information on millions of Americans in the National Mortgage Database,” said Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. “I’m not speaking merely of names, addresses and phone numbers – though the database will certainly include those – but shockingly also people’s Social Security numbers, their race, religion, personal financial information, and even the GPS coordinates of their homes. If this is not considered personally identifiable information by the CFPB, then I don’t know what is.” A breach of this database could cause...
Six months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau implemented rules for originations and servicing, it’s too early to tell what impact the rules have had, according to industry participants, consumer advocates and even officials at the CFPB. The CFPB this week convened a meeting of its consumer advisory board, a 19-member panel of consumer advocates and other industry participants. Board members had plenty to say about issues in the mortgage market, but evidence about the impact of the CFPB’s rules – the reason for the meeting – was scant. Abhishek Agarwal, the CFPB’s acting assistant director of mortgage markets, said...
One competitor to Prospect described Mike Williams as a “great technical guy.” He added that having Prospect go public is “the next step” in Sterling’s exit strategy.”
Outside of CitiMortgage and SPS, no other servicers received one-star ratings on the seven metrics tested for the Treasury in the first quarter of 2014.
At the FHFA, Singh was involved in strategic planning to help attract private capital to the mortgage industry, a key goal of former Acting Director Edward DeMarco…
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