“Due to the new Dodd-Frank guidelines, fewer buyers will be qualified to purchase homes, which will ultimately affect my livelihood as well,” one Realtor said.
Among the largest servicers, Ocwen Financial Corp. and RoundPoint Mortgage had the highest overall delinquency rates during the first quarter. However, both firms specialize in “high touch” product.
Marc Savitt, who runs The Mortgage Center in West Virginia, said he recently worked on a mortgage that had 4.5 points of LLPAs. “It was a cash-out refi,” he noted.
Retail lending, which includes traditional loan-origination offices and consumer-direct operations, was down 60.0 percent from the first quarter of last year, slightly worse than the 58.0 percent downturn in the overall market.
But legislators denied federal funding for a new pilot program – Homeowners Armed with Knowledge – that would broaden use of housing counseling tied to FHA originations and servicing.
“I don’t think it gets sold for the time being,” said one analyst speaking under the condition his name not be used. “It needs lots of restructuring yet.”
Since that story appeared, we’ve talked to a few mortgage company CEOs who have said – tongue in cheek – that just about every mortgage firm is for sale.
A significant number of independent mortgage bankers failed to turn a profit during the first quarter of 2014, but many firms are tightening their belts and hanging on, thanks to a strong market for mortgage-servicing rights. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual performance report due out late this week, mortgage bankers saw their net profit margin on production and secondary marketing slump to a negative 9 basis points, said MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni. The number was preliminary, but it represents a huge decline since the gung-ho first half of 2013, when lenders generated about 120 bps in net income from production. Only about 55 percent of lenders participating in the survey, which is includes a large number of independent mortgage bankers, earned...
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