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Inside Mortgage Trends

April 20, 2012

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Mortgage Banking Earnings Surge in 2012, But Production Volume Flat

Mortgage bankers are reporting solid gains in profitability during the first quarter of 2012 without seeing any major increase in production volume compared to the end of last year. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from eight of the largest bank-held mortgage operations shows a solid 22.5 percent increase in mortgage banking earnings compared to the fourth quarter. All eight companies reported net profits for early 2012, including two – JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial – that posted losses in the previous quarter. The combined $6.50 billion in first-quarter mortgage banking earnings... Read More

Lenders Fear Strategic Defaults in 2012

Almost half of lenders believe that strategic defaults will increase in 2012, a specter that continues to affect national housing policy. There are no reliable data regarding strategic defaults in the U.S., considering the secrecy inherent in the act. That has forced policymakers to make dollars-and-cents decisions based on conjecture about borrower behavior. A new FICO survey found that 46 percent of bank risk professionals expect the number of strategic defaults in 2012 to surpass those in 2011. Survey participants had a generally pessimistic view of homeowners’ regard for their mortgage... Read More

Mortgage Lenders Face Big Leap in Cyber Attacks

Whether the motivation is trendy “hacktivism” or more traditional extortion, mortgage lenders and other financial institutions are seeing large spikes in a variety of cyberattacks these days. Prolexic Technologies, a firm that helps companies combat such assaults, said there has been an almost threefold increase in the number of attacks against its financial services clients during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the fourth quarter of 2011, along with a skyrocketing increase in malicious “packet” traffic. “During 4Q11, over 168 trillion bits of data and 14 billion packets of malicious... Read More

CFPB Rules Likely to Cut Servicing Profits

New mortgage servicing rules unveiled recently by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will likely result in higher mortgage servicing costs and reduced revenue for servicers although some analysts say the rules could have a positive effect on large banks. The CFPB recently previewed some of the servicing rules it plans to issue this summer and finalize by January 2013. Specifically, the rules would require monthly mortgage statements that include mortgage terms, detailed payment information, fee disclosures and loss-mitigation information for delinquent borrowers. They also call for... Read More

Mortgage Sales Rose Sharply in Late 2011

Mortgage banking operations owned by commercial banks posted a significant increase in loan sales during the fourth quarter, helping to push earnings higher. Bank mortgage banking units sold a total of $299.0 billion of single-family mortgages during the fourth quarter, up 20.2 percent from the previous three-month period. It was the industry’s second quarterly increase in sales volume after sinking to just $227.0 billion during the second quarter of last year. For the full year, mortgage sales came in 14.4 percent below the level reported during 2010, and the banking...(Includes one data chart) Read More

Mortgage Trends

Builder confidence declined nationally in April for the first time in seven months, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, though regional results were more of a mixed bag. The index moved down three notches in April to 25. It is calculated from a seasonally-adjusted index that examines builder perceptions of single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, as well as the traffic of prospective buyers. Any number greater than 50 demonstrates that more builders have a positive, rather than negative, view of the conditions. The index... Read More

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