Cart

Inside Mortgage Trends

January 4, 2013

View Archived Issues

Banks Shed Some MSR in 3Q12, as Low Interest Rates Continue Squeezing Value

Depository institutions managed to trim the volume of mortgage loans they serviced for other investors during the third quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data...[includes one data chart] Read More

Interest in MSR on the Rise, Values May Firm

Investment banking and advisory firms continue to talk about private equity money eyeing the mortgage servicing market, but so far no one has made a major plunge. Sterling Partners, a Chicago-area equity fund that hired Phoenix Capital’s Michael Lau back in the fall, plans to invest several hundred million in MSR, according to industry advisors familiar with the firm’s plans. Sterling declined to comment on the subject. Lau, an executive vice president at Phoenix ... Read More

How Long Will the Mortgage Bonanza Last?

Mortgage banking profitability soared to record levels in the third quarter, but some industry analysts say the boom may begin to taper off in 2013.The surge in mortgage banking income during 2012 came from increased secondary marketing gains as the spread between primary market rates and yields on agency mortgage-backed securities widened to historic levels. Read More

Consumers Favor Mortgage Debt Protection

Most consumers have a favorable view of debt protection services for their mortgage and credit card debt obligations, despite the occasional news report of abuses in the sector, according to a new study from officials at the Federal Reserve, based on data from the Consumer Credit Industry Association.“Consumer attitudes among purchasers have not changed from the high levels of favorable views of users in the past,” said the study, which was authored by Thomas Durkin and Gregory Elliehausen... Read More

More Room for Productivity Gains

Technology advances have helped most credit unions improve productivity in their mortgage origination processes, but there are significant differences among institutions and the industry as a whole could do a better job in managing the pipeline, according to an analysis by Mortgage Cadence. “While some credit unions post remarkably high productivity and correspondingly low costs to close, there is significant room for improvement,” said Mortgage Cadence, which offers an integrated loan origination system. Read More

Adding REO to Housing Supply Depresses Prices

A foreclosure in a neighborhood causes the price of nearby homes to drop, not because of property neglect or abandonment, but because it increases the housing supply, a new Federal Reserve Board study concludes. Consistent with the finding that a foreclosed home simply increases inventory, new listings of foreclosed homes and non-foreclosed homes each lower home-sale prices by 1.0 percent within 0.1 miles of the listing, according to the study. Read More

Principal Writedowns on 66% of Portfolio Mods

Principal reduction is on the rise. Sixty-six percent of Home Affordable Modification Program mods made by banks on mortgages in their own portfolios included principal reduction in the third quarter, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.This compares with 57.7 percent for the second quarter of 2012.Overall, there were 136,316 new loan mods made during the third quarter, with servicers reducing interest rates in 77.2 percent of cases. Term extensions were used in ... Read More

Latest Imf News

More Imf News

Featured Data

More Featured Data

Featured Reports

More Latest Reports

Featured Poll

As homeowner equity continues to build, more and more lenders are launching home equity lending products. Are you thinking of joining this market?

View Results