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Inside Mortgage Trends

October 11, 2013

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Increased Focus on Purchase Mortgages Steers Market Away From Loan Brokers

The mix of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the third quarter of 2013 continued to shift toward purchase mortgages, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of the government-sponsored enterprise market. Purchase mortgages accounted for 36.7 percent of Fannie/Freddie business during the third quarter, up from 23.9 percent during the previous period. It was the highest purchase-mortgage share of GSE business since the market collapse ... [Includes two data charts] Read More

Market Moving From Refis Toward HELs, LOCs

New prepayment data provide further evidence that rising mortgage interest rates are shriveling the refinance market, but firming home prices are fertilizing a potential surge in home-equity lending. “We have seen prepayments decline by more than 30 percent since May, when mortgage interest rates began climbing approximately 100 basis points to where we are today,” said Herb Blecher, senior vice president at Lender Processing Services. As a result, the percentage of borrowers currently in loans with ... Read More

Megabanks Continue Trimming Capacity

Over the past two months, some of the nation’s largest residential lenders – Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo – have sent layoff notices to 7,200 full-timers, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends. The layoffs break down as follows: 4,100 at Wells Fargo, 2,100 at BofA and 1,000 at Citigroup. JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s number two ranked lender, has been trimming staff as well. In total, roughly 1,200 mortgage workers were let go at Chase locations in Texas and California ... Read More

Ocwen Ranked the Best in Mods, Says Moody’s

An analysis of modified mortgage loans shows Ocwen Financial’s modifications were the best in the field as the servicer focused not only on volume but on quality as well. Performed by Moody’s Investors Service, the report attributed Ocwen’s excellent results to its ability to take that extra step to prevent the loan from going to foreclosure and help distressed homeowners keep their homes. Moody’s focused on mortgages that were seriously delinquent at the height of the mortgage crisis ... Read More

AVPs Unlikely to be USPAP-Compliant

The Appraisal Foundation suggested this week that “alternative valuation products” likely will not comply with professional appraisal standards in most cases. If an AVP requires the same development and reporting requirements as an appraisal, the Appraisal Foundation said in a white paper, why would the industry create the AVP in the first place? The foundation noted that the Appraisal Standards Board does not deem any alternative valuation product or form as compliant with the industry’s ... Read More

BofA Faces Hurdles With Servicing Portfolio

Nearly three-fourths of mortgages in Bank of America’s foreclosure review pipeline are on hold due to various regulatory and process delays, according to a new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. The delays have caused foreclosures at the bank to last sometimes up to a year longer, on average, than foreclosure timelines for Freddie Mac. As of the end of August, Moody’s said BofA had 115,000 loans scheduled for foreclosure review. “Over 72 percent of the population was non-workable inventory because of ... Read More

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