Today's Fresh Blogs...

• Wells Fargo: 200+ Housing Markets are in Trouble

  Published: February 29, 2008, 6:06 pm

  Tags: Featured Origination, Origination

  Wells Fargo & Co., the second largest mortgage lender in the U.S., said earlier this week that it was making changes to its lending guidelines in more than 200 housing markets spanning 24 states and Washington D.C. that it identified as either “soft,” “distressed,” or “severely distressed.” Reuters obtained

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• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Reach Landmark Agreement on Appraisal Practices

  Published: March 3, 2008, 11:37 am

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Servicing Default, Andrew Cuomo, Appraisal, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mae, Gses, Mortgage, Ofheo

  (Update 3: added Freddie Mac; OFHEO comments; Cuomo comments) A landmark agreement by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will force some big changes to the way appraisals are processed in the mortgage industry. The agreement, which hit a snag last week, was finalized Monday morning and will eliminate

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• Mortgage Applications Rebound as Rate Pressure Eases

  Published: March 5, 2008, 9:17 am

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets

  After dropping off a cliff during the past two weeks, mortgage applications rebounded last week, according to data released Wednesday morning by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA’s composite index of overall application activity rose 3.0 percent to 684.9 for the week ending February 29, the result of moderate increases in both

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• Citi Shuns Portfolio Lending, Targets Conforming Mortgage Production

  Published: March 6, 2008, 5:15 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets, Servicing Default

  share increase via direct origination channels, and many industry observers have suggested that the traditional “originate and hold” approach to mortgage lending was making a comeback. It also signals further changes to the company’s mortgage programs in the months ahead. The company said it no longer offers mortgage loans

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• OFHEO Rolls Out Temporary Jumbo Conforming' Loan Limits

  Published: March 6, 2008, 2:29 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets, Servicing Default

  Related links: MSAs and counties affected by new loan limits Find Conforming/FHA Limit for a specific area The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight on Thursday released the maximum conforming loan limits that will be in effect through year-end, as a result of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. The new jumbo limits are a function of

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• Mortgage Rates Swing Wildly Amid MBS Selling Pressure

  Published: March 6, 2008, 1:28 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets

  Mortgage rates continued to display higher volatility than most are accustomed to in the past week, thanks to a sudden sell-off in residential mortgage-backed securities that has the secondary market embroiled in its latest round of credit crunching. Bankrate.com’s weekly rate survey found that the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell

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• FHA, Conforming Limits Boosted in 14 California Counties

  Published: March 6, 2008, 12:29 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets, Servicing Default

  While no press statement has been made by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development yet — a formal announcement is expected later today or early tomorrow — officials at Federal Housing Administration say they have boosted the FHA lending limit in 14 California counties, according to a report published Wednesday evening in

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• PMI Forms Foreclosure Prevention Team

  Published: March 26, 2008, 12:58 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Featured Servicing, Servicing Default

  PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., a subsidiary of The PMI Group, Inc., said Wednesday that it had formed a new homeownership preservation team led by John Jelavich, PMI’s newly appointed vice president of Homeownership Preservation Initiatives. The initiative is different than a lender ramping up staff in loss mitigation, and signals a stark

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• Pace of New Home Sales Reaches 13 Year Low

  Published: March 26, 2008, 11:31 am

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination

  (Update 1: adds NAHB comments) Sales of new homes dropped again in February, the fourth straight month of decline, reaching a sales pace not seen since February 2005. New home sales fell 1.8 percent in February to a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 590,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday morning. The decline was largely in

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• Mortgage Applications Drop As Refi Backlog Passes

  Published: April 2, 2008, 10:23 am

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Mba, Mortgage Applications

  Mortgage applications surprisingly tumbled last week despite relatively flat interest rates, with a widely-watched composite index of application activity falling 28.7 percent this week on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Market Composite Index fell to 688.3 for the week ended March 28, down from 965.9 one

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• The Waiting Game: Jumbo Spreads Stay Wide

  Published: April 1, 2008, 12:23 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Secondary Markets, Conforming Jumbo, Rate Spreads

  which should further speed originations for lenders who use Loan Prospector. The GSEs have built it; now the lenders have to come. Until then, the only sources I’ve been told about for jumbo loans are the already full-to-the-gills thrifts - which means a broker would need to have to have a real tight connection with a local institution

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• Wachovia Looking to Pull Back on Option ARMs: Report

  Published: April 3, 2008, 1:10 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Secondary Markets, Option Arm, Wachovia

  A lender memo sent out earlier in the week by Wachovia Corp. announcing that it would no longer offer its infamous Pick-A-Payment loans might have been premature, but sources told Housing Wire on Thursday that it’s only a matter of time before the Charlotte, NC-based bank pulls the plug on its Option ARM product in key California counties.

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• Mortgage Rates Hold Steady

  Published: April 10, 2008, 3:07 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Mortgage Rates

  Freddie Mac (FRE: 23.49, -1.76%) said Thursday that mortgage rates remained largely unchanged last week, with the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 5.88 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ended April 10. The average rate was unchanged from one week ago, the GSE said, and was 40 basis points lower than last year at this

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• Mortgage Rates Continue Upward Climb

  Published: April 24, 2008, 11:30 am

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination

  Mortgage rates posted a second straight week of increases, as market participants continued to place stock in a substantial rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this month. Freddie Mac (FRE: 26.98, +3.69%) said Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.03 percent for the week ending April 24, up 15 basis points from one week ago,

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• Wells Fargo Stepping Back into Non-Prime Wholesale With FHA

  Published: April 25, 2008, 3:13 pm

  Tags: Featured Front, Featured Origination, Origination, Subprime, Wholesale

  operations on retail originations. The fate of Countrywide’s substantial wholesale platform, as well, is still up in the air pending acquisition by BofA later this year; neither company has yet commented publicly on the fate of third-party originations at Countrywide once the merger is complete. Application activity for FHA loans

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