Home / News / Secondary Market (page 202)

Secondary Market

Crisis Panel’s GOP Members Fault Government for Housing Bubble

After more than a year-long investigation, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has pushed the release date of its findings to January 2011, instead of December 15, 2010, as mandated by Congress. The four Republican members of the 10-person committee, though, broke ranks and published their own report this week. They are placing blame for the housing bubble that brought the nation's economy to its knees squarely on the shoulders of the federal government, going all the way back to the mid-1990s.

Read More »

New Jersey Bans Wall Street Home Resale Fees

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed A. 2861 into law last week, banning Wall Street Home Resale Fees, or private transfer fees. New Jersey becomes the 19th state to restrict the use of these fees. On the federal level, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued guidance that restricts Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from investing in mortgages with these fees. A bill currently being considered in the House would ban the fees across the country.

Read More »

Mortgage Banker Profits Rise with Secondary Market, Refinancing Gains

Independent mortgage banks and their subsidiaries made an average profit of $1,423 on each loan they originated in the third quarter, thanks to a surge in refinance activity and growing demand for mortgage-backed securities, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Tuesday. The third quarter's per-loan profit represents a jump of more than 55 percent from the $917 independent mortgage lenders made on each loan in the second quarter of this year.

Read More »

Report: Mortgage Litigation Up 41%

Legal actions tied to mortgage lending jumped by 41 percent during the third quarter of the year, according to industry data released this week. Activity on more than 100 civil and criminal mortgage-related cases was tracked from July 1 through September 30 in the report prepared by the mortgage banking litigation firm Patton Boggs. Suits involving investor actions outnumbered all other types. Coming in next were actions related to foreclosures, an area that has drawn intense scrutiny with recent reports of widespread robo-signing.

Read More »

Starwood Property Trust Raises $653M to Buy Commercial Mortgages

Commercial real estate financier Starwood Property Trust, Inc. sourced $653 million last week that the company says will be used to acquire commercial mortgage debt and other target assets. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based REIT closed a $150 million warehouse financing facility with Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company, a $125.2 million asset-based credit agreement with Bank of America, and sold 20 million shares of its common stock to raise an additional $378 million.

Read More »

Bank of America Gets Low Marks for Delinquency Resolution

The time mortgage loan servicers take to resolve delinquent loans through modification or foreclosure varies widely. According to an analysis by Moody's Investors Service, Bank of America has demonstrated the weakest performance measured both by its speed in resolving the status of delinquent loans and by its proportion of delinquent loans that have yet to be resolved. The ratings agency found that GMAC Mortgage, on the other hand, has generally performed better than its peers.

Read More »

MIAC Closes Sales of GSE Servicing Portfolios

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corporation (MIAC) just announced that it closed the sale of two Freddie Mac bulk mortgage servicing portfolios in November with a combined unpaid principal balance of approximately $2.5 billion. The portfolios carried delinquency rates of 1.28 percent and 3.87 percent. The New York-based brokerage says it will be marketing a $70 million Fannie Mae mortgage servicing deal later this month.

Read More »

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler Expands National Hotel Group

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF), a provider of real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry, announced the addition of Holden Lim as its new managing director in San Francisco. With more than 20 years' experience in the hospitality sector, Lim will focus on institutional grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout North America.

Read More »

Lennar’s Rialto Capital Raises $300M for Distressed Investments

Lennar Corporation recently announced that its Rialto Capital subsidiary has completed the first closing of a real estate investment fund that will target REOs and other non-performing properties and mortgage assets. Rialto raised $300 million for the fund, of which Lennar itself committed $75 million. The fund will extend the Miami-based homebuilder's buying power for distressed real estate and mortgage debt for the next three years.

Read More »

Home Purchase Applications Rise for Third Consecutive Week

Industry data released Wednesday shows that new mortgage applications for the purchase of a home jumped 1.8 percent for the week ending December 3. This is the third weekly increase recorded by the closely watched home purchase index, which has reached its highest level since early May. All market indicators point to a continued rise in mortgage rates and that seems to have prompted some homebuyers to act now. Refinancing, on the other hand, is becoming less attractive.

Read More »