What We're Hearing Daily

By Paul Muolo

Investment banker Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group -- which during the subprime go-go years took many lenders public -- lost $25 million for the quarter ending June 30. FBR chief Eric Billings is the subject of a chapter in the book "Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis." The chapter that Mr. Billings appears in is called "The Holy Roller of REITs." Mr. Billings is the "Holy Roller" in question. Meanwhile, in 2Q FBR took a $5.8 million hit on writedowns and losses in its non-prime mortgage investment portfolio…

See Paul's weekly column here.

Conference Calendar

August 6 - 9
Mortgage Industry Conference & Annual Expo
California Association of Mortgage Brokers
Hyatt Regency Sacramento
Sacramento, CA
Tel: 916-448-8236
More info

September 30 - October 2
16th Annual NJ Association of Mortgage Brokers Conference
Trump Taj Mahal Resort
Atlantic City, NJ
More info

Survey

Do you expect your company to have a net increase in the number of employees in the next 90 days?



Which state are you in?

Mortgage Industry Buyer's Guide

The 2008 edition of the Mortgage Industry Buyer's Guide has been launched.
Click here to see nearly a thousand listings in hundreds of categories.

Featured Buyer's Guide Category:

Valuation Services

The top valuation services companies are here.
Click here to see listings in the Valuation Services category.

For online listing info for the Buyer's Guide, Call Steve at 866-752-7966 or send an email to steven.gallego@sourcemedia.com

Featured Event

3rd Annual Mortgage Fraud Conference

SourceMedia's 3rd Annual Mortgage Fraud Conference is held at The Rio Suite Hotel in Las Vegas on Nov. 13-14, 2008. This industry-leading National Mortgage News event will provide you with the techniques and strategies to detect, prevent and manage mortgage fraud; monitor your portfolio and identify potential loss exposure as early as possible.

Please visit the conference website for more information.

Related Newsletters

Daily Briefing Mortgage Servicing News Bulletin
  • Mortgage servicing headlines, three feature stories and some useful statistics, twice monthly.
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Mortgage Technology Newsletter

Real Estate Market Focus

Experts: RE Fundamentals Good in South Florida

By Brad Finkelstein

CORAL GABLES, FL-A forum sponsored by the University of Miami School of Business Administration here found that experts believe the fundamentals in many parts in the South Florida real estate market are good. But some sectors may continue to fell pressure in the near term as a result of such things as unemployment, tighter credit markets and developer impact fees.

The forum, "South Florida Real Estate: Boom and Bust - Reflections on the Past and Realistic Perspectives for the Future," brought together 12 people from the banking, development, education and government sectors.

Among the points brought out in the forum are:

Read on...

Featured Grapevine Thread

The Grapevine takes sides about the future of downpayment assistance.
Read more.

Preying on the Weak: The Rise in Predatory Lending

The latest research report from Richard Beidl on Predatory Lending surveys the scope of the problem, discusses lender approaches and examines the effects of laws at the local level.

Research Highlights:
  • Understanding predatory lending and modern lending tactics
  • The magnitude of the problem
  • Who is affected
  • Advice and laws for combating fraud
  • Tools in preventing and detecting predatory lending abuses

Take advantage of Richard Beidl's immeasurable knowledge on this topic. Click here to purchase.

Market Conditions

Find out from local real estate professionals what the housing market conditions are in these metropolitan areas around the country.

Survey Results

Last week's question was "Does your company write option ARMs?" The more than three quarters, 88%, of you said no, you do not write this type of loan. This is up dramatically from the last time we asked, when 78% of you said no. This is a fifty-two week high, with only 28% percent of respondents saying no fifty-two weeks ago. Will fewer and fewer of you continue to write these often controversial loans until they go away completely? We'll find out more when we ask again in three months.

This week's question is "Do you expect your company to have a net increase in the number of employees in the next 90 days?" As always, we'd love to hear what you think. Be sure to give us your input by clicking on the survey form on the left-hand side.

Does your company write option ARMs?

Top Lenders

The list below was compiled on the basis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data for 2006. If you are interested in more HMDA data, please email Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com or call Deartra at (202) 434-0322.

Top Lenders in the Battle Creek, MI Area
Rank Company Location Local Lending Volume
1 Countrywide Home Loans Calabasas, CA 60,072,000
2 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. San Francisco, CA 22,950,000
3 TCF National Bank Wayzata, MN 22,034,000
4 Amerifirst Financial Corporati Portage, MI 21,884,000
5 Monarch Community Bank Coldwater, MI 18,736,000
6 Washington Mutual Inc. Seattle, WA 18,043,000
7 Wells Fargo Funding, Inc Minneapolis, MN 17,531,000
8 Fifth Third Mortgage Company Cincinnati, OH 16,821,000
9 Fifth Third Mortgage, Mi LLC Cincinnati, OH 16,728,000
10 CitiMortgage, Inc O'Fallon, MO 16,072,000