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October 18, 2010

Citi Home Loan Fundings Rise 66%

Category: Mortgage Lenders – admin – 4:57 pm

Citi Mortgage appears to be expanding their wholesale market-share for mortgage lending. The residential mortgage lending arm of Citicorp funded $18.6 billion of one- to four-family mortgages in the third quarter, an impressive 66% gain from the prior period, according to figures released Monday morning. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, loan production by CitiMortgage rose 56%.  According to Mortgage News, Citi Mortgage is once again expanding their market-share in wholesale mortgage lending.

Although its loan production results were impressive, it appears that Citi is continuing to mark down the value of its mortgage loan refinancing and servicing rights. At September 30, its MSRs carried an asset value of $3.9 billion, compared to $6.2 billion a year ago, a decline of 36%.   According to Colorado lender, Shawn Downs, “Citi has always been an agressive wholesale lender that lenders and brokers like to work with because their loan processing is efficient and the compensation has been good.”

Regarding home foreclosures, company chief financial officer John Gerspach said the bank has found no issues with the way its home loan servicing operation processes foreclosures, indicating it has no plans to follow other large banks in suspending foreclosure sales pending a review of their practices.  Gerspach said Citi has reviewed its procedures, calling them “sound.” He made the comments during a conference call with reporters to discuss the bank’s third-quarter earnings.  Meanwhile, Citigroup continues to whittle down the residential holdings of its affiliate, Citi Holdings. That unit had residential real estate holdings of $136 billion at Sept. 30, a 14% decline from a year ago. But delinquencies in Citi Holdings rose slightly to 4.78%.

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October 14, 2010

Lead Planet Offers Advice for Buying Mortgage Leads

Category: Mortgage Advertising,mortgage leads – admin – 5:32 pm

Lenders and brokers will tell you that mortgage marketing is more difficult than it looks.  Finding a good mortgage lead source can be even more challenging as many lead brokers pose a direct lead generation companies.  These brokers sell you the world and deliver dated and oversold leads and have the audacity to pass them off as exclusive.  The Lead Planet published a helpful article > Internet Mortgage Lead Buying Tips.  The direct lead company has been generating leads online for almost 15 years & their advice could save lead buyers and marketing executives a lot of money.

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Home Mortgage Rates Make History

Category: Home Loan News,Home Mortgage Rates – admin – 5:22 pm

Just when you though interest rates had fallen to the bottom, home loan rates drop to a level not seen in since 1951. Freddie Mac found the latest drop in the 30-year rate brought it to a level that the FHA home mortgage loan programs have reported lowest FHA rates in almost 60 years.  Most mortgage industry insiders believe that the recent statements of the Federal Reserve signal additional possible downward pressure could be seen. Although Freddie Mac’s survey for 30-year loans started only in 1971, it has FHA data going back to 1948 showing long-term rates have been not only been at survey record lows, but lows that pre-date Freddie Mac’s formation in 1970 by decades.

Home Loan Rates Below 4% Nationwide!

Freddie Mac deputy chief economist Amy Crews Cutts commented that home mortgage rates could decline even further. She informed National Mortgage News that the  Fed officials’ recent indication that they’re open to the idea of purchasing more securities-likely Treasuries-has likely contributed to downward pressure on rates and may continue to.  But she warned that there also is the possibility that Fed officials may not take further action. “Sometimes they can simply say something and then they don’t have to do anything because they’ve gotten the market to move,” she said. If the Fed does buy more securities, it could put downward pressure on rates determined by the extent and speed of home buying factors that had not been discussed or signaled at press time.

During the week ending Oct. 14, the average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 4.19% from 4.27% the previous week and 4.92% a year ago. The 30-year interest rate has been below 5% for 23 weeks in a row. Average points on 30-year home loans, however, are higher than for any other loan product tracked by Freddie Mac except for one-year ARMs-which match it—at 0.8.

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October 5, 2010

Underwater Home Refinancing

Category: Home Refinance Articles,Loan Relief Articles – admin – 9:02 am

Millions of homeowners find themselves with underwater home loans that have prevented them from refinancing or even selling their property. Until recently, underwater home refinancing was impossible, but several new government mortgage relief initiatives enable distressed homeowners to redo their mortgage terms.  If you’re like nearly 20 million American homeowners, you owe more on your home loan than your house is worth.

  Why not simply walk away from this home that you are losing money on every month? That’s what many people are doing. It’s called a “strategic default” when a homeowner who could keep paying the mortgage simply decides it’s not worth it.
   

Underwater Mortgage Refinancing is Available!

A recent report revealed 31% of U.S. foreclosures in March were strategic, compared with 22% in March 2009. And that number is likely to grow as home prices remain stagnant, jobs remain scarce, and people become angrier at their financial situation.  However, HUD announced a new relief program to help homeowners struggling with underwater mortgages with the FHA short refinance option.  This government loan actually writes down the principal mortgage balance down to the fair market value.

It’s one thing to face foreclosure when you simply can’t make the monthly payments, no matter what the value of your home. When the court orders a foreclosure, you have little choice.  But a “strategic default” is something quite different. The idea of simply walking away from a property that is underwater and making a “fresh start” — even though you could continue to make the mortgage payments — is an idea that seems to be catching on.

Strategic Default Dangers

Here’s some advice. Think twice before you walk away from your mortgage. This decision may catch up to you in ways you never considered.  Of course, walking away from a home loan and letting your home go into foreclosure will significantly damage your credit. That doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent even to those who could afford to keep paying. The prevailing sentiment is that “everyone’s credit is in the tank” so it’s not such a scary proposition.

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