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From the monthly archives:

January 2008

SunTrust to close several wholesale branches around the country

by MorganJanuary 31, 2008 Mortgage News/Insight

SunTrust is planning on closing their Denver, Dallas and Richmond wholesale branches within the next 60 days according to a highly reliable source.
From the SunTrust Web site:
SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunTrust Bank – a $180.3 billion financial institution operating in Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, [...]

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Mortgage Rates are…. UP!

by MorganJanuary 31, 2008 Mortgage News/Insight

You heard it right folks.  For those of you playing roulette trying to game the mortgage interest rate market in light of recent Fed activity let this be a good lesson.  The Fed cuts and mortgage interest rates go higher.  Don’t be fooled in to believing that the interest rates you pay on your mortgage [...]

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Jobless claims indicate “border-line recession warning.”

by MorganJanuary 31, 2008 Economy

Jobless claims surged and sent stocks plummeting in the opening minutes today as traders worried about the possible onset of the credit/housing-bust led recession.  First time claims rose by 69,000 to 375,000 smoking estimates of a smaller rise of jobless claims to 320,000.
Even factoring in for seasonal volatility the number came as a shock to [...]

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Fed Cuts Rate .5% – Dollar Last Seen Headed for Mexico

by MorganJanuary 30, 2008 Economy

Citing a weakening economic environment the Federal Reserve cut interest rates 50 basis points in an attempt to soften the impending economic crash landing.  In other news the dollar was seen shooting glares of jealousy at its friend the Euro.
From the Fed statement:
 ”Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and credit has tightened further for some [...]

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FBI Investigating 14 Companies in Mortgage Securitization Fraud

by MorganJanuary 30, 2008 Mortgage News/Insight

Market Watch is reporting that the FBI is scrutinizing 14 companies related to the mortgage industry at all levels of the securitization process as part of their investigation in to the mortgage meltdown.
 Agents are looking into allegations of fraud in several stages of the mortgage securitization process, in which home loans are packaged up by [...]

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Hillary Clinton’s One-Sided Mortgage Reform Plans

by MorganJanuary 29, 2008 Legislation

We’re picking up speed in the Presidential campaign and with the California primaries fast approaching I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at how some of the candidates stack up when it comes to mortgage reform and their position on the mortgage mess.
We’ll look at all of the front-runners: Clinton, Obama, Edwards, [...]

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Countrywide Posts $400+ Million Loss – Loan Production Tanks

by MorganJanuary 29, 2008 Mortgage News/Insight

Countrywide reported that it lost $422 million last quarter while watching loan production sink nearly a third from $90 billion to $61 billion.  This comes on the heals of an expected B of A takeover; the plans of which are to be unveiled today by Bank of America.  Many believe that a poor performance by [...]

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You Can Go Stated as Long as Your Not ‘Industry’

by MorganJanuary 28, 2008 Mortgage Musings

Stated income has always been laughable to me.  For the most part the way that it’s been implemented in the industry is as outright fraud – pick a number that makes the loan work and find a way to justify it to the brain-dead underwriting team that is just trying to hit their numbers.  Now, [...]

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A BIG, heartfelt THANK YOU!

by MorganJanuary 28, 2008 Random Thoughts

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to those that have contributed to Blown Mortgage over the last couple of months.  Tom, Chris, Graeme, Matthew, Ricardo and Sean. I greatly appreciate your effort, expertise and insight that you have brought to Blown Mortgage.  Thank you deeply for your support and contributions.
I [...]

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