Countrywide issued a communication to its brokers today limiting compensation on all loans to Countrywide to 4 points, including yield spread premium (back points or YSP). While 4 points may seem egregious to some, it is the first step at banks actively restricting total compensation to brokers above and beyond traditional federal and state guidelines. [...]
Hi Gang,
On Saturday I’m headed to Mexico via a nice cruise from San Diego down to Mazatlan, Cabo, et al. I’ll be gone about 10 days. I’m trying to load up some posts in the meantime, but I would love some guest posts while I’m gone.
I’ll open it up to any Blown Mortgage reader. [...]
A new web site (and organization) has launched to help spread awareness about (and their disdain for) the state-sponsored bail out of the housing and mortgage industries currently underway. Stop the Housing Bailout is encouraging citizens to contact their congressmen and women to urge them to cease using public funds to prop up the housing asset bubble [...]
Get it? Wholesale and wholesale? I kill me sometimes. Fifth Third, a large mid-western-based bank has made some significant changes to its wholesale programs. (h/t Chris) You may recognize Fifth Third as the employer of Tom, one of our erstwhile contributors and frequent commenter. These changes apply only to the wholesale channel, so I’m sure [...]
I’ve been making a few changes around Blown Mortgage today, the biggest of which is upgrading to the new WordPress 2.5 release. I’ve also added links to my:
The New York Times has a story about the abuses of the foreclosure system that have become overly-apparent in the deluge of foreclosure activity that has followed the wave of subprime mortgage ARM-loan resets. This is a long article, but an important read for any of you that are personally facing foreclosure or have [...]
The New York Times is reporting that the FDIC has ruled Fremont General’s banking unit under-capitalized and must find additional funds or sell the unit in two months. Fremont, which should be considered the bastion of terrible underwriting, received default notices related to $3.15 worth of subprime loans. And we’re talking SUBPRIME. [...]
Radian, the mortgage insurance company, will no longer provide insurance for stated income and stated asset loans. The loans, sometimes called “liar loans” by skeptics, allow borrowers to simply conjure their income and assets used for qualification without any due diligence checking.
This may signal the tipping-point of a major sea-change in underwriting standards. [...]
Market Watch has the details on the new home sales report and it doesn’t look pretty (lots more at Calculated Risk). While sales are off 30% year-over-year we still have 10 months worth of new inventory, the highest since 1981. On the bright side we’re slowly cutting in to excess inventory which is an important step [...]