More bad news for the mortgage market

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Uncategorized August 5th, 2007

Paul Muolo is the executive editor and associate publisher of National Mortgage News and he had these comments in his column.

I’ll put it bluntly: if you operate a non-depository mortgage firm (lender or servicer) and don’t have a deep-pocketed parent or hedge fund as a sugar daddy you’re likely to be out of business by year-end, probably sooner. In the 20-plus years that I’ve been covering residential finance I haven’t seen a financial meltdown this swift since the S&L crisis of the mid-to-late 1980s. One subprime executive who closed his shop a few months ago told me, “This is a liquidity crunch the likes I have never seen.” Meanwhile, the mudslide is rolling downhill from Wall Street to mortgage bankers, to loan brokers, and then the consumer. Nomura Securities is winding down its mortgage conduit and three major Wall Street firms are preparing to slash their mortgage desks and or conduits…

And consider this: On Friday, Wells Fargo had hiked its jumbo loan rate to 8%. (This is the same Wells Fargo that up until a few months ago was overstating its subprime correspondent purchases so it could garner bragging rights to being No. 1 in subprime.) Meanwhile, Countrywide Financial Corp., considered a bedrock of the industry, is tightening up requirements on warehouse credit doled out to its correspondents.

On Thursday afternoon NMNOnline (MortgageWire) was the second news organization to report that American Home Mortgage would close. (Newsday posted the story on its website first.) We would’ve beat Newsday except that the internal e-mail sent by CEO Michael Strauss to employees began with “Dear Colleges.” We saw the typo and just assumed it was phony. A source inside the company later explained to us that it was indeed a typo by Mr. Strauss…

How full blown is the subprime crisis now? Not only is the story on the network nightly news (a big deal) but Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” did an amusing piece on the subprime industry and how it caters to minorities.

Another thing spooking the industry is the second-quarter loss posted by service provider/title insurance giant First American Corp. FA took a $342 million provision for losses in its title insurance division during the second quarter. The provision includes a boost to reserves, which reflects a change in the estimate for expected future losses from policy years 2004 through 2006. Some observers wonder why FA’s loss is so large — and the losses at some lenders (the ones still standing) have been so small…

More bad news: mortgage companies have cut their payrolls by nearly 46,000 employees since October, including 7,400 full-time positions in June, as the slowdown in mortgage originations, particularly subprime loans, is forcing a retrenchment…

Clayton Holdings, a mortgage analytics/consulting firm, earned just $500,000 on revenue of $43 million in the second quarter, noting that the industry’s subprime securitization volumes fell by 42% during that time. However, it experienced strong growth in its “surveillance” business. Meanwhile, Clayton has been subpoenaed by the New York State attorney general as part of its investigation into subprime lending…

If you’re a baby boomer working for Fannie Mae take note: On Aug. 10, Fannie employees 50 years or older who have been with the company for five years will have the option of staying with the GSE or taking a buyout package. Employees choosing the buyout will receive 26 weeks severance pay plus three weeks pay for every year of service…

Coming up: subprime lender Delta Financial Corp. will report its second-quarter financial results before the market opens on Wednesday…

California is on top again — in home foreclosures, that is. According to RealtyTrac Inc., foreclosures in California jumped by 170% in the first-half to 104,572 units. Nationwide, lenders sent notices of default, scheduled auctions or repossessions on more than 574,000 properties during that time…

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