Pricing Engines Enhanced, Integrated
Ellie Mae and Mortech Inc. last month announced the integration of Ellie’s mortgage origination solution with Mortech’s Marksman product and pricing engine.
PriceMyLoan and Mortgage Capital Trading completed an "automated loan pipeline hedging and analysis" interface that offers real-time hedge process to minimize risk in pricing, a statement said.
Del Mar DataTrac Inc. late last year released an upgraded Loan-Score product integration with DataTrac version 9.1.
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Improvement Seen in Mortgage Market
Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 8 basis points in its latest weekly survey.
The 30-year jumbo rate fell to 5.750 percent from 6.000 percent in the Mortech-MortgageDaily.com Mortgage Market Index for the week ended March 3.
Mortgage activity rose 3% from last week based on the Mortgage Market Index, which was 35 inquiries-per user, higher than 34 the prior week.
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Report: GMAC’s Cash Management Could Hurt RMBS
Moody’s Investors Service warned today that it placed residential mortgage-backed securities serviced by GMAC Mortgage LLC on review for a possible downgrade.
The ratings agency said it has discovered that cash-management arrangements being used by GMAC could give rise to competing claims in a bankruptcy proceeding.
But GMAC told MortgageDaily.com that its "netting process is, and always has been, in compliance with all investor guidelines."
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Top MetLife Executives Quit
"Pete Makowiecki has left MetLife Home Loans," the company said in a statement to MortgageDaily.com.
Makowiecki had been with the company and its predacessor for around nine years.
MetLife also confirmed the departure of its president, national marketing production.
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Uptick In Commercial Mortgage Values
The price of loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities improved 1 percent in January compared to December, DebtX reported.
The report was based on nearly 60,000 commercial mortgages traded on DebtX’s platform as of Jan. 31.
Still, secondary prices on commercial mortgages were down from January 2009.
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MTA Nearing Bottom
The Monthly Treasury Index declined 0.02 percent between January and February, according to government data.
It was the lowest point ever for the MTA.
Based on recent Treasury activity, the MTA is likely to fall a little more before ending its long decline.
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Agency Issuance Weaker
Fixed-rate issuance at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae declined 8 percent between January and February, according to data released by eMBS.
Compared to February 2009, issuance was down 7 percent.
A monthly increase in securitizations at Fannie wasn’t enough to overcome a decline at its two government-controlled cousins.
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Originations Higher at Credit Unions
Residential originations of first mortgages and home-equity lines-of-credit were 4 percent higher during 2009 at federally insured credit unions than in 2008, the National Credit Union Administration reported.
Production on other types of real estate loans was similarly higher.
An increase in overall loan volume, however, was more moderate.
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BoA Closes on Sale of Servicing Unit
Bank of America Corp. has closed on the sale of Wilshire Credit Corp., a news release said.
The acquiring company was IBM.
Wilshire is a nonprime mortgage servicer.
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HARP Extended
An extension for the Home Affordable Refinance Program was announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
HARP was originally set to run until this summer.
Now the program has been extended to June 30, 2011, the FHFA said.
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