. Big Changes Coming to MortgageNewsClips Soon - Stay Tuned . . AIG Changes, Hole at Northern Rock, 2009, Loans R Us, Scapegoats? . . AIG Changes MI Eligibility Rules; Will Exclude Majority of Subprime Borrowers - housingwire ———— £53 Billion Hole In Northern Rock - An investigation into Northern Rock shows £53bn of mortgages [...]

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To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends: ·          Are you setting aside reserves in case you have to re-purchase loans? Washington Mutual, as one example, has about 14 bps set aside for this, and while it’s hard to know the right amount, at least they have something.  What about you?  The only justification for not setting [...]

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. MortgageNewsClips welcomes Joe Garrett as a contributor!. To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends: . ·          GMAC isn’t a public company but they file with the SEC for their bonds because most of them are publicly traded.  And while reading through these filings can be deadly, you do find interesting nuggets. At September 30, GMAC [...]

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. . Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, wrote, “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” Mortgage banking needs to prove him wrong, but for right now, everyone is practicing their [...]

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    Happy Thanksgiving!! . . GSE’s 3, Portland vs. Seattle, SIVs, Countrywide, NovaStar . . 1. About Freddie Mac’s Problems - OFHEO’s Part in the Housing Crisis - According to Felix Salmon, OFHEO is making the housing crisis worse - Portfolio.com   2. Freddie Mac: Pay No Attention To The LIA Loans Behind the Curtain - … [...]

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. . Many agents, and others in the industry, ask about re-setting ARM loans. Hopefully you can see this graph below, showing ARM resets. If you can’t, they climb from here through next year, and then drop dramatically. Now, if only a) the properties haven’t gone down in value, and b) the borrower has kept [...]

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  MortgageNewsClips welcomes Tom Millon as a contributor!   AN INSIDER’S VIEW FROM THE CAPITAL MARKETS COOPERATIVE TRADING DESK: “Mandatory sales have been very strong relative to best efforts.  The reason:  mortgages are once again trading with ‘zero duration’ and hedge costs are low.  When Treasury yields drop, the market thinks more rate volatility is [...]

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          Cartoons, 5 Favorites, Other Stuff   CARTOONS: 1. A Fall Housing Picture - from Barry Ritholz - The Big Picture  2. ANOTHER HOUSING CARTOON -  My 5 Favorites:   Wow! G-Fees Up a Lot - What’s a GSE Guarantee Worth? - The short answer: a whole lot more than it used to be. [...]

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(Thanks to Rob for this 5 part series - BC) . . Yesterday I passed a conference room and someone was saying, “This project is so important we can’t let things that are more important interfere with it.”  Where do things stand on the future tax-deductibility of MI? This is the latest news story: . [...]

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The other day I heard a manager (not at NL Inc.) say, “Team work is a lot of people doing what I say!”    Many loan agents feel that the coverage amount of MI is a mystery. Remember that it is set by the investor, so if a given lender is working with 15 different [...]

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