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Most Popular Stories

These were the past week's most frequently emailed stories on our site:

  1. Knock Knock Who's There? Your Mortgage Servicer
  2. Mortgage Wire
  3. High Fees Make Obama Plan a Bitter Pill to Swallow
  4. What We're Hearing
  5. Free Data Samples
If you would like to share a story with a colleague or friend, just click the "Email this page" link at the upper right corner of each page on this site.

Quote of the Week

Putting a borrower in a mortgage [the broker] knew from day one that the borrower could not afford cannot be allowed to continue. There has to be a chain there to tie some responsibility to the mortgage to ensure that this kind of situation doesn't ever happen again.

U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan on his plan for revising the nation's consumer protection laws comes to pass.

Reprints

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Lead Story

Jamie Dimon: A Great Banker with a Selective Memory

By Paul Muolo

Paul Muolo

I like Jamie Dimon. As chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase he's a survivor who steered his institution clear of the worst excesses on Wall Street, setting up his $2.1 trillion baby to grow stronger and more powerful as competitors collapse in the wake of the nation's housing/credit crisis.

I may be pushing it, but one day he may even be considered the equal of J.P. Morgan, the man himself, whose many accomplishments include bringing together bankers back in 1907 to stem a financial panic that threatened the U.S. banking system. In short, Mr. Dimon is now the voice of reason and rationality for the financial services industry (if there can be such a thing.).

Read more

Daily Mortgage News Briefing

Last updated: July 2, 2009

You can get free mortgage headlines e-mailed to you daily. Click here for more information

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Get OK on 125% LTV

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received the green light from their regulator to refinance underwater homeowners with loan-to value ratios as high as 125%.

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Trade Groups Urge HUD to Pull RESPA Rule

Industry groups are backing an Obama administration plan to simplify mortgage disclosures and make them more consumer friendly but first the trades want the Department of Housing and Urban Development to kill a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act rule that is due to go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

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HUD Gets Letter From Appraisers on AMCs

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is revising its appraisal policies on Federal Housing Administration-insured loans with respect to appraisal management companies, according to an agency spokesman.

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TAVMA Responds to NAMB AMC Attack

The Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association has sent a three-page letter to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers stating its attacks on appraisal management companies in the fight over the Home Valuation Code of Conduct are baseless.

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Experts Split on Where Rates Heading

The majority of experts are divided as to whether the downward trend seen in long-term mortgage rates this week will continue or stabilize, according to a Bankrate survey released July 2.

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Beazer Homes Resolves Mortgage Fraud Allegations

Beazer Homes USA Inc., Atlanta, has agreed to pay the United States $5 million, plus contingent payments of up to $48 million to be shared with victimized private homeowners, to resolve allegations that it and Beazer Mortgage Corp. were involved in fraudulent mortgage origination activities in connection with federally insured mortgages.

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Title Industry Posts Loss in 1Q Despite Increase in Refis

In spite of seeing an uptick in business because of the refinance boom during the first quarter, according to data collected by the American Land Title Association, title underwriters had an operating loss of $127.5 million and a net loss of $117.4 million for the first quarter 2009.

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PennyMac Sitting on Unrealized Losses of $7 Million

PennyMac, the mortgage vulture fund founded by a former top executive at Countrywide Financial Corp., is sitting on top of unrealized losses of $7 million, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Cal Pension Group Seeking Servicer for Mortgage Program

The California State Teachers' Retirement System is searching for a master servicer for its home loan program.

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BLS: Lender Hires Up, Broker Employee Count Down

Mortgage industry employment fell by 600 full-time employees in May but the government jobs report shows that lenders added 2,900 new workers to their payrolls while 3,500 mortgage brokers left the industry.

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Real Estate Registers as Bright Spot on Employment Index

The real estate business is one of the few bright spots in the Monster Employment Index for June, the online job search website said.

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Video of the Day

Interview and discussion with Robert Clarke of the Bracewell & Giullani LLP. He talks about banks mortgages securities and how they handle them.

Mortgage Video Library

National Mortgage News presents Mortgage Focus, a video library of hot topics addressed by mortgage industry experts. Topics include servicing, government mortgage plans, refis, loan mods, technology, REO and more.

Click here for more...

Editor's Choice

Pennsylvania Governor Signs Fraud Protection Bills

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed a pair of bills to combat mortgage fraud in the state by strengthening communication between homeowners and their lenders and encouraging employees at mortgage companies to report illegal activity.
Click here to read the details.

Other Voices

This story is from our sister publication, American Banker

FHA Enforces Fine Print as Loans Swell

By Kate Berry , American Banker

Home lenders are finding that when you write mortgages for the Federal Housing Administration, the devil is in the details.

Just ask the lender that was fined $1,000 for failing to check the credit of a homebuyer's spouse. Or the company that had to pay $3,000 because it did not verify child-support payments a loan applicant had claimed as income. Or the one that got hit with a $3,500 penalty - and six months' probation - for displaying a government seal on its Web site.

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Blog of the Week

Join the Discussion!

Each week we will feature a mortgage blog from one of our writers on various topics of interest. To add your two cents, click on the link below, scroll down to the bottom of the blog, type into the comments box, and click submit.

In his On the Road Again blog, editor-in-chief Mark Fogarty asks if the ease and convenience of webinars will ever replace remote conferences.

Click here to read the details.