American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. released its first-quarter earnings report today, which was pretty much what any seasoned market observer would have expected: an operating loss, downward revision of yearly earnings outcomes, and a message that things are getting better in April than they were in March. This little tidbit, however, caught my eye: Michael Strauss, [...]

PMI Group Inc., the eponymously-named private mortgage insurance giant, said today that it’s pretty much going to lose money hand-over-fist in the U.S. market this year, according to an AP article published by Forbes: PMI expects losses between $300 million and $360 million for the year at the U.S. unit. The company did not provide a [...]

National City’s CEO said in a conference call that things will look better in the quarters ahead at the nation’s eighth largest bank. “We would expect to be in the black in future quarters” in mortgage banking, Daberko said in an interview. “Mortgage banking, ex-hedging, actually made 5 cents in the quarter. We think, actually, mortgage [...]

I’ve received an unbelievable amount of email in the past week or so offering to support this site financially. Wow. And while I am utterly appreciative of everything, I wanted to let everyone know that I’m not really looking for financial support — I have a day job in a different industry that I really, [...]

This site started out as a little blog where I’d post press releases related to the mortgage industry, primarily because I’m passionate about mortgage finance. I then decided to start something known as the REBAs, mostly on a lark. And I kept posting my musings, thoughts, commentary on the industry — as well as any [...]

It didn’t get any easier for thousands of Massachusetts mortgage holders to pay their bills during the first quarter, as a new report released Monday found that petitions to foreclose rose 79.8 percent compared with the first quarter in 2006. In addition to the documented rise in pending foreclosures, foreclosure sales in the Bay State jumped [...]

Visionet Systems said Monday that it had launched VisiClaims, a solution targeted to provide lenders and servicers with a mechanism for avoiding repurchases and expedite settlements through an integrated claims management solution. Loan repurchases have become a “hot-button” issue for mortgage lenders this year as early-payment defaults have soared, forcing a surge in repurchase claims [...]

Editor’s note: After publishing this commentary, I’ve since been contacted by a spokesperson at Fifth Third Bancorp., who said it would be inaccurate to characterize the move at Home Equity of America as “exiting the business,” as I did in my commentary below. The spokesperson noted that the company “will no longer be able to [...]

Acting Pennsylvania state Banking Secretary Victoria A. Reider on Friday urged swift action by state legislators to stop what she called “abusive lending practices” and blamed for many foreclosures. “The Banking Department has made great strides over the past few years but Pennsylvania’s foreclosure rate remains above the national average,” Reider said during a Pennsyvania House [...]

A blogger by the name of Mish has an interesting take on subprime bailouts, characterizing all of them as a “sucker’s play.”