Secondary Market

Sometimes a story just fits--and sometimes it doesn't. Given that maxim, the explanation from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for the drop in the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) for February has to be viewed with a jaundiced eye. According to the NAR, the PHSI dropped because of the low inventory of homes for sale. Of course, that wasn't offered as an explanation one month earlier, when the inventory of homes for sale dropped, and the PHSI increased.

New private mortgage insurance business dipped in February, according to a monthly statistics report from Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA), a trade association representing the industry. The report includes statistical data from three MICA member companies: Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation, and Radian Guaranty Inc.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a diversified mortgage servicing company operating in the Dallas area, says lenders, servicers, and investors are leaving money on the table by not doing their homework on oil and gas leases.

Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio continued to shrink in February, contracting at an annualized rate of 4.1 percent.

Mortgage Executive Magazine named Guaranteed Rate the No. 1 mortgage company in America. In addition to taking the top spot on the publication's annual list of the top 200 mortgage companies, Guaranteed Rate has more loan officers included in the top 1 percent of the industry professionals across the country and has the most number of loan officers in the top 200 than any other company, with 30 included on the list.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) endorsed a housing finance system that phases out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but maintains a degree of federal support.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped 16,000 to 357,000 for the week ending March 23, the strongest jump since mid-February, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Despite the unexpected bump, initial unemployment claims have fallen for seven of the first 12 weeks of the year, averaging just a shade over 350,000, the number most economists see as the tipping point between a strengthening and weakening jobs market.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday. The report, coming just three days before the end of the first quarter, was an improvement over the first two GDP reports that showed the economy contracted by 0.1 percent then improved by 0.1 percent. The main drag on the fourth quarter economy--as it had been in the previous two fourth-quarter reports--continued to be government spending.

USA Wholesale Lending, a recently-created division of Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Hallmark Home Mortgage, is now operating in 20 states and has plans to expand this year.

Residential Finance Corporation, based in Columbus, Ohio, recently announced the launch of its new Purchase Loan Quick Reaction Force, a team dedicated to ensuring mortgage loans close on time.