Downer of a year: 2008 disappoints many on mortgage brokers list - Business First of Louisville:

vadimsudigrenev.blogspot.com
The outlook for the industry is with most brokers concerned thatratees — now near historic lows will rise. At Business First’sa deadline, rates on conforming 30-year loans had risen sharplh in just afew days, averaging 5.4 percent at mid-week, according to data from Bankrate.com and MarketWatch.com. That rate is up from a nationall average ofabout 4.85 percent for much of May. Towarde the end of consumers began refinancing, accordinhg to mortgage lenders interviewed by Business But refinancingalone won’t revive theirr business, brokers said.
Refinancing is lucrativr for brokers when interest ratesare low, “but you can’t depende on it” in the long term, said Don Rupert, presidenyt of Mortgage Network Inc., whicgh is No. 10 on the current list, up from No. 11. “Th mortgage business is cyclical enough without depending on refinancing.” On the 2009 Rupert’s company was among the minority of broker s who reported making a higher percentage of new mortgages than refinancings for 2008 — 85 percentf new, 15 percent refinancings, in his case. LLC, owned by Mohama d el-Ashawah, reported a similar new/refinance ratio, with 70 percent new mortgages closed in 2008 and 30percent refinancings.
No mortgagd brokerage reported a sharper decline in volume and valuee thanKentuckiana Sunrise, which dropped to No. 18 on the 2009 list from No. 8 in 2008. The valu e of Kentuckiana Sunrise’s loans closedf dropped 87 percent in 2008to $10 millionn from $75 million in and the number of loans decreased 67 to 165 from 500. El-Ashawah said that whilwe demand for mortgages remained fairlyh constant despite the realestate downturn, Kentuckiana Sunrise couldn’t get capita to lend.
After capital markets tightenedin 2008, capital from private sources and banks dried up and “yoj couldn’t get anyone to lend you said el-Ashawah, who added that his companty never made subprime loans. That left his brokerage firm with one sourcde formoney — federal government-backeds mortgage makers such as and . And that moneuy got increasingly expensive, he said. Pohn, of Firsrt Residential, sees better times ahead for his company and for the economy has a wholre if government regulators can find amarkeft equilibrium.
First Residential closed $160 million worth of mortgages during both April and May and is on track to match or exceed its 2006 total ofabour $1 billion, Pohn said. But at the getting borrowers qualified for loans has gone from bein ga no-questions-asked situation in 2006 to taking “an act of in 2009, he said. The nationalk mortgage market has “overcorrected,” he Now, there are peoplre trying to buy homeswho “deserve but the market is so scared and they’r e restricting credit way too he said. Pohn puts the blame squarely on the mortgagr industry itself after home loan standardx went outthe window, startinf around 2006.