AmTrust Mortgage Eyeballing Coop Loans

AmTrust Mortgage (formerly Ohio Savings Bank) is looking to make a play for the New York City cooperative mortgage market. They have been FNMA approved to lend against coops for a long time, but only recently decided to try to wrap their heads around getting into this line of lending.

They've hired a top dog who formed Citibank's coop lending and asked Jonathon Miller to push out some numbers on the size of the market (about 5 Billion USD), so perhaps they are getting comfortable with this property type.

Interesting for those of us who have been doing coop mortgages for years to see a lender making baby steps into this robust market.

What 2007 is shaping up to be

The Cooperator has some ideas on what 2007 will bring. Only one surprise- housing prices will rise nationally while NYC housing prices decline. Seems that everyone here in New York City is expecting the good times to keep on roaring ahead, so this prediction by Davis Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist, will come as a shock, and probably piss some people off.

For more on this check it out here.

Decade High On Default Rate

One thing that is a blessing about focusing on the Manhattan coop market is that the board approval process and the down payment requirements don't create a market for subprime mortgages. I've avoided the subprime market for this simple reason, and I'm glad when I read that the default rate has risen to 10% of the mortgages sold to investors. That's up from 6.62% according to a report by investment bank Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. I saw this report in REALTOR Magazine's Daily News.

Run for the Hills

According to the January issue of The Real Deal, many local lenders are going out of business and the industry could shed as much as 25% of it's New York workforce in 2007. That's not necessarily bad news. Mortgage Brokers should be focused on the local real estate market, know the players and the nuances of the local property types.

There are still many people in the mortgage business who are more interested in collecting high fees, than getting the deal done. Still too many order takers, who are little more than telemarketers. By focusing on a sub market, and knowing everything one can about their chosen area of expertise, whether it's new construction, coops, condos or mixed use buildings, one can develop a mortgage business that will be profitable and productive.