Home sales

(Orawin Velz is director of economic forecasting in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s economics and research department. She can be reached at ovelz@mortgagebankers.org.)
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For the fourth quarter, Radian reported net income of $158.4 million and diluted net income per share of $1.96, compared to $104.5 million and $1.24 reported in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Andrew Davidson Launches Loan Dynamic Model
Andrew Davidson & Co. Inc., New York, launched its Loan Dynamics Model, which projects prepayments, delinquency, default and loss severity on non-agency mortgage loans.

The prepayment model is designed to address needs of firms that issue or invest in credit-sensitive mortgages and related securities such as Alt-A, high LTV and subprime loans. The Loan Dynamics Model helps explain the motivation for borrowers to transition among various payment statuses ranging from current to terminated, given an assortment of economic scenarios and loan characteristics.

The company will unveil the new model at the American Securitization Forum Conference in Las Vegas on January 29.

LSSI, Portellus Form Alliance
Lender Support Systems Inc., Poway, Calif., a provider of lending and loan servicing technology services, and Portellus Inc., Irvine, Calif., a software provider for the mortgage and insurance industries, announced a strategic alliance and successful systems interface.

The alliance joins Portellus’ origination platform with LSSI’s mortgage closing, servicing and imaging technologies, fully automating the ordering of loan closing documents. The interface compiles loan data from Portellus and directly links with LSSI. When users of Portellus’ origination platform request loan closing documents through the automated interface, the information is transferred to LSSI and the document packages are completed and returned to the user. 

Dow Capital Funding implements Mortgage iQ
CRMnow, Aliso Viejo, Calif.,  announced that Dow Capital Funding sill complete implementation of CRMnow’s Mortgage iQ, providing Dow Capital Funding with CRM software infrastructure to support its team service culture.

The software will provide account executives, managers and executive management with tools to manage leads, activities, pipelines, partners and brokers. The scalability will ensure continued support as the company rapidly grows and adds more users and brokers.

Union Street Mortgage Implements Mavent’s MC2 Compliance Review Platform
Mavent Inc., Irvine, Calif., a provider of automated compliance services to the financial services industry, announced implementation of its Mavent Compliance Console (MC2) by Dallas-based Union Street Mortgage Co., which offers creative financing for borrowers.

MC2, a Web-based portal, enables lenders, loan purchasers and other mortgage-related businesses to submit loan data for comprehensive regulatory and business compliance reviews. Union Street staff submit loan data on a manual, batch or combined basis to the Mavent Expert System, Mavent’s flagship automated compliance product, which collects and processes the electronic loan data against a set of high-cost, licensing and general state consumer credit law (such as state-specific fee limitations, usury ceilings and interest rate accrual restrictions). Clients can also integrate Mavent into LOS for real-time processing of loan data.

Payday Loans Not Predatory, N.Y. Fed Says
Payday loans are not predatory and may actually enhance the welfare of households, according to a new report issued by staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The report concluded that payday lending "does not fit our definition of predatory."

“To the contrary, the report concludes that payday lenders may actually enhance the welfare of households by increasing the supply of credit, said Darrin Anderson, president of Community Financial Services of America, a trade group representing payday advance outlets.

The report can be found at http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr273.pdf.

Remend Announces New REO Products
Remend Inc., San Mateo, Calif., announced availability of Remend OnDemand REO, an integrated web-based product designed to automate the Real Estate Owned (REO) processes for mortgage servicers, subservicers, outsourcers and investment banks.

Remend OnDemand REO provides managers the capabilities to improve REO productivity by 25-50 percent; reduce REO holding time by 10 days or more; and decrease REO loss percentage and holding costs. Remend OnDemand REO enables servicers to target and control thousands of dollars of expense and risk per REO property. 

REmend also announced availability of Remend OnDemand Asset Evaluation, an integrated web-based collateral valuation product designed to automate and improve property valuation processes. It is a workflow based application with built-in business intelligence and a collaborative network of distributed processes delivered as Software-as-a-Service. 

BasePoint Releases FraudMark for Investment Banking
BasePoint Analytics, Carlsbad, Calif., a provider of scientific fraud analytics and consulting services, announced availability of FraudMark for Investment Banking, a statistical pattern recognition software product designed to assess mortgage fraud risk. 

FraudMark uses analytic scoring technology to identify suspicious mortgage loans, enabling investment banks and due diligence firms to score and identify each loan’s fraud risk before it is purchased, during the bid tape selection or due diligence review process. It uses patent-pending pattern recognition technology to find fraud based on historical patterns of both fraudulent and non-fraudulent loan applications. These models accurately predict the likelihood of a loan containing fraud that will result in financial loss to the lender or investor. 
 

Australia’s Axcess Americas Brings ARMnet Mortgage Software to U.S. Market

Axcess Americas LLC, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a joint venture between Axcess Consulting Group Pty. Ltd. of Australia and Centuric Group LLC, announced launch of Axcess’ ARMnet Mortgage Software Solution in the United States. 

The product released in the mid-1990s in Australia, and currently has more than 40 clients, including ING Mortgage Funds, Australia; Bluestone Mortgage Group; and Perpetual Trustees, Australia’s largest trustee company.

ARMnet Mortgage Software can be customized for lenders in any type of lending channel. The system is based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which allows for tracking of every entity with which the company does business. 

ARM will be officially released in the United States at the annual Mortgage Bankers Association’s CREF/Multifamily Convention and Expo on February 4.

eLynx Introduces Enhanced Version of uSign 4.0
eLynx, Cincinnati, a portfolio company of American Capital Strategies Ltd. and provider of secure electronic document communications network for the financial services industry, announced the newest release of its uSign electronic signature technology.

uSign helps large lenders, insurance carriers and other financial institutions enable customers to securely review and approve sensitive documents via the Internet. Its electronic signature technology eliminates reliance on paper, while reducing costs by as much as 75 percent. Version 4.0 builds upon uSign's current applications with a heightened focus on user experience and usability.

AimLoan.com Selects Optimal Blue
Optimal Blue, Plano, Texas, developer of a Web-based platform that couples decisioning technology with content management for the mortgage industry, announced that San Diego-based AimLoan.com selected Optimal Blue’s product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE) technology. 

The technology allows AimLoan.com’s mortgage bankers to quote prices accurately and efficiently via the Internet. It is working with Optimal Blue to build an interface that allows online approval for customers. Currently AimLoan.com offers customers the ability to receive a price quote and submit an application online. The interface will allow customers to receive specific pricing for their specific situation and instant approval after submitting the application through the Web site. 
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The strategy when Fellows and his colleagues—managing directors Warren de Haan, Chris Tokarski and Stew Ward—started Countrywide Commercial Real Estate in 2004, was to hire “seasoned experts” from local markets and form branches within those regions. The Atlanta branch, for example, now staffed with 10 people, closed 100 loans in its first year. Countrywide’s commercial real estate arm originated $5 billion in 2005, and $8 billion estimated from 900 loans in 2006. The company is now at nearly 140 personnel and growing.

“It has become a big engine,” Fellows said.

The opposite was true nearly nine years ago when Fellows was co-CEO at San Francisco-based Nomura Holdings, a subsidiary of Nomura Securities in Tokyo.

Nomura Holdings was a top conduit lender in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), until the bottom fell out in October 1998 after a series of financial crises caused liquidity in the CMBS market to dry up literally overnight.

An Asian currency crisis in 1997 led to a flight-to-quality for investors into the CMBS market and when Russia defaulted on its foreign debt in the fall of 1998, investors fled and liquidity was gone in the U.S. public capital markets. Spreads in the CMBS market widened overnight by 150 to 1,000 basis points and interest rate hedges exposed conduit lenders to tremendous losses.

Many CMBS originators were left holding millions of dollars of commercial real estate loans without any investors, including Nomura, which folded most of its U.S. CMBS operations in 1998 after losing $1 billion, according to the FDIC.

However, that was then and this is now. Better technology—analytical tools built by Countrywide—along with more sophisticated interest rate hedges primarily as a result of the debt crisis create lower risk in the CMBS market, according to Fellows. 

"Total rate of return swaps on CMBS did not exist in 1998. That alone enables anybody playing in this industry to run a dramatically lower risk profile," Fellows said. "In 1998, we were using a combination of shorting treasuries and shorting interest rate swaps. When the CMBS industry had the debt crisis and spreads widened, they just did not work even remotely as well as total rate of return swaps would or will today."

Commercial real estate collateralized debt obligations (CRE CDOs) also offers Countrywide Commercial an alternative market to the CMBS market.

“[CRE CDOs] are a major component of this industry and it could develop into the primary source of capital in the industry,” Fellows said. “I don’t know about central, but it is right next to central to our strategy…It clearly has structural advantages over REMIC [real estate mortgage investment conduit] structures. As time goes on, we will see the percentage of loans made, if they are financed by CDOs or REMICs, but its market share is increasing. There is no doubt about that.”

Fellows said the “Countrywide Advantage” program—loans of $500,000 to $10 million—strongly contributed to the company’s success in 2006 and, looking forward, Countrywide will be moving into the commercial mortgage servicing business “soon.”

“Once we get a deal done with clients, our repeat effectiveness is very high,” Fellows said. “We took the strategy that [Countrywide] has to be in local markets.”

Each market, with its own “peculiarities,” will have decision makers who understand them, according to Fellows. The goal at Countrywide is to become the dominant player in commercial real estate. With branch offices in Dallas, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other regions of the country, the company continues to grow.
 
“We just opened [a branch] in Santa Monica . It is expanding and we are going to open several new offices,” Fellows said. “In having a local approach—as opposed to a centralized model—our model is very decentralized. People in the offices make independent decisions on pricing and credit. Those decisions are not being made at a centralized point. They are being delegated out into the field.”

Countrywide Commercial will also start funding commercial real estate loans to Countrywide Bank balance sheets. It is already funding “flexible prepayment loans,” fixed-rate loans for three, five or seven years and with various prepayment penalties from the first day the borrower receives the loan for a commercial property.

“They look exactly like a loan that a local bank would make, but our local bank is Countrywide bank, which is now an approximately $100 billion bank with offices everywhere in the country,” Fellows said. “We are now producing loans into that organization as well.”
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The latest podcast, “What is the Current Economic Outlook for the Real Estate Finance Industry?” features Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s senior director of commercial/multifamily research, who takes an in-depth look into the commercial/multifamily mortgage market from an economic perspective.

MBA Executive Podcasts are sponsored by Martopia, Chicago, and produced by MBA and Texell Interactive Media, Jim Thorpe, Pa. Rick Grant, president and CEO of Texell, hosts the podcasts.

To listen to the podcasts, you must have either Real Player or Windows Media Player. You can listen to the podcasts at mortgagebankers.org www.mortgagebankers.org/mbapodcasts.

Real Player download: http://www.realplayerresource.com/co/real/realplayerresource/?sid=M2AG0002bGS

Windows Media Player download:
http://www.download-zone-free.com/windowsmediaplayer/.
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Built in 1981 and 1982, the 23-story, twin office towers are in the heart of L.A.’s Century City. The towers contain a combined 894,000 square feet of office space with supporting retail and parking facilities.

The transaction is a particularly significant one for Allstate, according to Sam Davis, senior managing director of the real estate investment group at Allstate.

“Los Angeles is an important market for us and Watt Plaza is the largest single-asset loan Allstate has ever made," Davis said.

Gary Nelson, president of Churchill Mortgage, and Mike Thorp, senior vice president at Churchill, worked with Mark Bishop , portfolio manager at Allstate, to arrange financing of a 15-year, fixed-rate loan with a 25-year amortization.

Peter Thorp, chairman of Churchill Mortgage, attributed his firm’s on-the-ground market experience and Allstate’s customized financing options as an optimal fit for the borrower. 

“The borrower was looking for a 15-year, fixed-rate loan amortized over 25 years with the best terms in the market. We explored a myriad of financing options for them, including the capital markets and insurance companies,” Thorp said.

Tenants at Watt Plaza include Towers, Perrin, Forster; Pircher, Nichols & Meeks; Bird, Marella; Progressive Insurance; Cantor Fitzgerald; Union Central Life; Hart & Hardy Inc.; and Washington Mutual.
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Contact e-mail: campusmbaeducation@mortgagebankers.org.
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To help member companies with this challenge, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the STRATMOR Group conduct a peer group benchmarking program that offers participating companies an opportunity to share best practices and gain insight into how other companies are planning in this new environment.

Consisting of detailed surveys and roundtable meetings, including a separate subprime survey, data collected and analyzed are comprehensive, timely and accurate. Participating companies reap unparalleled value from dialogue at the meetings, which are an integral part of the program.

If you would like to participate in MBA’s upcoming Spring 2007 Peer Group Survey and Roundtables (data as of December 31), please contact either Marina Walsh of MBA at 202/557-2817 or mwalsh@mortgagebankers.org or Jim Cameron of STRATMOR Group at 770/632-4445 or jim.cameron@stratmorgroup.com. To learn more about the program, visit www.mbastratmor.com.
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On January 22, MBA met with Fed Consumer and Community Affairs staff to express industry opposition to such an expansion and emphasized that these products are valuable financing options that have helped millions of Americans achieve the dream of homeownership. MBA has pointed out that these loans are not nontraditional products, which the guidance was explicitly issued to cover.

On January 25, MBA senior staff met with FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair and her staff to discuss industry concerns about a proposed expansion of the guidance to include ARM products, specifically 2/28 ARMs. MBA requested that, at a minimum, the regulators follow the normal vetting process and allow the industry and the public be provided an opportunity to comment prior to any expansion of the guidance.

For more information, please contact Ken Markison at (202) 557-2930 (kmarkison@mortgagebankers.org) or Corey Carlisle at (202) 557-2860 (ccarlisle@mortgagebankers.org).

MBA Participates in U.S. Conference of Mayors' Meeting
MBA Chairman John Robbins, CMB, and Steve O'Connor, MBA senior vice president for public policy, participated last week in panel discussions during the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C.  Robbins also discussed financial literacy and suitability at a meeting of the Council for the New American City. He was joined by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; Bowling Green, Ky., Mayor Elaine Walker; Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory;  Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Dan Iannicola, the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for financial education; and James Diffley, managing director of U.S. Regional Services with Global Insight.

O'Connor participated in a discussion on the housing agenda of the 110th Congress and anti-predatory lending legislation before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. He stressed the need for a national standard and cautioned that there is a history of states and localities that have passed well-intentioned laws that have been withdrawn or reversed in courts, including Illinois and Montgomery County, Md. 

Other participants on the panel included Scott Olson of the staff of the House Financial Services Committee; Jonathan Miller of the staff of the Senate Banking Committee; and Josh Silver, vice president for research and policy at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

For more information, please contact Paul Richman at (202) 557-2899 (prichman@mortgagebankers.org).

MBA Meets with Ginnie Mae President Couch to Discuss HECMs
On January 25, MBA met with Ginnie Mae President and acting HUD General Counsel Rob Couch, CMB, to discuss Ginnie Mae's progress with the implementation of a MBS program backed by FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. MBA believes that the agency's charter allows considerable flexibility in creating this program and supports further statutory enhancements to allow Ginnie Mae to guarantee trusts backed by a variety of instruments, including whole HECM loans, government guaranteed securities and cash. MBA will assist Ginnie Mae as it moves forward with the HECM-backed MBS program.

For more information, please contact Kathy Gibbons at (202) 557-2870 (kgibbons@mortgagebankers.org) or Vicki Vidal at (202) 557-2861 (vvidal@mortgagebankers.org).

MBA Meets with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Nontraditional Guidance and Portfolios
MBA held separate meetings last week with senior staff from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who must respond to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight by February 28, on how they will become compliant with the nontraditional mortgage product guidance that was issued last fall. These discussions covered difficult issues such as how the agencies should handle particular product types, including hybrid ARMs, and now common underwriting practices for documentation of income and assets and how non-agency CMO securities and the mortgages backing them should be covered. 

While both agencies have superior loan performance in their books of business, the objective is to assure consistency with the guidance without sacrificing homeownership opportunity and efficient dealing. 

For more information, please contact Kathy Gibbons at (202) 557-2870 (kgibbons@mortgagebankers.org).

MBA Joins Trades in Letter to Appropriations Committees
On January 23, MBA joined 10 other trade organizations in a letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committee members. The letter requested that the Conference Committee adopt a five-year extension of HUD’s authority to restructure Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages under the "Mark to Market" program. This authority is scheduled to expire on February 15 under the current Continuing Resolution. The granting of this authority would permit HUD to preserve an additional 1,000 affordable housing projects.

For more information, please contact Renee Rappaport at (202) 557-2758 (rrappaport@mortgagebankers.org).

FDIC Issues Letter on Predatory Lending
On January 22, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a Financial Institution Letter describing certain characteristics of predatory lending and reaffirming that such activities are inconsistent with safe and sound lending and undermine economic well-being. 

The FDIC warns banks that its examiners will take appropriate action if they see signs of predatory lending such as equity stripping refinancing; lending based on the value of the collateral and not on a borrower's ability to repay; or engaging in fraud. This letter is a consolidation of previous announcements from the agency.
 
For more information, please contact Mary Jo Sullivan at (202) 557-2859 (msullivan@mortgagebankers.org).

Chairman Dodd Interested in Predatory Lending Legislation
On January 24, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he is considering legislation to address the increase in foreclosure rates. Calling the situation a crisis, Dodd referred to some of these loans as "predatory" and indicated that he wanted to determine if there is a way to include a period of forbearance in legislation. Dodd also said the committee will hold a hearing on this issue in February.

For more information, please contact Renee Rappaport at (202) 557-2758 (rrappaport@mortgagebankers.org).

Illinois Governor Suspends Predatory Lending Pilot Program
On January 19, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) directed the state's Department of Financial and Professional Regulations to suspend HB 4050, the Illinois Predatory Lending Database Pilot Program. 

In his press release, Blagojevich pointed to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report that showed housing sales had dropped nearly 50 percent in the 10 Zip Codes designated for the pilot program. 

MBA welcomed Blagojevich's comments, noting that MBA and the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association had raised the very concerns expressed by Blagojevich more than two years ago, when the pilot program was first proposed. MBA will continue to work with the Illinois MBA to monitor developments.

For more information, please contact Paul Richman at (202) 557-2899 (prichman@mortgagebankers.org).

Florida Gov. Signs Property and Casualty Insurance Reform
On January 25, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) signed a bill, HB 1A, that will provide insurance rate relief to Florida homeowners. HB 1A, which was approved by the state legislature on January 22, will require insurers who write homeowners policies in other states to write policies in Florida. The new law will create the Temporary Increase in Coverage Limits options for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 hurricane seasons. This will allow insurers to purchase reinsurance of up to $12 billion above the current limit of $16 billion for 2007. A summary of the conference committee report is attached.

For more information, please contact Paul Richman at (202) 557-2899 (prichman@mortgagebankers.org) or Chris Oswald at (202) 557-2866 (coswald@mortgagebankers.org).

MBA Hosts Congressional Education Series on Foreclosures
MBA hosted a discussion on January 26 with Congressional staff on housing policy and its 2007 economic forecast. MBA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy Kurt Pfotenhauer and Vice President of Research and Economics Jay Brinkmann offered staff a detailed analysis of what to expect from the real estate finance market in 2007 and what issues the industry will focus on during the first session of the 110th Congress.

The Congressional Education Series is an MBA program providing education for staff of members of Congress on many issues that are important in the real estate finance industry.

For more information, please contact Erick Gustafson at (202) 557-2913 (egustafson@mortgagebankers.org).
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More than 4,600 commercial real estate professionals will hear a keynote address from former President George H.W. Bush; and much dealmaking will take place in the corridors of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.

MBA NewsLink will provide coverage; additionally, special afternoon editions of MBA Commercial/Multifamily NewsLink will go out on Monday, February 5 and Tuesday, February 6.

For more information, visit http://events.mortgagebankers.org/CREF2007/default.html.

Also out West, MBA’s Residential Loan Production Conference takes place this week (January 31-February 2) in Los Angeles.

Back in Washington, the Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday, January 30 and Wednesday, January 31. The FOMC is expected to hold steady the current federal funds rate of 5.25 percent.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appears before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, January 31 to testify on “The Treasury Department’s Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policy and the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue.” The hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT in room 538 of the Dirsken Senate Office Building.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold its organizational meeting on Wednesday, January 31, at which time committee members will be finalized and subcommittee memberships approved.

Looking ahead, the House Financial Services Committee’s first hearing of the 110th Congress will examine the federal housing response and housing reconstruction efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, February 6 at 10:00 a.m. EDT in room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., issued a statement noting that the hearing would include a focus on the loss of affordable rental housing units in the Gulf Coast as a result of Katrina. Specifically, the hearing will examine the commitments that were made early on to rebuild such housing, and the results to date in the actual restoration or rebuilding of lost housing units. The hearing will also focus on efforts to provide grants to homeowners to help them repair their homes, and look at the federal response in providing rental housing assistance to displaced families and individuals.  Finally, the hearing will examine the critical role that the availability of affordable rental housing to working families has on efforts to rebuild areas devastated by Katrina and restore the local economy.

A witness list has not yet been distributed.

The Senate Budget Committee holds three hearings of interest this week. On Tuesday, January 30, the committee examines “Defining Our Long-Term Fiscal Challenges.” Witnesses include Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute; Robert Greenstein, founder and executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Eugene Steuerle, senior fellow with the Urban Institute. The hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT in room 608 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

On Wednesday, January 31, the Budget Committee holds a hearing on “Exploring Solutions to Our Long-Term Fiscal Challenges.” Witnesses include Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition; Joseph Minarik, senior vice president and director of research with the Committee for Economic Development; Jason Furman, director the The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution; and Stuart Butler, vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation. The hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT in 608 Dirksen.

On Thursday, February 1, the Budget Committee holds a hearing on “The Current Account Deficit & the U.S. Foreign Debt.” Witnesses include C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics; William Cline, senior fellow at the Peterson Center; and David Malpass, chief global economist with Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. The hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. EDT in 608 Dirksen.

The House Budget Committee holds a hearing on “The Congressional Budget Office’s Budget and Economic Outlook" on Tuesday, January 30 at 10:00 a.m. EDT in room 210 of the Cannon House Office Building. CBO Director Peter Orszag is scheduled to testify.

The Joint Economic Committee, now under the chairmanship of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., holds a hearing on Wednesday, January 31 on "Ensuring Our Economic Future by Promoting the Middle Class." Scheduled to testify: former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now director and chairman of the Executive Committee at Citigroup Inc.; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, now a professor with the JFK School of Government at Harvard University; Alan Blinder, former vice chair of the Federal Reserve, now a professor at Princeton University; and Richard Vedder, a professor at Ohio University and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. EDT in room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Senate committee hearings can be accessed live over the Internet at www.capitolhearings.org; House Financial Services Committee hearings can be accessed at http://financialservices.house.gov/. Other House committee hearings can be accessed at the committees' Web sites.

Upcoming Reports/Events:

Jan. 29: Housing Vacancies & Homeownership, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Jan. 29: Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index
Jan. 30-31: Federal Open Market Committee
Jan. 30: Metropolitan Area Employment/Unemployment,
Jan. 30: Consumer Confidence, The Conference Board
Jan. 31-Feb. 2: MBA Residential Loan Production Conference, Los Angeles
Jan. 31: MBA Weekly Application Survey
Jan. 31: Employment Cost Index, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Jan. 31: Gross Domestic Product, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Jan. 31: Chicago Purchasing Managers Index
Jan. 31: Construction, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 1: Personal Income, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Feb. 1: ISM Index, Institute for Supply Management
Feb. 2: Joint Economic Committee Monthly Statement
Feb. 2: Employment, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Feb. 2: Manufacturer Shipements, Inventories and Orders, Bureau of the Census 
Feb. 4-7: MBA Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo (CREF), San Diego
Feb. 4-9: CampusMBA School of Mortgage Banking Course I, San Francisco
Feb. 4-9: CampusMBA School of Mortgage Banking Course II, San Francisco
Feb. 5: ISM Services, Institute for Supply Management
Feb. 7: MBA Weekly Application Survey
Feb. 7: Productivity and Costs, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Feb. 7: Consumer Credit, Federal Reserve
Feb. 7-10: National Association of Home Builders Annual Convention, Orlando
Feb. 7-10: National Association of Home Builders annual convention, Orlando
Feb. 8: Wholesale Trade, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 12: Treasury Dept. Monthly Statement
Feb. 12: Trade Balance, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Feb. 14: MBA Weekly Application Survey
Feb. 14: Advance Retail Sales, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 14: Business Inventories, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 15: Empire State Manufacturing Survey
Feb. 15: Imports/Exports, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Feb. 15: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization, Federal Reserve
Feb. 15: Philadelphia Fed Survey
Feb. 15: Housing Market Index, National Association of Home Builders
Feb. 16: New Residential Construction, Bureau of the Census/HUD
Feb. 16: Producer Price Index, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Feb. 16: Retail eCommerce Sales, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 19: Presidents Day holiday
Feb. 20-23: MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference & Expo, San Diego
Feb. 20: Chicago Fed National Activity Index
Feb. 21: MBA Weekly Application Survey
Feb. 21: Consumer Price Index, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Feb. 21: Real Earnings, Federal Reserve
Feb. 21: Composite Indexes, The Conference Board
Feb. 21: Cleveland Fed Median CPI
Feb. 22: Help Wanted Index, The Conference Board
Feb. 22: Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Survey
Feb. 27: Revised Building Permits, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 27: Advance Durable Goods, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 27: State/Local Building Permits, Bureau of the Census
Feb. 27: Richmond Fed Survey
Feb. 27: Consumer Confidence, The Conference Board
Feb. 27: Existing Home Sales, National Association of Realtors
Feb. 28: MBA Weekly Application Survey
Feb. 28: Gross Domestic Product, Bureau of Economic Analysis
Feb. 28: Chicago Purchasing Managers Index
Feb. 28: New Residential Sales, Bureau of the Census/HUD
Feb. 28: N.J. Employment/Unemployment
March 8-9: MBA National Fraud Issues Conference, San Diego
March 18-21: MBA National Nonprime Mortgage Networking Conference, Carlsbad, Calif.
March 20-23: CampusMBA Regulatory Compliance Institute, Houston
March 20-21: Federal Open Market Committee
March 21-22: CampusMBA "The Complete Mortgage Banker," Houston
March 25-28: MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo, Tampa
April 25-26: MBA National Policy Conference, Washington, D.C.
May 6-9: MBA Legal Issues/Regulatory Compliance Conference, New Orleans
May 9: Federal Open Market Committee
May 15-18: MBA Commercial Asset Administration & Technology Conference, San Antonio
May 20-23: MBA National Secondary Market Conference & Expo, New York
May 28: Memorial Day holiday
May 30-31: MBA Government Housing Finance Conference, Washington, D.C.
June 3-6: Presidents Conference, Colorado Springs, Colo.
June 27-28: Federal Open Market Committee
July 4: Independence Day holiday
Aug. 7: Federal Open Market Committee
Sept. 3: Labor Day holiday
Sept. 9-11: MBA Document Custody Conference, San Antonio, Texas
Sept. 18: Federal Open Market Committee
Sept. 23-25: MBA Regulatory Compliance Conference, Washington, D.C.
Oct. 14-17: MBA 94th Annual Convention & Expo, Boston
Oct. 30-31: Federal Open Market Committee
Nov. 12: Veterans Day holiday (observed)
Nov. 22-23: Thanksgiving holiday
Dec. 11: Federal Open Market Committee
Dec. 25: Christmas holiday
January 29-30, 2008: Federal Open Market Committee
Feb. 3-6: MBA Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo (CREF), Orlando, Fla.

Information about MBA Events can be found at the MBA Web site, www.mortgagebankers.org; and at the CampusMBA Web site, www.campusmba.org.
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