The spring election, conducted by MBA's 44 adjunct state associations, resulted in four new representatives to the council.

MBA’s State and Local Advisory Council consists of nine members—four from the Western Region and four from the Eastern Region, plus a Chairman. The current Chairman of the Council is Phil Bracken, executive vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and a member of MBA’s Board of Directors.

For the Western Region, the new association manager representative is Al Thorup, executive director of the Indiana Mortgage Bankers Association, and the new volunteer representative is Rosemary Barbour, director of client services at Beadles, Newman & Lawler P.C. in Dallas, Texas.

In the Eastern region, the new association manager representative is Rhonda Marcum, executive director of the Mortgage Bankers Association of the Carolinas, and the new volunteer representative is Ron Agasar, regional vice president for Franklin American Mortgage Co. Agasar is located in Marlton, New Jersey. 

The new representatives will join incumbents on the Council, who will continue service through October 2009. They include Western Region representatives John Norman, executive director of the Utah Mortgage Lenders Association and Julie Piepho, CMB, CML; senior vice president of Cornerstone Mortgage, Houston, Texas.  The Eastern Region continues to be represented by Jean Rosen, CAE; executive director of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Metropolitan Washington and Roberta Wilson, branch manager for New South Federal Savings Bank in Lexington, Ky.
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"The mortgage industry, through its individual efforts and through the efforts of HOPE NOW, is working tirelessly to keep homeownership available to as many Americans who want it. This means preserving homeownership opportunities across the nation by constantly aiding troubled borrowers while also providing proactive and tangible financial literacy resources for future homebuyers," said Jonathan Kempner, president and CEO of MBA.

"From credit information to loan type to how much a homebuyer can afford, understanding the entire process before buying a home is crucial. I encourage homeowners and homebuyers across the nation to utilize MBA's consumer education resource, HomeLoanLearningCenter.com, at www.homeloanlearningcenter.com.
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Atlantic Coast Mortgage Adopts OpenClose Technology
Atlantic Coast Mortgage Group, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., selected web-based mortgage software from OpenClose, West Palm Beach, Fla., for loan processing. OpenClose’s system automates front and back-end operations, including support for underwriting, closing, post-closing, secondary marketing, funding, shipping and reporting. The software also enables Atlantic Coast Mortgage to originate and process loans from any location, including home-based staff.

Freddie Mac, CUNA Alliance Aids Credit Unions
A renewed alliance agreement between the Credit Union National Association and Freddie Mac, McLean, Va., will continue to provide credit unions with technology services, mortgage products and correspondent lending, such as Freddie Mac's borrower outreach initiatives. The alliance provides execution and mortgage product options, learning opportunities and other technology benefits.

Cascade Mortgage Joins First Houston Network
First Houston Mortgage, Houston, a mortgage-banking firm licensed in 20 states, announced that Cascade Mortgage, Vancouver, Wash., a mortgage lending and financial services firm, joined First Houston’s network of affiliated offices.

As an extension of First Houston, Cascade can integrate First Houston’s suite of products, services and technology into its own business practices. Services include a paperless lending platform, in-house underwriting system, electronic signature capability and a paperless file management system. Cascade Mortgage also gains access to First Houston’s offshore operations facility in India for loan processing assistance.
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The report, Public-Private Partnerships in U.S. Higher Education, said that in public-private partnerships, the educational institution retains the title of the real estate over an extended period of time while a private investor builds facilities that serve the institution, the surrounding community or both.

"Colleges and universities have long been strategic real estate investors, and 'banked' real estate holdings can be significant credit strength in some cases," said Roger Goodman, vice president at Moody’s and author of the report. “In higher education, public-private partnerships have been comparatively small transactions and have generally involved student residences or nearby mixed-use real estate developments in urban areas. Recently, we have seen a growing number of structures and strategies for extracting value from a university’s real estate holdings.”

The report said credit impacts of development partnerships can vary widely for educational institutions, depending on the amount of risk and control transferred to the private partner.

"While the variety of structures available to an institution seeking to enter into this type of partnership will likely continue to expand, the credit impact of these partnership arrangements need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis,” Goodman said.

The report differentiated between types of real estate owned by institutions based on location—rural, suburban or urban . It said buildings not adjacent to the core campus or used for educational purposes could sell or market more easily for non-college uses than vacant land in a rural setting or buildings in the middle of campus.

"Because universities rarely change location, but often do eventually expand over time, most higher education boards and management teams are reluctant to give up ultimate ownership of their real estate holdings," said Goodman. "Newer options allow those universities to monetize their real estate assets or create a new revenue stream to support other mission-focused activities without sacrificing complete control or ownership in the long-term."

Goodman also said the strategic fit of a project or piece of real estate with the long-term goals of the institution best predicts university's behavior and willingness in the future to support a project financed under a partnership.

Furthermore, he said the economic interests of the university are far more important in determining credit impact than accounting treatment of a lease or debt issued under the partnership. The lack of a legal requirement for the university to pay debt service or cover operating costs does not necessarily mean that the partnership debt is off-balance sheet and off-credit, Goodman said.
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Jay Leno follows in the footsteps of legendary NBC late-night hosts Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and is the host of the Emmy Award-winning and top-rated “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” As one of the country’s premier comedians, Leno’s personable style and reputation for being one of the hardest working people in show business have earned him millions of fans worldwide.

With uncanny, note-for-note live renditions of Beatles’ songs, the Fab Four will make you think you’re watching the real thing. This loving tribute and incredible stage show will bring you classic hits such as “Can’t Buy Me Love,” "Yesterday” and “A Day in the Life,” and is sure to take you down memory lane.

MBA’s Annual Convention & Expo, which takes place Oct. 19-22 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco also features these events:

• The Chairman’s Luncheon, featuring Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness) as he tells his extraordinary tale from a homeless single father to founder and president of multi-million dollar brokerage Gardner, Rich & Co.;

• The Sports Luncheon, featuring NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, co-founder and manager of Sorenson Capital.

Register today and purchase individual tickets or reserve an entire table at these events for preferred seating.

For more information visit the Ticketed Events section of the Annual Convention web site, http://events.mortgagebankers.org/95th_annual/ticketed_events/.

For more information, visit the Annual Convention web site, http://events.mortgagebankers.org/95th_annual/default.html.
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For reprint information on stories in MBA NewsLink, contact Stefanie Lauff at (800) 394-5157 Ext. 26.
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Industry experts said foreclosures could drop credit scores from 100-300 points, making it nearly impossible to obtain a mortgage from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA anytime soon.

"It's kind of surprising, but it depends on the individual case as to how many points your score will actually drop," said Ron Litt, principal of Ron Litt Consulting, Houston.

Litt said, for example, a borrower with strong credit who was unable to sell an investment property purchased before home values fell, could decide to foreclose on the home rather than rent it out. That borrower could possibly purchase a home in two years, assuming other credit was not damaged during that time.

"There are very high standards for credit these days. As long as a [borrower's] credit is in decent shape, it is good enough to get the loan. The foreclosure is going to have an impact on the score, but as long as the rest of the credit is good enough, the borrower should be okay," Litt said. "Within a year or two, you could probably get a loan for a house depending on your credit. However, you can forget about an FHA loan for about five years."

Litt, however, also said the most damage on the score is not necessarily the foreclosure but the consistency of late payments. After a foreclosure, Litt said a former homeowner could take one to two years to fix up the credit report but, during that time, other losses impacting scores can include liens from second mortgages, unpaid homeowners association dues or unpaid property taxes placed on the credit report.

"The foreclosure itself, although it's a big thing, it's not an isolated action," Litt said. "It carries alot of subsequent consequences with it that can affect your credit."

DiPaolo said that in today's credit environment, a 60-day late borrower on a home "may as well forget" about receiving a Fannie Mae loan.

"The foreclosure of debt in someone's life is the greatest single indicator of risk a bank can ever have and because of the headlines, it's also now working on the banks—especially Fannie Mae—to look much, much more closely at that foreclosure event," DiPaolo said. "A foreclosure event in someone's life will affect their credit score 200-300 points, in effect blasting anybody—no matter how good your score was before that—out of the ability to qualify for a mortgage. Even at excessive rates, you're just going to have to rent."

DiPaolo said San Diego County represented the third or fourth highest region as an overall percentage of foreclosures, but the percentage of foreclosures compared to loans in the pool was under 1 percent.

"Let's always keep in mind that the vast majority of people are still paying their mortgages on time," DiPaolo said.

"If it is at all possible to avoid foreclosure, you want to do that," Litt said. "There are other ways to do [avoid it], and it will have an even lesser impact on the credit score than taking the foreclosure route."
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