Mortgage Blog

You might be interested in reading this if you won bank stocks.

Perhaps, banks that have been exiting the residential
finance space will look really stupid if housing and
mortgages recover. Figures released Thursday suggest
that delinquencies are falling but a huge overhang of
foreclosures is on the way.

Corporate earnings are at record levels, employment
is rising, and just maybe, maybe housing is on the mend.
But a huge stumbling block remains: ultra tight
underwriting standards. Heck, even Federal Reserve
chairman Ben Bernanke has noticed.

But despite these green shoots in the market, there
is still a possibility that housing has a very long
way to go before we can declare “revival which means
that Bank of America's rapid shrinkage in residential
finance won't look so dumb after all. But the other
side of this coin is Wells Fargo, which continues to
grow its mortgage footprint and has an origination
market share (according to NMN's Quarterly Data Report)
of nearly 30%.

In other words, despite the housing depression,
Wells has made its bet. The bank believes in mortgages.
B of A does not. In the end, who will be proved right?