Wholesale Conditions Better, But U/W Still Tough
A wholesale lending "renaissance" is on, according to one executive. And improving rates have forced at least one wholesale lender to increase minimum lock periods to 45 days. Commercial programs are being touted by one wholesale lender. Meanwhile, wholesale lender underwriting overlays are a troubling trend for third-party originators.

Mixed Results at Fannie
The good news is that residential defaults were lower for the fourth consecutive month at Fannie Mae. The bad news is that secondary purchases declined and commercial mortgage delinquency deteriorated.

Delinquency, Portfolio & Secondary Volume fall at Freddie
Home loan delinquency has declined four out of the last five months at Freddie Mac, though multifamily delinquency deteriorated. Also lower were secondary marketing activity and the balance of its massive mortgage portfolio.

Strategic Recruiting
A number of executive announcements were recently made by mortgage bankers and loan servicers, and much of the latest activity occurred at commercial mortgage firms.

Commercial Servicing Portfolios Shrink
Four of the top-five servicers of commercial mortgages have seen their servicing portfolios retreat. The biggest servicer of loans secured by commercial real estate shows no signs of giving up its title.

Banks Report Stronger Home-Loan Demand
An increase in demand at banks for home loans was led by small and mid-sized banks. Big banks, meanwhile, were the only ones to ease lending guidelines. Nonprime and commercial mortgage lending has been mostly unchanged.

CMBS Delinquency Deteriorates
Delinquency on loans issued as commercial mortgage-backed securities was worse last month, but the rate of increase eased. Loans secured by hotel and retail properties had the biggest impact on the latest figures.

No. 3 CRE Servicer has New No. 1
The third biggest commercial mortgage servicer has a new chief executive officer. His resume includes founding partner at BlackRock Inc.

Lenders Report Rising Originations
Nearly all originators saw in improvement in business from the first quarter. While most have seen home loan fundings decline, however, from a year ago -- a few pushed activity higher. But aggregate commercial mortgage volume sank from last year.