Texas snowstorm starts to impact mortgage companies

Texas is a huge market for mortgages and for mortgage companies. The lingering effects of the snowstorm are beginning to have an impact that will be felt far beyond the time power is restored and the ice melts.
eClsoing solution provider Pavaso, which is based in DFW, took to Twitter to explain delays in production: “The Dallas Fort Worth

 metroplex is continuing to experience impacts of severe winter weather that is leading to rolling power blackouts and power outages. Customers may experience a delay in support requests, but support requests will be addressed as quickly as possible.”

Advanced Data Corporation, single-source provider of verifications, added on their LinkedIn: “Advanced Data clients and various partners in Texas, are currently affected by shut downs due to the storm, causing delays in productivity. Nonetheless, with so many companies impacted by what’s happening in The Lone Star State, we wish to take a moment to say our thoughts are with you and your families as you endure this rough patch. Please stay safe, stay warm and be confident that power will be eventually restored. We wish you well!”

And to add insult to injury, some Texans are going to see higher than average energy bills. And in some cases, like with small-business owner Akilah Scott-Amos, the latest bill is going to be much, much higher.

Scott-Amos checked her bill early and her charges were increasing quickly. The nightmare only got worse on Monday, when she realized her bill had increased by another $2,500. In comparison, Scott-Amos paid $33.93 last year for the entire month of February.

“I don’t have that type of money,” she said. “I now owe [power provider] Griddy $2,869.11. This is going to put me in debt, this is going to mess up my credit. Are they going to cut me off? In the middle of this ongoing crisis?”

Why? As first reported by Reuters, the market prices on the power grid spiked more than 10,000 percent on Monday in the aftermath of the deep freeze. Prices skyrocketed to more than $9,000 per megawatt-hour—compared to the pre-storm prices of less than $50 per hour.

For those who are lucky enough to still have power in Texas, it is coming at a hefty price.

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Western Alliance purchase of Amerihome is an AWESOME power play

Western Alliance Bancorporation is buying Aris Mortgage Holding Company, the parent company of AmeriHome Mortgage Company, for an estimated purchase price of $1.0 billion in cash, the company said in a statement.

Here’s why it’s such a great deal.

According to KBRA analysis (access here, signup may be required), the anticipated transaction is a strategically favorable one, “which further balances W.”

AmeriHome remains predominately a correspondent originator and maintains a meaningful servicing book. Therefore, Western Alliance’s expected increased exposure to residential mortgage customers will occur in an indirect fashion.

“This anticipated strategy is very consistent with that pursued by the company in recent years to increase residential mortgage holdings. At YE20, Western Alliance’s $2.4 billion of mortgages held for investment represented 9% of total loans, compared to $1.2 billion and 7%, respectively at YE18,” the analysts state (BTW, KBRA team efforts lead by Ashley Phillips, Senior Director).

“We would also note that WAL’s mortgage warehouse lending operation– of which AmeriHome remains a client and has been for the last four years– has been an area of growing strategic emphasis, having increased materially in recent years to represent 15% of total loans,” they added.

As a low cost, correspondent originator, with a growing consumer direct channel, KBRA considers AmeriHome a well run mortgage company, whose business model and returns since inception have also benefitted from a highly successful and consistent MSR hedging program, and a subservicing arrangement with industry leader, Cenlar FSB.

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🔥 Last Call for SNUG 2021 🔥 

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Sam Garcia sells Mortgage Daily and that’s about all we know

Anyone who’s a regular on the conference circuit knows Sam Garcia, and knows him to be a quality person. So it’s with a tinge of sadness that Rise&Shred reports the Garcia sold Mortgage Daily, an online source of news and data for the mortgage industry. What’s more, no details have been provided about the terms of the sale or the acquirer.

Garcia ran the website for more than two decades and it was the first online-only mortgage trade news publication.

Mortgage Daily began as an email newsletter that Garcia sent to his colleagues in real estate finance. The newsletter included headlines and links to free online news stories by other news outlets about mortgages.

In 2000, Garcia went full-time as a news publisher and subsequently acquired 100 percent interest in the business.

“It has been a ride that I wouldn’t have missed for the world,” Garcia said in a statment.

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