The following rankings were originally published in the May issue of NREI. The rankings are based on responses to NREI’s Top Lender Survey questionnaire, and reflect total dollars financed or arranged in commercial real estate during the 2005 calendar year. Listings are presented in two parts. The first listing includes firms financing direct loans, credit lines, CMBS lending and other forms of direct investments to the industry. The second listing ranks financial intermediaries, including mortgage brokers and financial firms that arranged or facilitated transactions during 2005.
In instances where companies utilized their own balance sheet to close loans, or a line of credit to warehouse loans prior to securitization or sale in the secondary market, that volume was not considered production on an intermediary basis. For example, conduit lending and agency lending constituted direct lending for the purposes of this survey.

Following are the current and historical Conforming Loan Limits:

I’ve heard from several sources that stated income loans, also known as “liar’s loans” may become a thing of the past as lenders continue to tighten underwriting guidelines.

In the last five plus years, stated income documentation was the most common doc-type selected by borrowers on mortgage applications.

Stated income documentation became an option after self-employed borrowers complained that providing lengthy tax returns was time consuming and cumbersome.

And much like any other loophole, it was soon exploited.

It wasn’t long before stated income deals were the most common option selected by borrowers applying for a mortgage, mainly because it was the easiest option with the fewest pricing adjustments.

The annual percentage rate, or APR, is a measure used to determine the true cost of a loan. Instead of a bank or lender telling that your rate is 6.5% with fees of $8,000, they’ll just say the annual percentage rate is 6.87% with those fees included.

The annual percentage rate was essentially created to prevent lenders from not disclosing fees that went into a loan to make the rate appear better than the competition. In other words, APR includes most of the other fees lenders charge during the loan transaction. These fees are then rolled into the interest rate to come up with the APR. However, it’s still not sufficient enough to choose a mortgage based on APR alone, because lenders do not include all the fees associated with your loan transaction.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) is an agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is charged with ensuring the capital adequacy and financial safety and soundness of two government sponsored enterprises –

the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). The director is James B. Lockhart III.OFHEO also published the house price index.