Posts from — July 2010
Apartment Rentals Surge in U.S. on Home Foreclosures, Job Gains
Prashant Gopal - Business Week | Tuesday, July 27, 2010
U.S. apartment landlords are seeing a surge in rentals as mounting foreclosures reduce homeownership and an improving job market for young adults encourages them to find their own places to live.
The number of occupied apartments increased by 215,000 in the 64 largest U.S. markets in the first half, according to MPF Research. That’s almost double the units added in all of 2009 and the most since the firm began tracking the data in...
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July 28, 2010 No Comments
Foreclosures Jump Among Prime US Borrowers
Suzanne Kapner - Financial Times | Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Credit-worthy borrowers with straightforward mortgages are entering foreclosure at a record pace, according to a report released on Tuesday by Lender Processing Services, which tracks and analyses mortgages.
Foreclosure rates among “agency prime” loans, which conform to guidelines set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage finance companies, have jumped 425 per cent since January 2008, with a partic...
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July 28, 2010 No Comments
Credit Scores Slip Across the U.S.
Eileen A.J. Connelly - Detroit News | Monday, July 26, 2010
The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows.
Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers -- nearly 43.4 million people -- now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It's unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.
Because consumers relied so heavily on debt to fuel t...
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July 28, 2010 1 Comment
Obama Signs Overhaul of Financial System
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed a sweeping expansion of federal financial regulation on Wednesday, signaling perhaps the Democrats’ last major legislative victory before the midterm elections in November, which could recast the Congressional landscape.
Within minutes of the bill signing, several Wall Street groups were leveling criticism at the new regulations, reflecting Mr. Obama’s increasingly fractious relations with corporate America.
The Business Roundtable complained in a state...
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July 28, 2010 No Comments
FDIC May Sell $500M Mortgage-Backed Bonds
emii.com | Friday, July 23, 2010
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is planning to sell securities backed by nearly $500 million of home mortgages purchased from failed banks, Bloomberg reports. The FDIC, which has closed more than 250 banks since 2008, will back nearly 85% of bonds created for the offering.
RBS Securities is the underwriter on the offering. The FDIC held nearly $32 billion of assets from failed banks excluding nearly $7.9 billion of interests in limited liab...
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July 28, 2010 1 Comment
Trade Group Wants U.S. Involved in Fannie, Freddie
Nick Timiraos - The Wall Street Journal | Thursday, July 22, 2010
An influential Wall Street trade group became the latest organization to call on the federal government to continue playing a major role in the mortgage market as Washington decides what to do with home-loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Wall Street's main lobbying group, said in a proposal submitted to the Obama administration on Wednesday that the government...
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July 28, 2010 No Comments
Regulator Might Force Mortgage-Bond Buyback
Columbus Dispatch | Thursday, July 22, 2010
The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might identify as much as $30billion of debt included in mortgage bonds that the companies can force sellers to repurchase, according to Joshua Rosner, an analyst who in 2007 predicted the collapse in the market for the securities.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency said this month that it issued 64 subpoenas seeking loan files and other documents related to non-agency mortgage securities bought by the...
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July 28, 2010 2 Comments
New Counseling Procedures Released for Reverse Mortgages
Senior Housing News | Sunday, July 25, 2010
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), after nearly 2 years of studying and revisions, recently published new procedures governing the process for seniors who are counseled for federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). The new procedures provides more detailed information which must be provided ahead of the counseling session, what must be covered, who must attend and covers topics that the counselor can ...
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July 28, 2010 2 Comments
Appraisal Section of New Dodd Frank Bill
via the American Bankers Association
14.7. Appraisal Activities. Title XIV also establishes new appraisal requirements for certain mortgage loans deemed to be higher-risk by the Act.
14.7.1. Property Appraisal Requirements and Independence Standards.
14.7.1.1. Property Appraisal Requirements. Creditors providing higher-risk mortgages must obtain an appraisal before they extend mortgage credit. [§1471] The Act specifies appraisal requirements, includin...
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July 21, 2010 18 Comments
Bank Offers Struggling Borrowers More Aid
Jenifer B. McKim - Boston Globe | Monday, July 19, 2010
Struggling New England homeowners looking for lower mortgage payments from Bank of America Corp. will be able to meet face-to-face with counselors as part of what the lender says is an effort to improve services.
Today, the nation’s largest servicer of home loans will open an office in Dedham dedicated to helping homeowners seeking loan modifications as a way to stave off foreclosure.
Glenda Gabriel, Bank of America’s neighbor...
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July 21, 2010 1 Comment
Double-Dip Risk Tempers CRE Price Increases, Moody's Says
Michael Murray - MBA Newslink | Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Commercial property prices increased for the second consecutive month despite few transactions and forecasts for lower economic growth.
Commercial real estate prices in the United States increased 3.6 percent in May after a 1.7 percent rise in April, said Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices.
Despite positive numbers, Nick Levidy, managing director at Moody's, said the ratings agency expects commercial real estate prices t...
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July 21, 2010 8 Comments
Need a Mortgage? Don't Get Pregnant
Tara Siegel Bernard - New York Times | Monday, July 19, 2010
Expectant parents shopping for a home are not the only ones concerned about the date of the baby’s arrival.
Mortgage lenders are taking a harder look at prospective borrowers whose income has temporarily fallen while they are on leave, including new parents at home taking care of a baby. Even if a parent plans on returning to work within weeks, some lenders are balking at approving the loans.
“If you are not back at work, ...
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July 21, 2010 No Comments
Record Low Rates Spur Surge in Applications, MBA Survey Says
Melissa Key - MBA NewsLink | Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The lowest 30-year fixed rates in the history of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Application Survey spurred across-the-board increases in mortgage applications, MBA reported for the week ending July 16.
"As rates on 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages declined to the lowest levels recorded in the survey, refinance activity increased last week,” said MBA Vice President of Research and Economics Michael Fratantoni. “The...
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July 21, 2010 No Comments
U.S. Home Construction Declined by 5 Percent in June
Christine Hauser - New York Times | Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Construction starts on residential buildings declined in June to the lowest level since October, the government reported on Tuesday, as the sector struggles with a tepid recovery and the end of a government tax credit.
The Commerce Department reported that housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000, about 5 percent below the revised May estimate of 578,000. The June rate was at its lowest level...
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July 21, 2010 No Comments
U.S. Mortgage Brokers Get Criminal Check, Tests Under New Rules
John Gittlesohn - Bloomberg | Wednesday, July 21, 2010
California mortgage brokers face closer scrutiny as the state adopts a federal law aimed at curbing the fraud and abuse that helped decimate the housing market.
Brokers in the nation’s most populous state will be required by July 31 to have passed criminal-background and credit checks, as well as licensing exams. California, along with about a third of U.S. states, previously didn’t require mortgage sellers to have individual licenses....
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July 21, 2010 8 Comments
Residential Mortgage Profitability Plunges 40% in 1Q
National Mortgage News Online | Tuesday, July 2o, 2010
Even though mortgage bankers are still enjoying the steepest yield curve in years, lenders saw their average profit per loan fall to $606 in the first quarter, a 40% drop from the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Compared to the fourth quarter, the average profit per loan originated fell by 32%.
MBA blamed the fall-off on both declining origination volume and higher produc...
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July 21, 2010 No Comments
Why Mortgage Buybacks Haven't Peaked
American Banker - Kate Berry | Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Mortgage buyers are finding new reasons to make the originators buy back home loans, ensuring that repurchases will remain a burden for lenders for the next few years.
Two of the most common justifications today are the discovery that the borrower has debts that were not disclosed to the buyer and problems with appraisals. Buyers are also putting tougher language into their contracts for loans being sold today.
"Repurchase request...
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July 21, 2010 2 Comments
Red Butte Oil Spill Forces Family Out of Home
Marcos Ortiz - ABC 4 | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A family displaced by the Red Butte oil spill is having a hard time getting back home, and they claim Chevron is not making it easy for them to return.
The smell of fuel coming from Liberty Park forced the Maufus' out of their home last month.
Their son, who battles asthma, got sick when the fumes of the Chevron oil spill drifted into their home.
“He was clutching his stomach, gritting his teeth, it was t...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Oil Spill Update: Some Homebuilders Get Hit Hard
Candy Evans - Housing Watch | Monday, July 12, 2010
Could the Gulf oil spill put a damper on homebuilder stocks? We simply don't know yet. That's basically what an analyst's report out of Citigroup says about the effect of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill on publicly traded builders, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Those builders could potentially see shares decline if the spill taints the beachfront communities where they build. And of all the U.S. public homebuilders, which might...
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July 14, 2010 1 Comment
With More Support in Senate, New Reverse Mortgage Oversight Seems Inevitable
Reverse Mortgage Daily | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe of Maine both said they would support the Wall Street reform bill, which should give Majority Leader Harry Reid enough votes to clear the 60-vote threshold to bring the financial overhaul bill to the floor this week.
The bill already passed the House of Representatives several weeks ago and Senate passage would send the bill to the White Hous...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Fed Sees Slower Growth
John Hilsenrath - The Wall Street Journal | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Federal Reserve officials, who are likely to reveal Wednesday a cut in their assessment of the growth outlook, are divided on how aggressively the central bank should act if the economy slows further.
Fed officials still expect the U.S. economy to keep growing. But an updated forecast to be released Wednesday afternoon with the minutes of the Fed's late-June policy meeting is likely to show that officials have trimmed t...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Total Mortgage Services Launches Wholesale Lending Platform
Mortgage Orb | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Total Mortgage Services LLC has launched its wholesale residential mortgage lending platform, TMS Funding, in 17 states across the United States.
TMS Funding will operate through a centralized model from the company's headquarters in Milford, Conn. The company expects to expand its platform to at least 35 states by the end of the year.
"There is a significant opportunity and need in the wholesale channel today for quality lenders," says John Wals...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Survey Shows Credit Flows More Freely
Sudeep Reddy - The Wall Street Journal | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
A new quarterly survey of lending by the Federal Reserve found that hedge funds and private-equity funds are getting better terms from lenders and that big banks have loosened lending standards generally in recent months.
The survey, called the Senior Credit Officer Opinion Survey, focuses on wholesale credit markets, which the Fed said functioned better over the past quarter. The Fed modeled the new report on its Senior L...
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July 14, 2010 1 Comment
Investors Wait on Sidelines For Better Loan Data
Michael Murray - MBA Newslink | Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Analysts in a recent conference call said as long as investors lack confidence in loan quality, they’ll stay out of the market.
"It’s all about data centricity," said Darius Bozorgi, president of Veros, Santa Ana, Calif. "You see a massive effort to break through these deals and get down to the loan level and be able to examine loan data point by point--a fully electronic basis across the entire loan file as early as possible i...
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July 14, 2010 2 Comments
Los Angeles Cracks Down on Banks and Lenders Who Let Foreclosure Property Fall Into Disrepair
Property Wire | Monday, July 12, 2010
Los Angeles is getting tough on the owners of foreclosed properties who leave them empty and let them fall into disrepair by increasing fines. In particular officials are cracking down on financial institutions such as banks and mortgage companies that seize properties and leave them to fall into a state of disrepair.
It is the city’s largest attempt to date to deal with a neglected 27,000 foreclosed properties that become an eyesore and also bring...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Brian Coester Commissioned by AllRegs to Create Educational Materials for Lenders
Coester Appraisal Group’s CEO to relay valuation expertise through instruction manuals, video tutorials and classroom training programs for lenders
—Training materials will help lenders better respond to buyback requests—
July 14, 2010—Gaithersburg, MD—Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide appraisal management company (AMC), announces that CEO and appraisal expert Brian Coester has been commissioned by AllRegs, a leading information provider for the mortgage lending industry, ...
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July 14, 2010 No Comments
Refis Drive Application Volume in MBA Weekly Surve
Carolyn Kemp - MBA Newslink | Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Mortgage applications, driven by refinance activity and flat interest rates, rose by 6.7 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 2.
The Market Composite Index increased by 6.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased by 6.5 percent compared to the previous week. The f...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Strained State of Real Estate Hits Home
Stan Bullard - Crain's Cleveland Business | Monday, July 12, 2010
Buying distressed real estate mortgages as investments, a practice long familiar in the commercial real estate market, is starting to crop up in the foreclosure-riddled residential sector.
That's what is happening to a Painesville family's 2004-vintage, four-bedroom Colonial. The couple with three kids recently was surprised to learn from Crain's that their 30-year, $248,676 loan was up for bid — with bidding starting at ...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Biggest Defaulters on Mortgages Are the Rich
David Streitfeld - The New York Times | Thursday, July 8,2010
LOS ALTOS, Calif. — No need for tears, but the well-off are losing their master suites and saying goodbye to their wine cellars.
The housing bust that began among the working class in remote subdivisions and quickly progressed to the suburban middle class is striking the upper class in privileged enclaves like this one in Silicon Valley.
Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the ric...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Refinancings Surge on Low Mortgage Rates
Associated Press- The Wall Street Journal | Thursday, July 8, 2010
WASHINGTON—Applications for home loans rose last week as consumers raced to refinance at the lowest rates in decades.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday that overall applications increased nearly 7% from a week earlier. While they have been increasing in recent weeks, they remain below early 2009 levels.
Applications to refinance home loans were up 9% to the highest level since May 2009. But new mortgages ...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Debate Begins as Taxpayers’ Costs Mount
Lorraine Woellert and Rich Miller - Bloomberg | Thursday, July 8, 2010
As the White House pushed for a Wall Street overhaul this year, Republicans hammered Democrats for ignoring two of the biggest problems in American finance: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The government-backed mortgage giants have cost taxpayers $145 billion and counting. Now, with work on the 2,300-page financial-regulation bill all but complete, the Obama administration will soon turn to revamping the pair of institutions t...
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July 12, 2010 1 Comment
Online Lending Application Volume to Triple by 2013
Appraiser News Online Headlines | Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Although few banks have adopted online lending systems, online application volume is expected to triple by 2013 with volume growing from just 4 percent in 2010 to 13 percent of total volume, according to a Mortgagebot survey, American Banker reported June 30.
The survey found that lenders still expect loan officers to be the dominant channel, accepting 57 percent of all mortgage applications by 2013, down from 67 percent in 2010.
...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Discounts on Foreclosures Averaged 27 Percent
Appraiser News Online Headlines | Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Homes in the foreclosure process sold at a 27 percent discount on average compared to non-distressed properties in the first quarter, CNNMoney.com reported June 30. During the first quarter, REO home sales averaged a 34 percent discount while pre-foreclosure sales averaged a 15 percent discount.
During 2009, more than 1.2 million home sales involved foreclosures, up 25 percent from a year ago and 2,500 percent from 2005. "That n...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Mortgage Rates Sink to Lowest Level in 50 Years
Appraiser News Online Headlines | Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Rates for 30-year fixed loans sank from 4.69 percent to 4.58 percent — the lowest since the 1950s — in Freddie Mac’s July 1 Primary Mortgage Market Survey, The Associated Press reported July 1. Although mortgage application volume rose nearly 9 percent the week ending June 25, the Mortgage Bankers Association said that activity remains roughly half the level reported in early 2009.
Of the estimated 15 million homeowners who ar...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Closing Date for Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended
Appraiser News Online Headlines | Wednesday, July 7, 2010
President Obama signed into law July 2 an extension to the homebuyer tax credit program, ensuring that homebuyers who entered into a binding contract before April 30 would be given until Sept. 30 to close the sale of their home, Reuters reported.
The homebuyer tax credit program was slated to expire at the end of June. The program gives first-time homebuyers a tax credit of up to $8,000 and provides a $6,500 credit for others pu...
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July 12, 2010 No Comments
Fannie Mae Bans Appraisal Cutting
Kenneth R. Harney - The Nation’s Housing | Sunday, July 11, 2010
Picture this: You’ve signed a contract to sell your house. Your buyers say they’ve nailed down the right mortgage. All is well. But then the appraisal comes in low - $25,000 to $50,000 under what was agreed in the contract.
The lender insists on cutting the mortgage amount to reflect the lower appraised value. You refuse to negotiate anywhere near the price indicated by the appraisal, and suddenly - poof! The whole de...
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July 12, 2010 6 Comments
Happy 4th of July
...
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July 1, 2010 No Comments
Home Prices in U.S. Probably Rose, Consumer Confidence Declined
une 29 (Bloomberg) -- Home prices rose as sales got a boost from a tax credit, while consumer confidence cooled from a two-year high, signaling a pickup in employment is needed to sustain the recovery, economists said before reports today. The end of a government homebuyer incentive worth as much as $8,000, mounting foreclosures and unemployment near a 26-year high threaten to set real estate prices back following the stabilization that began earlier this year. Eroding home equity may limit hou...
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July 1, 2010 No Comments
Mortgage and Refinance Apps Up, Purchase Apps Down: MBA Survey
Mortgage application activity increased for the first time in more than a month while refinance activity recorded its highest level since May 2009 for the week ending June 11, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly Mortgage Application Survey. Meanwhile, purchase application activity increased for the first time in six weeks. The survey showed that the Market Composite Index, which measures mortgage loan application activity, jumped 17.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis...
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July 1, 2010 2 Comments
BP Oil Spill May Drive Down Property Values 10 Percent
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may drive down local property values by 10 percent for at least three years, according to Co-Star Group, leading to a total loss of $4.3 billion. Bloomberg News reported June 11 that the estimate includes a 600-mile stretch from Louisiana to Florida. In the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, oil continues to leak from a BP well following an April 20 oil rig explosion killed 11 workers. Oil washing ashore is expected to further harm property valu...
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July 1, 2010 No Comments
