More defaults

30. January 2008 by admin.

According to the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, 67,967 homeowners who defaulted at least 60 days on their loans outnumbered the 40,687 homeowners who caught up on overdue payments. This is the 26th straight month that this is the case, a trend that has not been seen since the Great Depression. As a result, the stocks at the three biggest mortgage insurers have devalued between 85 to 95% since last year. Insurers are issuing stricter standards for current mortgages. Triad Guaranty Inc. will be the first mortgage insurer stop selling new policies.

In odd news: A 42-year-old single mother, under the pseudonym of Trabosh, placed an ad on ebay for her home and her hand in marriage, with an asking price of $350,000 for the former and a shipping fee of $500,000 for the latter. eBay has since pulled the ad, because it does not allow sales related to the human body. But the “Princess Lost in America” plans to rewrite the ad to fit the company’s ad requirements.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Mortgage News Of the Day: By The Numbers

26. January 2008 by admin.

The Dow closed at 11,453.42, its lowest finish since Sept. 11, 2006. Analysts blamed the 358.41 point drop on predictions of even higher oil cost (possibly $150 a barrel) and troubles in financial, high-tech and automotive industries. Also, home sales rose only 2 percent in May, below analysts’ forecast of 2.2 percent.

Permitted to buy up to $100 billion, Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae have increased their portfolio; Freddie’s holdings increased $32.8 billion to $770.4 billion in May while Frannie Mae’s holdings increased $8.5 billion to $735.9 billion. This is raising investor concern, since Freddie and Frannie have not raised the capital for such growth and Congress is considering a $300 billion bill.

Commercial-mortgage bond sales dipped to $12.2 billion in the first half of 2008, in stark contrast to the $137 billion in the same period in 2007. From record high of last year’s $237 billion sales, total sales this year are predicted to reach a 12-year low: both JPMorgan and Moody forecast sales to be at $20 billion, RBS predicts $15 billion, and Citigroup predicts a range of $25 billion to $40 billion.

Freddie Mac’s weekly survey showed ARM rates rise: the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.45%, an increase from last week’s 6.42% average, 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.04%, an increase from last week’s 6.02% average, 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.99%, up from last week’s 5.89%, and 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.27%, up from last week’s 5.19%.

In happier news:
The Canadians are coming! The Canadians are coming! Western Canadians, especially from Saskatoon and Regina, are rushing to buy bargain vacation homes in Arizona.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

On the rise: Wachovia and Region's shares, mortgage rates, writedowns

25. January 2008 by admin.

Wachovia Bank reported losses of $8.9 billion Tuesday and future layoffs of more than 6,000 workers while Regions Financial Corp reported a 55 percent drop in earnings in the second quarter and layoffs of 600 positions in June. Despite reporting massive drops in second-quarter earnings Tuesday, Wachovia Bank and Regions Financial Corp. stocks climbed on Wednesday since many investors believe that the it can’t get much worse and that Washington will not let such large banks fail.

Mortgage rates rose this week with 30-year mortgages climbed from 6.26% last week to 6.63% this week, the highest level since the week of August 1 of last year. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.18 percent, up from 5.78 percent last week. Economists believe that this is reflective of concerns in financial markets about the mortgage losses at corporate giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Due to falling U.S. home prices, write-downs by financial firms will rise to $1 trillion, an astounding figure that will probably curb bank lending and increase sales of assets if not matched by capital raising. According to Gross of Pacific Investment Management Co., a total of $5 trillion of mortgage loans, or almost half of the nation’s home loans, belong to “risky asset categories” such as subprime and Alt-A, with 25 million U.S. homes being at risk of negative equity. This situation could lead to more foreclosures and a further drop in prices.

In odder news:
“Extreme Makeover” homeowners default on a $450,000 loan they took out on their gifted house.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Mortgage News of the Day

25. January 2008 by admin.

Countrywide Financial Corp, a mortgage lender known for its lax lending standards, is being sued by California and Illinois for allegedly using deceptive practices to lure new borrowers. However, Bank of America still plans to continue its $3 billion takeover bid of the lawsuit-beleaguered Countrywide.

Darn if they do; darn if they don’t: the Fed leaves interest rates at 2%. Many economists fear that this will not curb inflation, which is usually dealt with by raising rates. However, if the Fed raises rates, this could hurt the weak economy, which typically needs low interest rates to increase consumer spending.

Nationwide mortage applications rate is down despite months of Fed cuts. Fannie and Freddie did less shopping in May than April.

The Senate and House hopes to pass a new bill that will create a $300 billion-mortgage rescue fund, but only time will tell if this will help the banks more or homeowners. There are calls for more regulation on Washington politicians’ mortgages after it was discovered that Senators Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, received preferential treatment on their mortgages from Countrywide’s CEO, Angelo Mozilo.

In other odd news:
Scott McCusky will go to jail after ripping toilets, a Jacuzzi and other items from his million-dollar home, claiming that he didn’t know he couldn’t take them, despite being a mortgage broker.

Hancock not only saves people from bad guys but also from foreclosures.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

FBI probes, House provides relief, median house price and sales fall, more umemployment

24. January 2008 by admin.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun investigations for fraud and other crimes by Countrywide Financial Corp., New century Financial copr. and IndyMac Federal Bank and their executives that may have contributed to the mortgage crisis. Some believe that this could be the the biggest financial fraud case since the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. The FBI has also started investigations on 21 cases against corporate and other large entities, which include securities firms, hedge fund operators, credit ratig agencies and mortgage brokers and lenders, related to the subprime market collapse.

American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act was passed today in the House, which will allow families to refinance into more affordable lower-cost government-insured mortgages, provide tax breaks to encourage home buying, and providing the Treasury with emergency and temporary financing authority for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Both existing-home sales and median price of homes continued to fall in June. Home resales slid to a 4.86 million annual rate, a 2.6% decrease from May’s unrevised 4.99 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The median home price was $215,100 in June, down 6.1% from $229,000 in June 2007. The median price in May this year was $207,900. The beleaguered US economy also met news of the rise in number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week, matching a three-year high.

In sadder news:
Carlene Balderrama, 53-year-old Tuanton, MA resident, committed suicide ninety minutes before her foreclosed home was to be sold at auction. Balderamma faxed a letter to her mortgage company in which she wrote, “By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead.”

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

"Private gains combined with public losses," Gobernator to the rescue, McCain cautious about Fannie and Freddie&#039;s future

22. January 2008 by admin.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made a combined $30 million in salary plus perks last year, despite the mortgage lenders’ financial problems. Fannie and Freddie, which hold or guarantee nearly half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market, have seen their stock prices tumble from over $60 a share in 2007 to under $10. Such high salaries have angered some who believe that executives should be punished for their poor management. Instead they receive high salaries and government bailouts when trouble arise.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California announced the launch of the Community Stabilization Home Loan Program, a special program designed to help first-time homebuyers purchase homes in communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Under the program, first-time homebuyers will be eligible for below-market interest rate loans to purchase foreclosed homes in ZIP codes with some of the state’s highest foreclosure rates. $200 million have been allocated to the program.

When asked about his plans for Fannie and Freddie, McCain was cautious and only said, “We will not allow them to fail.” Despite his past vocal criticism of government-backed companies and “no bailout, tough love philosophy,” McCain is expected to support governmental bailout along with regulation and reform.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

FDIC's helps defaulting IndyMac borrowers, mortgage rates drop, housing sector weakens

21. January 2008 by admin.

The FDIC revealed a new program to help 25,000 borrowers with their troubled mortgages from failed IndyMac. Interest rates would be decreased to 3% for five years, extending life of the loan and charging interest on only part of the loan balance. However, critics of the program believe that it will encourage IndyMac borrowers to default on their loans, since the program is only for borrowers who are behind in their mortgage payments.

U.S. 30-year mortgage rates dipped to an average of 6.47% from 6.52% last week and 6.52 a year ago. 15-year mortgages dropped to an average of 6.0% from 6.07% last week and 6.18% . One-year adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs, rose in the week to an average of 5.29% from 5.18% last week. “5/1″ ARM, set at a fixed rate for five years and adjustable each following year, averaged 5.99% compared with 6.02% a week earlier and 6.34 percent a year ago.

Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, Frank Nothaft, said that despite the affordable mortgage rates, there are still “signs of weakening in the housing sector.” Housing starts fell 11% in July to an annual pace of 965,000, the lowest since March 1991. Despite declining home prices, fewer people are purchasing homes as the volume of mortgage applications fell 61% from this year’s peak in February to the lowest level in nearly eight years. Construction of new new homes and apartments fell to the lowest lvel in more than 17 years. Fewer people are refinancing existing mortgages as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Homeowners&#039; problems

20. January 2008 by admin.

Non-whites’ loss of wealth from foreclosures and falling home values is estimated to be $164 billion to $213 billion, with blacks losing $71 billion to $92 billion and Latinos losing $75 billion and $98 billion. The police force in Antioch, a suburb near San Francisco, is accused of harassing black renters receiving federal vouchers by pressuring landlords and housing authority officials to evict them and illegally searching their homes without search warrants. Although Maine ranks low in states with high rates of foreclosures, one of its county, Waldo County, is experiencing an alarming increase in foreclosure rates this year, about six times that of previous years. Some blame the financial institutions for alleged deceptive lending. The Des Moines community in Iowa unite to inform homeowners facing foreclosures of free confidential counseling. Research shows that 50 percent of people who are unable to pay their mortgage never contact their lender or seek assistance from a trained counselor. Major data sources’ reports differ in their rankings of states with high foreclosure rates. Although California, Nevada and Florida consistently ranks high in such reports.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Mortgage applications up, mortgage insurance harder to get, differing economic outlooks

16. January 2008 by admin.

US mortgage applications rose for the third consecutive week. Lenders are making it harder on borrowers to avoid buying mortgage insurance. However, mortgage insurers are toughening standards to make it harder on borrowers to do so.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s shares fell 17% on Tuesday despite Fed’s reassurances. However, shares of both rose today due to a bank rally and SEC’s warnings against the spreading of false rumors and short-sales of both shares will be subject to a pre-borrow requirement. Bush’s economic outlook is that of an “optimist,” but Bernanke’s view is more pessimistic, although he stopped short of declaring a recession. Nouriel Roubini of New York University’s School of Business believes that we are in a midst of a recession due to a “systemic financial crisis, [and] there is no end to it.”

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Feds getting strict, IndyMac causes more investor worries, Asian markets&#039; woes

14. January 2008 by admin.

Feds imposes new rules to curb deceptive lending and borrowing practices. Among the new rules, lenders must receive proof of a borrower’s income before issuing a loan and make sure risky borrowers set aside money to pay for taxes and insurance. Lenders will also be restricted from penalizing prepayments, making a loan without considering a borrower’s ability to repay a home loan from sources other than the home’s value, and advertising “fixed” rates or payments without making clear that these “teasers” rates last for only a limited period of time. However, some believe that more regulation is needed.

After IndyMac’s failure prompted a federal seizure and a massive customer withdrawal, investors expressed their concerns on possible failures of other regional banks. Shares of banks were down, particularly those of Washington Mutual and National City, which plummeted about 30%.

Despite the Feds and Treasury’s reassurances that they would step in to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Asian markets are still worried. Asian central banks and financial institutions are major holders of US debt and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. China and Japan owns $376 billion and $229 billion, respectively, of the $1.3 trillion foreign-own debt issued by the US government agencies.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Blogroll

More defaults

Mortgage News Of the Day: By The Numbers

On the rise: Wachovia and Region&#039;s shares, mortgage rates, writedowns

Mortgage News of the Day

FBI probes, House provides relief, median house price and sales fall, more umemployment

&quot;Private gains combined with public losses,&quot; Gobernator to the rescue, McCain cautious about Fannie and Freddie&amp;#039;s future

FDIC&#039;s helps defaulting IndyMac borrowers, mortgage rates drop, housing sector weakens

Homeowners&amp;#039; problems

Mortgage applications up, mortgage insurance harder to get, differing economic outlooks

Feds getting strict, IndyMac causes more investor worries, Asian markets&amp;#039; woes

On the rise: Wachovia and Region's shares, mortgage rates, writedowns

"Private gains combined with public losses," Gobernator to the rescue, McCain cautious about Fannie and Freddie's future

FDIC's helps defaulting IndyMac borrowers, mortgage rates drop, housing sector weakens

Homeowners' problems

Feds getting strict, IndyMac causes more investor worries, Asian markets' woes