Who are the new homebuyers?
Homebuying conditions look great on paper, but a bunch of factors is preventing traditional first-time buyers or those looking to trade up from getting into the game. Consequently, the new buyers are more often investors with cash or cautious buyers of spec homes.
We're currently enjoying "the best housing affordability conditions in a generation," according to
3 years of total chaos
This month marks the third anniversary of the end of America's financial system as we know it. No one is celebrating. Everyone is outraged. And the aggrieved are lined up seeking unprecedented billions of dollars in compensation.
The foreclosure mess that resulted from reckless subprime lending and the subsequent packaging of those patently unsound mortgage loans
Posted in Mortgages
Tagged Foreclosure, foreclosures, Mortgages, subprime
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Lower rates, fewer loans
Lower interest rates were not enough to spur home sales and refinances last year, shows a study by the Federal Reserve.
Even though mortgage rates in 2010 were significantly lower than in 2009, lenders originated about one million fewer mortgages last year than they did in 2009, according a report released Thursday. Mortgage loan originations declined
How low can rates go?
Thinking about getting a mortgage? You had better get started quickly.
Mortgage rates embarked on a downward spiral after the Fed announcement of Operation Twist. They will attract refinancers like moths to a flame, mortgage experts say.
"Homeowners have about a week before the next rush of refis begin," says Dan Green, a loan officer at Waterstone
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Tagged mortgage, Mortgages, operation twist, Refinance
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Existing home sales improve
Low mortgage rates and home prices did their job of luring homebuyers, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which showed a rise of 7.7 percent in existing home sales in August. That's the biggest rise since March and 18.6 percent more than August 2010 sales figures.
The increase was a surprise: Economists in
Higher mortgage fees proposed
In the ongoing effort to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, the regulator that oversees the two agencies, proposed charging higher mortgage fees and sharing some of the lending risk with the private sector.
At a mortgage conference Monday in Raleigh, N.C., FHFA acting director
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Tagged Fannie Mae, fees, Freddie Mac, mortgage, Mortgages
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Fewer homes for sale
A decline in the number of homes for sale would seem to be a positive sign for the troubled housing market, but the traditional rules don't apply these days.
Although housing inventory dropped in August to the lowest point so far this year -- and down 19 percent from a year ago according to Realtor.com -- real estate
A slap for Fannie and Freddie
A three-year investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is close to being settled, according to an article in the New York Times, without either of the two mortgage companies admitting fraud or paying a fine.
But the settlement, possibly later this year, will be significant
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Tagged Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, mortgage, Mortgages
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Robosigning: the con goes on
Remember that kerfuffle last fall over "robosigners," those over-caffeinated paper-pushers who forged and rubber-stamped their way through thousands of foreclosure documents a day in order to ram them through our overwhelmed court system?
Turns out they're still at it.
Stop me if you've heard this one: "Several dozen documents reviewed by American Banker show that as recently
A bank against foreclosures
Banks can work with borrowers, help them avoid foreclosure and remain profitable.
That's a lesson large lenders should learn from Webster Financial Corp., a regional bank based in Waterbury, Conn. The bank, which services $8 billion in mortgages and home-equity loans, has been able to prevent foreclosures, for the most part, by helping borrowers and providing
Posted in Mortgages
Tagged Foreclosure, foreclosures, loan modification, Mortgages
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