2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00 lifetype-1.2.10_r6971 http://realestateloans.com/rss.php?blogId=594&profile=atom Copyright (c) mortgageticker tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4647 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Filing for Bankruptcy Could Save Your Home ... In the eyes of lenders, you're making an attempt to pay back what is owed and keeping up with your payments," said Raquel Price, a bankruptcy attorney in State College, Pa. "With a foreclosure, you simply just walk away after not paying for a period of time." Read more Read More 'Mockery' Made of Some Creditors in Proposed Mortgage Servicing Settlement ... Investors would benefit from proposed terms that would limit bad-loan fees borne by borrowers or bondholders and that would boost the number of loan modifications that lower homeowners’ balances, reducing “re-defaults,” the New York - based analysts led by Laurie Goodman said today in a report. The “big negative” stems from terms that would slow the pace of property sales after borrowers stop paying, the analysts said. Read more Read More Fear and Loathing of the QRM ... That debate is centered around the concept of the qualified residential mortgage, something that has yet to be defined but has everyone vying for a chance to put their two cents into the definition that ultimately emerges. Right now it’s like the QRM is sitting in the middle of dark room. No one knows exactly what it looks like, so it takes on the qualities of our deepest fears. ... Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:3743 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans ...

mortgageticker General Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans Defect; Plan To Blame Government For Crisis The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday, according to people familiar with the commission's work. Read more Read More Where Home Prices Are Falling Dangerously Not long ago it looked like the housing market was on the mend in most major U.S. metropolitan areas. But now prices are falling fast again in many. Foreclosures and vacant homes lingering on the market are depressing prices, and the home buyer tax credit that expired in July is sorely missed. In September home prices fell in 18 of the 20 metro areas tracked by Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller composite home price index . That was worse than August, when 15 of the top 20 cities were down month-over-month... Read More BofA Says Investors Extend Deadline in Putback Fight ...Owners of some bonds linked to home loans created by Bank of America ’s Countrywide Financial Corp . agreed to extend deadlines set in an Oct. 18 letter, the lender said yesterday in a statement, without identifying the holders. Pacific Investment Management Co ., BlackRock Inc . and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were among investors demanding that the bank repurchase loans packaged into $47 billion of bonds, people familiar with the letter said in October. Read more Read More A Questionable Plan to Aid Underwater Homeowners The U.S. economy can't truly recover until the housing market revives. Yet recent data indicate that prices, already off an average of 30 percent from their peak in 2006, have still not touched bottom. Lending conditions are tight, and mortgage rates are ticking up again. Nearly a quarter of mortgage borrowers are "underwater," owing more than their houses are worth. Read more Read More About National Mortgage Professional Magazine To view all Mortgage News Ticker stories, click here Inquire about advertising opportunities here Purchase your subscription to the print edition of National Mortgage Professional Magazine here tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4249 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Alan Greenspan's housing bubble coffee break New evidence that the Federal Reserve had ample warning trouble was brewing in 2005, but chose to ignore it By Andrew Leonard ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Alan Greenspan's housing bubble coffee break New evidence that the Federal Reserve had ample warning trouble was brewing in 2005, but chose to ignore it By Andrew Leonard   Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, testifies before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on April 7, 2010. On Friday, the Federal Reserve released the transcripts of its 2005 Open Market Committee meetings -- the gatherings in which the Fed's Board of Governors takes the pulse of the economy and then decides upon the appropriate interest rate policy. Calculated Risk looks at the transcript of the June meeting, and engages in a wry cut-and-paste. (Atlanta Fed president Jack Guynn is discussing his negative views on the housing boom:) My supervision and regulation staff thinks this is an accident waiting to happen in our area. And while the local market excesses probably do not represent systemic national risk, the shakeouts could have serious regional consequences. My bank supervision staff points out that housing-related credit risks to our bank lenders are not so much from defaults on permanent mortgage financing that we talked about yesterday, but rather from lending for land acquisition, development, and construction. The ugly picture we have seen before -- and that they think we may very likely see again before long -- goes something like this: the drying up of sales of new units; the painful decision of developers to go ahead and complete the construction of additional units to make them saleable, further depressing the market; and speculators who had hoped to see big capital gains walking away or defaulting on their contracts, giving their properties back to the lender. Perhaps it's because of where I sit, but I am less comforted than some of my colleagues about the housing situation ... CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN. Let's take a break for coffee.   Most economically damaging coffee break of all time? Perhaps, but skimming through the report, I was also taken by a long summary of the subprime mortgage market, delivered by Fed Gov. Mark Olson. tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:5128 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Wells Fargo Trims the Fat ... Wells Fargo & Co . (WFC), the biggest U.S. home lender, is concentrating on controlling expenses including the cost of bad mortgages, Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said. The bank “continued to focus on corporate-wide expense reductions,” according to a presentation by Stumpf today at a London investor conference sponsored by Barclays Plc . Non- interest expenses dropped 5 percent in the first quarter from the final three months of 2010, the presentation said. Read more Read More Too Big to Fail: The Movie Reviews - Overstuffed. Nightmarish. Villain-free. ... The reviews are in for Too Big To Fail, the star-studded, cannily-promoted adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's financial crisis guidebook that debuted on HBO last night. Here's what people are saying about the performances, the real-life historical figures on display, and, perhaps most importantly, whether the jargon-heavy film passed the "Will people know what this means test ?" So far, opinion seems to be mixed. ... Read More MBIA Fighting Over Stripper Loans ... According the filings, the applicaton was for a " stated income loan ," which didn't require the "adult entertainer" to document her earnings, but left the underwriters free to put on their thinking caps and voice any concerns. The filings, which are located on MBIA's Web site, say that then appraised of suspicions over the amount of the applicant's stated income, a Credit Suisse employee said in an email "entertainers typically operate in cash. Its high end club in charlotte. Not the pink pony in backwoods area. Its Upscale. Ask mahar hahaha" ... Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4744 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Quicken Case Not End of Overtime Battle: National Controversy Rages On A courtroom victory by Quicken Loans Inc. defending a policy not to pay overtime to loan officers is yet another twist in a national controversy of loan officer compensation. The Detroit-based mortgage com-pany prevailed after it was sued by 350 former employees who said they should have been paid overtime after being forced to work more than 40 hours per week. ... Read More AIG, Fed in Subprime-Bond Standoff ... Earlier this month, AIG disclosed an offer to pay $15.7 billion, or roughly 53 cents on the dollar, for mortgage securities it once owned that have been on the Fed's balance sheet since late 2008, after AIG was bailed out by the U.S. government. ... ... AIG wants the securities for their high yields. It believes they will help boost the company's financial position ahead of a planned stock offering that will allow the Treasury Department to recoup some of the bailout money it put in during the financial crisis. Read more Read More Borrowers May Get a Mortgage Servicing Bill of Rights ... The draft proposal — still far from final agreement, say participants in the negotiations — calls for billions of dollars in penalties from the banks along with additional billions in principal reductions for distressed and underwater borrowers. Read more Read More New York Fed’s Dahlgren Overhauls Bank Supervision to Beef Up Oversight ... Citigroup , which in the years prior to the crisis was the biggest bank supervised by the New York Fed, embarked on its ultimately money-losing strategy of expanding in subprime- mortgage-backed securities in 2005 on the recommendation of an outside consultant, former trading chief Thomas Maheras told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:5492 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Will Debt-Ceiling Debate be Geithner's Swan ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Will Debt-Ceiling Debate be Geithner's Swan Song? ... Geithner said speculation about his departure was being driven by his decision to commute to New York so his son can finish his final year of high school there. “I live for this work,” he said at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever done. I believe in it. We have a lot of challenges as a country. I’m going to be doing it for the foreseeable future.” ... Read more Read More Reasons Why Potential Buyers Should Get Off the Fence ... Interest Rates: Why start with interest rates? They may be the most important factor to consider at this time. A number of economic forces threaten to push up interest rates in the days, months, and years to come. ... ... Prices: If you think that future interest rates are hard gauge, then you'll be really frustrated by home prices. The housing market is officially in double dip territory, as national prices have fallen below their recession lows. ... Read more Read More Looking Back to 2008 at BofA's $2.5 Bil Purchase of Countrywide ... When Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial for $2.5 billion in stock in 2008, it must have seemed like a good deal. The troubles with Countrywide, then the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, were known at that point -- defaults and foreclosures were piling up, and there were rumors that bankruptcy could be around the corner. But Kenneth Lewis, then Chairman and CEO of Bank of America, maintained an optimistic tone. Read more Read More The Deal Behind BofA's $8.5 Bil Countrywide MBS Settlement Deal ... This deal, struck with the noteholders in 530 trusts that issued securities backed by Countrywide mortgage loans, would not have happened without Gibbs partner Kathy Patrick. She put together a coalition of major institutional investors that BofA’s trustee on the securitizations, Bank of New York Mellon, could not afford to ignore. Patrick sent a red-alert warning to the bank last October, by announcing publicly that Gibbs & Bruns and its bondholder clients were gearing up for litigation. Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:5717 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Don't Blame Freddie and Fannie, Blame Banks and Builders ... Please don't blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, guarantors of most of the housing market's conventional mortgages and reason the housing market continues to function at all, for the housing bust. The bust was caused by the oversupply of housing built during the bubble, and aggravated by many commercial banks and hedge funds cooking up every kind of 'liar' loan they could think of to sell to Wall Street securitizers -- including to themselves. Read more Read More Why Less Foreclosures Is Not Good News ... As many as 1 million forecloses that should have taken place in 2011 will be pushed back to 2012, or perhaps even later, according to the experts at RealtyTrac. “This casts an ominous shadow over the housing market, where recovery is unlikely to happen until … the inventory of distressed properties can be whittled down to a manageable number,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. Some 1.17 million homes or one in 111 had at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of this year. ... Read more Read More Could We See Mortgage Interests Deductions Cut? ... A new bipartisan plan to reduce government borrowing would target some of the most cherished tax breaks enjoyed by millions of families — those promoting health insurance, home ownership, charitable giving and retirement savings — in exchange for lowering overall tax rates for everyone. Many taxpayers would face higher taxes — a total of at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade, and perhaps more. ... Read more Read More American Dream of Homeownership Awoken by Reality of Renting ... During the housing bubble, homeownership rates increased from 66% to 69%, an all-time high. Today, that number is just below 65%, according to Morgan Stanley researchers Oliver Chang, James Egan and Vishwanath Tirupattur. The analysts expect this will decline further to 59.7%, driving multifamily vacancies down and rents up. The researchers derived this estimate by taking the number of delinquent homeowners likely to be foreclosed, and moving them into the rental category. ... Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4483 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Sees Good Times in 2011 ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Sees Good Times in 2011 Jamie Dimon says the story of 2011 will be America blossoming again. Two years after the financial meltdown, the chairman and CEO of one the top U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase , (JPM) says businesses have plenty of capital and are starting to expand again. Dimon should know, sitting atop more than $2 trillion in assets and overseeing 230,000 employees. Analyzing his more than 5,000 branches, and 90 million credit cards, Dimon says there are still some weak spots for the economy, such as foreclosures in the pipeline and new regulation which he says will make banking more expensive for customers. Read more Read More Changes at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Could Transform Mortgage Landscape ... Fixed 30-year mortgage rates in the 5% range? Minimum down payments below 5%? Jumbo-sized home loans for high-cost markets at regular interest rates? Kiss them goodbye — possibly sooner than you might guess. Read more Read More Homeless Ex-Mortgage Broker Susan Schneider Shows Housing Bust Hit Agents Hard ... Schneider, once a mortgage broker with plenty of disposable income, arrived one cold winter morning with her possessions in tow, looking for a hot meal. ... ... She'd worked in the mortgage business in Northern Virginia since 1998. Then, in 2005, searching for a change of scenery, she moved to Texas and took a job as a loan officer at Countrywide Financial , the home-loan behemoth now owned by Bank of America , whose lax lending practices made it the poster child of boom excess. Read more Read More Foreclosure Attorney Stern Selling Hillsboro Beach Estate Properties - and Perhaps a Superyacht In yet another sign that times are tougher for Plantation foreclosure attorney David Stern , he is looking to unload luxury assets worth tens of millions, including two estate properties on Hillsboro Beach that stretch from the Intracoastal to the blue waters of the Atlantic and what is believed to be his Italian-built superyacht. Stern, 50, made a fortune by building Florida's largest foreclosure legal practice, with an army of attorneys and more than 1,000 employees processing paperwork for repossessions throughout the state. Read more Read More Geithner Called Housing Giants Biggest 'Moral Hazard' U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the biggest sources of “ moral hazard ,” leading investors to count on a bailout for risks gone wrong. Geithner, in a November 2009 interview with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, also said he initially opposed a government bailout of insurer American International Group Inc ., and changed his mind when he realized the alternative would have been a “terrible nightmare” on a worldwide scale. Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4532 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Fannie, Freddie Narrow Losses but Seek More Aid ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Fannie, Freddie Narrow Losses but Seek More Aid ... Fannie Mae also reported a $21.7 billion loss for all of 2010, narrowed from a loss of $74.4 billion the year before. Freddie Mac 's loss last year was $19.8 billion, compared with a $25.7 billion loss in 2009. "The good news is that their losses are shrinking," said Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The bad news? "This is just the calm before the storm. ... They're going to be hit with some staggering losses," Sanders said. ... Read More Should Mortgage Servicer Lawsuit Settlements Include Principal Cuts? ... The Big Pro: It Could Stabilize the Market The administration may argue that this program could finally stabilize the housing market. In just the few months since the foreclosure crisis began last fall, tens of thousands of foreclosures have been delayed. That caused foreclosure rates to plummet in the latter part of 2010. The running assumption has been that these foreclosures are just delayed -- not avoided. Read more Read More Banks Bristle at Mortgage-Loan Plan ... Though a unified settlement is uncertain and would have to appease regulators, banks and state attorneys general, some officials are pushing for banks to pay more than $20 billion in civil fines or to fund a comparable amount of loan modifications for distressed borrowers. The proposal "would bring with it enormous costs that would far outweigh any potential benefits," Chris Flanagan, a Bank of America Corp . mortgage strategist, said in a research note Thursday. Read more Read More House Republicans Target Obama's Mortgage Program ... When Congress returns from recess next week, the House Financial Services Committee will vote on legislation that would dismantle the Home Affordable Modification Program , and three other initiatives. "In an era of record-breaking deficits, it's time to pull the plug on these programs that are actually doing more harm than good for struggling homeowners," said Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus , R-Ala. Read more Read More MBA Panel: Mortgage Servicing Industry Should Ramp Up Technology ... Diane Pendley, managing director at Fitch Ratings , said the servicing programs for loans sold to government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac vary greatly from private servicing platforms. That adds to the problems currently facing servicers when trying to complete a modification, she said. ... ... Joe Dombrowski, executive consultant at Fiserv , said the servicing industry was caught somewhat flat-footed in regard to using technology properly to meet the needs formed by the housing crisis. Read more Read More Mortgage-Backed Securities Will 'Reemerge': Lew Ranieri ...Lew Ranieri is known as the "father of securitization" because he helped invent the securitized mortgage in 1977 while working for Salomon Brothers . He's even been credited with inventing the word "securitization." Read more Read More tag:realestateloans.com,2012-05-14:4824 2012-05-14T12:52:21-05:00

Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web ...

mortgageticker Mortgage News Ticker at Realestateloans.com Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web Subprime Bonds Are Back ... Their comeback underscores how investors have regained the courage to take on more risk as the economy recovers, pushing up the prices of a broad swath of riskier assets, from commodities to junk bonds to stocks. ... Read more Read More One Chart That Explains Why The American Housing Bubble Wasn't As Bad As You Think If you think the U.S. housing bubble was particularly bad, make a note of those bubbles that currently exist worldwide and those in the process of deflating, when scored in house price to income. Note that the Irish and American housing markets seem close to being done the deleveraging process, while Spain has some time to go. France and the UK appear to have hardly lost pace during the downturn, according to this chart from Morgan Stanley . Certainly not the only way to measure a housing boom and bust , but one worth taking note of. ... Read More Housing Will Remain a Government Program Recently, the Obama Administration seemed to flash a rare sign of laissez-faire thinking when it issued a report calling for the “winding down” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two taxpayer-guaranteed institutions now responsible for backing at least 90% of the US mortgage market. In its press release, the Administration acknowledged that the private sector should be the “primary source of mortgage credit," and that their goal is to “bring private capital back to the mortgage market." Read more Read More Salvation Army Accuses Bank of Mismanaging Its Assets The southern division of the Salvation Army filed suit against the Bank of New York Mellon on Friday for almost $22 million, contending that the bank had “grossly mismanaged” assets belonging to the charity by investing them in mortgage-backed securities and other risky investments. ... Read more Read More Mortgage Mess: Who Really Owns Your Mortgage? (Video) Do you know who really owns your mortgage? As Scott Pelley reports on "60 Minutes" this week, that question has become a nightmare for many homeowners since the invention of mortgage-backed securities. Yes, those were the exotic investments that sparked the financial collapse in this country. And the're still causing problems. Read more Read More FHA Mortgage Program Makes Homeowners Pay After Loan is Paid Off Could the federal government’sbooming FHA mortgage program be forcing homeowners to pay tens of millions of dollars of extra interest charges when they sell their houses or refinance loans? Critics say yes. The government says the critics aren’t providing the full picture. Read more Read More