Posts Tagged ‘Loans’
Predicting Home Prices is Now Impossible
Now we have a new dip in home prices, which is putting more borrowers in a negative equity position. There is more concern of more borrowers hitting that "stress threshold," as one panelist put it, where they just quit paying on their loans.
Predicting Home Prices is Now Impossible
Now we have a new dip in home prices, which is putting more borrowers in a negative equity position. There is more concern of more borrowers hitting that "stress threshold," as one panelist put it, where they just quit paying on their loans.
JPMorgan Fights Back on Forced Principal Forgiveness
It's not like we didn't already know the banks were opposed to forgiving principal on troubled loans, even though they claim they are doing a little of that now. But today CNBC's Melissa Francis got an earful from JPMorgan Chase's Charlie Scharf, CEO of Retail Financial Services.
Rising Mortgage Rates Block Refis
As the yield on the 10-year Treasury hits a six month high, you can almost hear all the doors slamming over in refi land. While you'd think most borrowers had already refinanced their loans to take advantage of the recent record-low interest rates, many have actually not, and their opportunity is fast falling.
Mortgage Purchase Apps About to Crash? FHA Commissioner Weighs In
Government purchase applications have been driving the market for the past year, accounting for, at times, nearly half of all new loans. That may be about to change.
Mortgage Purchase Apps About to Crash? FHA Commissioner Weighs In
Government purchase applications have been driving the market for the past year, accounting for, at times, nearly half of all new loans. That may be about to change.
Higher conforming loan limits due to expire
Unless Congress intervenes, the maximum loan amount the Federal Housing Administration will back, as well as loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will return to $417,000 in most areas and $625,500 in high-cost areas. The higher loan limits are due to expire Dec. 31, 2010. Over the last two years, the government raised the limits in some high-cost areas to $729,750. If Congress doesn’t extend higher limits, home prices would “drop precipitously” because it would be “impossible to finance homes in most parts of Los Angeles and certain other major cities,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and member of the House Financial Services Committee. But many economists support the end to higher limits. “We need to think how we are going to exit from a Fannie-and-Freddie world, and this is a very small step toward that exit,” said Richard K. Green, director of the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate. “Dialing it back to $625,500 is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.” Source: The Wall Street Journal
Home Price Double Dip Begins
Given the combination of the expiration of the home buyer tax credit and the increasing number of loans moving to final foreclosure, we knew that home prices overall would take a hit, but it would take a while. Well we're here.
Fannie Mae to prohibit ‘appraisal cutting’
Fannie Mae is banning a common practice known as "appraisal cutting," starting next week. When lenders selling loans to the firm challenge a valuation, the underwriter will have to contact the appraiser directly. If the lender is unable to settle the dispute, its only option will be to order a second appraisal. Lenders will be unable to simply cut the value of the appraisal or shop around for the best appraisal. Source: American Banker, Kate Berry and Marc Hochstein
Rich are Defaulting on Loans at Higher Rate? Not So Fast…
Here's my problem with the thesis of this article: A little less than 14 percent of the loans outstanding in the U.S. are "jumbo," meaning over $417,000, according to government statistics. The number of loans that are over $1m are even less than that.
