Treasury Department May Broker A Deal For Subprime Borrowers
Friday, November 30th, 2007MSNBC, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal were reporting early
Friday that the United States Treasury is about to
announce a plan to help some subprime borrowers save
their homes from foreclosure.
The plan apparently involves an agreement between the Treasury and
leaders of the mortgage industry to hold rates steady on many
adjustable rate mortgages that….
OFHEO Home Price Index Down For First Time In 13 Years
Friday, November 30th, 2007It is sometimes hard to keep up with all of the housing surveys that
come from economic forecasters, trade associations, and the government
but one we always look forward to is the quarterly Office of Federal
Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) House Price
Index (HPI) study.
The World Welcomes SandraSheely.com Blog
Friday, November 30th, 2007This is my first post on my new blog www.sandrasheely.wordpress.com Where do I start. I already write a mortgage blog
New Home Sales Report More Upbeat Than That For Existing Homes
Thursday, November 29th, 2007As usual the two monthly reports on home sales -
existing homes and newly constructed houses - were issued in lockstep on
Wednesday and Thursday and while one was loudly proclaimed as an
indicator that things were still getting worse, the second contained a
germ of hope.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economists pointed out that
when many of the sales that closed in October were being negotiated the
mortgage problems arising out of the sub prime situation were
peaking. “We continue to see the biggest impact in high-cost markets that
rely on jumbo loans…
Mortgage ‘Rates” Continue To Inch Down With One Glaring Exception
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007Mortgage rates continued to decline by baby steps as
reported by Freddie Mac in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The 30-
year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.20 percent with 0.5 point
during the week ended November 21. The previous week it averaged 6.24
percent with 0.4 point. One year ago the 30-year averaged 6.18
percent.
The Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey conducted by
the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ended November 23 showed a
strange pattern in interest rate changes…
Wells Fargo Bank is Latest to Announce Mortgage Woes
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007The Associated Press was reporting early Wednesday that yet another
major mortgage bank “has finally bogged down in the mortgage muck that’s
muddying one major bank after another.”
Wells
Fargo, the number five U.S. bank has said it will recognize $1.4
billion in losses in the fourth quarter OF 2007. Unlike most of the
losses which have clobbered other lenders, Wells Fargo appears to be in
trouble not because of sub-prime lending of first
mortgages but because of its…
Two New Reports Deepen Housing Gloom
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007The U.S. Council of Mayors released a devastating
report on the impact on member communities of the ongoing
housing market problems. The report, prepared by Global Insight, an
economic forecasting firm, was presenting at a meeting of the Conference
attended by mortgage industry and community groups.
The report projects that the foreclosure crisis will result in…
2008 Conforming Loan Limit Announced By OFHEO
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007Washington, DC - Office of Federal Housing Enterprise
Oversight Director James B. Lockhart today announced the maximum 2008
conforming loan limit for single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) will remain at the 2007 level of
$417,000 for one-unit properties for most of the U.S.
Higher limits apply to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands
as well as to properties with more than one unit.
Senator Schumer Seeks Probe of FHLB Loans to Countrywide
Monday, November 26th, 2007Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter on Monday
to Ronald A Rosenfeld, Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board,
expressing his “serious concern over the lending practices of the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, specifically in regard to the significant
volume of advances made to Countrywide Bank.”
Schumer stated that Countrywide was reported to hold $27
billion of “pay option ARMs” as of the end of September, over
one-third of all of the loans held for investment by the bank. The
Senator quoted a Wall Street Journal report that 91 percent of
Countrywide’s option ARMS issued last year were…
Citigroup Knocks Builder Stocks and Takes Hit of Their Own
Monday, November 26th, 2007Late Monday morning one of Citigroup’s analysts, Stephen Kim,
downgraded the entire homebuilding sector because he
could not find anything to suggest that the residential housing market
would improve until the second quarter of 2008.
Kim downgraded stocks of seven of the largest
homebuilders from a…