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Home Loan News

Cuyahoga County sheriff to bar appraisers from buying foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

CLEVELAND (AP) – The sheriff in Cleveland plans to bar the 36 appraisers working for his office from buying homes that have gone through public foreclosure.

The move by Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid is meant to avoid any conflict of interest in setting the value of foreclosed homes. The sheriff’s office has overseen nearly 33,000 [...]

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Will paying off my mortgage affect my credit score?

by Moe Bedard

Paying off your mortgage may negatively affect your credit score if it happens to be the only loan that you are paying by installment. However, the actual effect is very small and you could ignore it if you want the peace of mind of having no debt to pay.

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Only the most qualified borrowers with all their ducks in a row get loans these days

by Moe Bedard

“It used to be that we could ‘underwrite’ a loan and use common sense to navigate individual circumstances and actually make a decision that a loan was a good credit risk.  Then DU and LP came along and gave us the laundry list that had to be followed.  We were still able to manually underwrite [...]

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Florida court ruling show banks may be fined for foreclosure delays

by Moe Bedard

Can Florida banks be held financially accountable for purposely delaying condo bank foreclosure sales? A new South Florida circuit court ruling says yes.
Amid a growing clamor for Florida banks to bear more of the financial burden caused by widespread condo foreclosures, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court case settled last week shows an example of associations turning more

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Option ARM Defaults Expected to Surge 25%

by Moe Bedard

Twelve-month default rate expectations on certain U.S. RMBS collateral have doubled since the previous quarterly survey, with U.S. 2007 Alt-A pay option ARM RMBS collateral default rate predictions rising to 25% from 12% polled in Q3.
For the same vintage, U.S. prime fixed-rate collateral default forecasts rose to 5.75% from 4.00%; U.S. prime adjustable-rate collateral default [...]

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Purchase Mortgage Applications Fall

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 10, 2010) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 5, 2010.  The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.  On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased [...]

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Biggest Billion Dollar Foreclosure in History

by Moe Bedard

For those of you who don’t know New York City very well, on the East River there is an 80 acre, 9 square block city-within-a-city called Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village that is home to 56 residential buildings – about 11,500 apartments for 25,000 residents.
And the entire thing was just foreclosed on over the weekend – [...]

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Bank playing games with foreclosed homes taught a lesson

by Moe Bedard

Based on the reverse foreclosure procedure, Miami Dade Circuit Judge Jerald Bagley awarded title of a home in the Keys Gate development to HSBC Bank on Jan. 12.
The home had fallen into foreclosure in 2007. Since then, the home remained in limbo, owned and maintained by the association, but with an HSBC foreclosure action pending [...]

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Are loan modifications forcing homeowners underwater?

by Moe Bedard

“Servicers routinely capitalize delinquent interest, corporate advances, escrow advances and attorney fees and other foreclosure-related fees and expenses into the loan balance when completing a loan modification,” the report says.
In other words, the modification process usually allows lenders to tack onto the principal previously missed mortgage payments, as well as other fees

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Las Vegas mayor upset that city will get no federal foreclosure funds

by Moe Bedard

Denied more federal foreclosure funds last week, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman plans to try another option for the city to get foreclosure help this week while he is in Washington, D.C., the mayor’s office announced today.
Goodman, who is traveling with his staff to attend the U.S. Conference of

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Cancelled Foreclosures Out Pace Home Sales in California

by Moe Bedard

The amount of California foreclosure cancellations increased 26.5% in December to 13,243, primarily due to loan modifications.  And for the first time this number overtook foreclosures reaching real-estate owned (REO) status, according to ForeclosureRadar, which tracks foreclosure activity in the state.

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New Mortgage Rules to Help Borrowers at Closing

by Moe Bedard

The main change is how lenders communicate fee information to borrowers. Under the old system, there was no standardized format. “Fees were communicated in multiple ways, which adds to the confusion when comparing costs,” says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates, which tracks the mortgage market. Under the new rules, lenders will all [...]

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Foreclosures Affecting Home Appraisals

by Moe Bedard

The National Association of Realtors says nearly 25 percent of its members have reported clients losing a sale due to botched appraisals. The National Association of Home Builders, meanwhile, said low appraisals were sinking a quarter of all new home sales.
Roughly 40 percent of all home sales this year have been foreclosures or short sales, [...]

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Is Lendingtree’s Anthony Hsieh the King of Online Mortgage Predators?

by Moe Bedard

Is Anthony Hsieh a visionary entrepreneur, a gritty salesman or a huckster?
That’s what I set out to determine after learning this week that the former president of LendingTree.com and founder of other online mortgage companies is back in action with a new Internet lending startup, LoanDepot.com. My conclusion, after speaking to Hsieh — he’s all [...]

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Warren Buffet in Talks to Buy GMAC/Ditech

by Moe Bedard

Warren Buffett is in talks to buy Residential Capital — which controls Costa Mesa-based Ditech.com — from GMAC, the New York Post reported just before the holidays.
National Mortgage News ran a more recent story on ResCap, saying the Buffett deal is a likely scenario for the troubled company, which is the fifth

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Florida’s Chief Judge Issues Foreclosure Mediation Order

by Moe Bedard

TALLAHASSEE — Facing the nation’s worst foreclosure crisis, Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince has Ok’d recommendations from a panel of experts to order foreclosure cases into a new “managed mediation” program where debtors could try to negotiate their way out of losing their homes.
Florida’s court system expects to have nearly half a million [...]

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Example of the excess and greed among fat cat bankers on Wall Street

by Moe Bedard

A story by the New York Law Journal this morning shows how some state-court judges are reacting to their recession. Arthur Schack, a supreme court justice in Brooklyn, who previously graced the pages of this blog for his rulings in foreclosure cases, recently rejected a request by JP Morgan Chase for $9,112 in costs for [...]

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Fannie and Freddie Hurting

by Moe Bedard

Unlike Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), AIG (AIG), Chrysler, and GM, Congress deemed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had not received “exceptional assistance” and therefore did not have to have their pay decisions scrutinized by the pay czar.
Top executives of Fannie and Freddie could get paid as much as $6 million for 2009, [...]

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Foreclosure Moratorium Extended for Additional 90 Days

by Paul Maciel

Banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp. said Tuesday it was extending its moratorium on foreclosures by another 90 days.
The moratorium now ends March 31, 2010. The initial moratorium was announced Dec. 18, 2008.
The moratorium applies to owner-occupied residential loans for customers who work to reach a repayment agreement. Loans in all the bank’s markets are [...]

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More Foreclosures Being Cancelled

by Moe Bedard

Foreclosure sales have been canceled at an increasing rate as loan modifications take hold, according to ForeclosureRadar, a Stockton-area data company that monitors California’s distressed housing market.

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Debtor’s Strategies: Walk Away or Pay Mortgage

by Paul Maciel

PHOENIX — Should I stay or should I go? That is the question more Americans are asking as the housing market continues to drag.
In good times, it would have been unthinkable to stop paying the mortgage. But for Derek Figg, a 30-year-old software engineer, it now seems like the best option.
Mr. Figg felt trapped in [...]

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Life of the Underwater Homeowner

by Moe Bedard

There’s been some debate in academic circles lately about why more financially distraught homeowners don’t just pack up their belongings and walk away. The short list of reasons: moral shame, fear of credit repercussions, and social and governmental pressure, according to Brent T. White, an associate law professor at the University of Arizona and the [...]

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Over 10,0000 California Foreclosures Cancelled

by Moe Bedard

Under intense pressure to help more people stay in their homes, mortgage lenders canceled far more scheduled foreclosures in November than in the previous month, according to a report Tuesday.
A total of 10,469 scheduled foreclosures were canceled in November throughout California, up 20 percent from 8,741 in October, according to

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Florida HOA’s Say Foreclosure Crisis Getting Worse

by Moe Bedard

“While economists and Realtors try to read favorable signs into national home sales data, frustrated Florida community association owners foresee 2010 actions ranging from potential community bankruptcies at one extreme, to deferred maintenance, amenity cuts and a lowering of association standards that further threaten property values,” the CALL report said.
Some 86 percent of Florida condominium [...]

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New York Foreclosures Rise an Alarming 85%!

by Moe Bedard

New Yorkers at risk of losing homes surges 85% in month of November
With city unemployment at 10.3%, the number of New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes surged 85% in November compared with November of last year, according to stats set to be released today by foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac.
Part of the increase is [...]

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Consumer Advocates Pushing to Help Jobless Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Community groups are scheduled to meet with White House staff Monday to discuss ways to help the unemployed avoid foreclosure.
Faith-based community groups belonging to the PICO National Network and some allied organizations will be meeting with White House National

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TARP Watchdog Gives US Treasury Mixed Review

by Moe Bedard

Bailout watchdog head Elizabeth Warren gives the TARP a mixed review.
 
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — Was it worth it?
Fourteen months and $700 billion dollars later, did the federal TARP bailout do the job?

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Florida Loan Mod Firms Will Soon Need a License: It’s About Time!

by Moe Bedard

The clock is ticking for unlicensed companies trying to entice home buyers to modify their mortgages. Or demanding an upfront fee to help them out.
Come Jan. 1, anyone who provides loan modification services must have an active license from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. The rule is part of a law passed by the [...]

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Should Homeowners Be Blamed For Failed Mortgage Modifications?

by Moe Bedard

One of the most frustrated Chase employees I met was Domonique Perez, whose job was to round up the documents from borrowers who had been granted temporary modifications.
It was, she said, not going well.
She told of one man who had filed almost all the necessary documents — the permission slip for Chase to look at [...]

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Failed Banks Not Being Held Accountable

by Moe Bedard

Regulators have closed 124 banks this year, the most since 1992, amid loan losses stemming from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The failures pushed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s insurance fund, used to pay customers for deposits of up to $250,000 when a bank fails, into an $8.2 billion deficit as of [...]

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Some Homeowners Can’t Get Help

by Moe Bedard

To qualify for a reduced mortgage, borrowers must first make three reduced payments under a trial program. To receive a permanent fix, borrowers must also provide a hardship affidavit and other documents.
But many borrowers complain that it is difficult to get a permanent loan modification even after making required trial payments.
Roughly 375,000 borrowers are on [...]

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Home Flippers Back to Business as Usual

by Moe Bedard

It’s hard to know what to make of this. Some people are looking to buy a home — that’s understandable, given that everybody needs shelter. And some people are looking to invest money with a long-term time horizon. And some people even fall into both categories at once. But that’s no reason to desperately try [...]

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Free Market Mortgages Return

by Moe Bedard

If and when the Fed program does end, mortgage rates will rise – but not by much. The Fed’s intervention is worth upwards of 75 basis points for a conforming loan, says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates. Without its purchases, that rate might rise to 5.75% or so.
Borrowers should plan for rates [...]

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Option ARM Mortgages: Housing’s Posion Pill

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Option-ARMs: File under, “It sounded good at the time.”
These exotic mortgages allowed homebuyers to come to closing with little cash and choose, monthly, how much to pay: interest and principal, interest only, or a minimum amount less than the interest due.
Of course, the last option is the one 93% of option-ARM [...]

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Permanent Loan Modifications Aren’t Happening

by Moe Bedard

Rick Mullen of Valencia has waited more than a year for his lender, JPMorgan Chase, to finalize a loan modification. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times / November 17, 2009)
 ”I’ve talked to them at least 50 times, and it’s always the same: . . . ‘Oh, we’re missing some documents, your modification is at risk,’ [...]

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Freddie Mac to Suffer Big Losses From Bankrupt Firm

by Moe Bedard

Freddie Mac (FRE) said its additional losses related to the bankruptcy of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. could be “significant.”
At the end of September, the giant mortgage lender, which federal regulators took control of a year ago, estimated its potential exposure related to Taylor Bean’s loan repurchase obligations at $500 million.
Freddie said Monday in [...]

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1 in 4 Homes Under Water

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In a sign that more foreclosures could be on the horizon, 23% of people with mortgages owe more than their home is worth, according to a report released Tuesday.
Almost 10.7 million U.S. mortgages were “underwater” as of September, said research firm First American CoreLogic.
Another 2.3 million homeowners are within 5% of [...]

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Wall Street Profiting From Homeowners Again

by Moe Bedard

As millions of Americans struggle to hold on to their homes, Wall Street has found a way to make money from the mortgage mess.
 
Investment funds are buying billions of dollars’ worth of home loans, discounted from the loans’ original value. Then, in what might seem an act of charity, the funds are helping homeowners by [...]

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Underwater Homeowners Left in the Foreclosure Cold

by Moe Bedard

But Brent White, an economist at the University of Arizona, argues that staying in an overvalued house is fundamentally irrational. He writes in a paper titled “Underwater and Not Walking Away” that lenders exploit fears of a bad credit score and cultural mores against foreclosure to keep people in houses.
“This imbalance is exaggerated by the [...]

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New Jersey Sees 14.5% Increase in Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

That means that almost one of every seven mortgages in the state was in trouble. The nationwide percentage of delinquent or foreclosed mortgages was a record 14.4 percent, up from 10 percent a year earlier.
The rise in unemployment is the main driver behind the rise in foreclosures, according to Jay Brinkmann, the mortgage bankers’ chief [...]

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1 in 7 US Home Loans in Foreclosure or Delinquent

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A record one in seven U.S. mortgages were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due in the third quarter, according to fresh data signaling the recovery in the housing market will be tepid at best.
U.S. mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process also [...]

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Many Americans in Home Loan Limbo

by Moe Bedard

The number of Americans in mortgage limbo keeps growing.
These are the people who are far behind on their payments but are still waiting for their loan servicer to start the foreclosure process. LPS Applied Analytics, a research firm in Denver, reported that 3.4% of U.S. households with mortgages – or around 1.9 million –  are [...]

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Few Getting Loan Modifications

by Moe Bedard

Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications under President Obama’s foreclosure prevention plan, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort.
Fewer than 5% of the trial modifications on loans owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac were converted to long-term adjustments as of Sept. 30, according to the mortgage finance [...]

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Counseling Helps Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

Troubled homeowners who receive housing counseling are 60 percent more likely to avoid foreclosure and have their mortgage payments lowered significantly than borrowers who navigate the process themselves, according to a study to be released Wednesday.
The study, by the D.C.-based Urban Institute, examines the effectiveness of the government-funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, established in [...]

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In Europe, regulators are moving to break up megabanks

by Moe Bedard

“If the government did not provide these bailouts or guarantees, then the market itself would ensure such organizations did not grow beyond their ability to attract capital,” he said. “It is only when fear is overcome by government guarantees that systemic risks can arise.”
While the Fed has sought recently to burnish its regulatory credentials by [...]

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