Revisiting Originator Compensation; Bank of America Faces New Lawsuit; Industry Earnings; Regulatory Conflict

July 29th, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Third, regulators say they’ve identified conflicts between Basel III and parts of the Dodd Frank Act relating to credit rating agencies. (Yes, those rating agencies that mistakenly rated billions of mortgage debt several years ago, and which are providing information about downgrading government debt now.) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alternative Measures, Apparent Inability, Bank Of America, Banking Supervision, Basel Iii, California Public Employee, Credit Rating Agencies, Credit Worthiness, Debt Issues, Federal Authorities, Federal Reserve Bank, Federal Reserve Board, Financial Services Subcommittee, Fraud Lawsuit, Industry Earnings, Mortgage Debt, Regulatory Conflict, Retirement System, Securities Fraud, Van Der Weide

FHFA Sues UBS to Recover GSE Mortgage Losses

July 29th, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

UBS Americas Inc., several of its subsidiaries, and four former executive officers were sued Wednesday morning in U.S. District court for the Southern District of New York.  The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) brought suit charging violations of securities laws in the sale of private label residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asset Securitization, Countrywide Home Loans, Due Diligence, Fannie Mae, Fhfa, Fremont Mortgage, Government Sponsored Enterprises, Gses, Housing Finance Agency, Loan Files, Mortgage Backed Securities, Mortgage Companies, Provident Funding Associates, Real Estate Securities, Residential Mortgage Backed Securities, Securitization Process, Suit Alleges That, Transactions Inc, Ubs Securities, Wells Fargo Bank

“Qualified Residential Mortgage” on the Hot Seat

July 29th, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Early in June we discussed the provisions of QRM (“QRM” stands for “Qualified Residential Mortgage”). It is an issue that just won’t go away, and it did not help matters when the regulators extended the end of the comment period to August 1 – about one week away. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: August 1, Core Requirements, Debt Ratios, Fannie Freddie, Fha, Home Builders, Hot Seat, Ltv, Minority Rights, Mortgage Originators, Originations, Outliers, Qrm, Refinances, Regulators, Residential Mortgage, Rights Groups, Risk Retention, Risky Loans, Spite

Foreclosure Activity Drops in First Half of Year

July 29th, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Almost 85 percent of large cities showed a decrease in
foreclosure activity during the first six months of 2011 according to
the Mid-year 2011 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report
released on Thursday by RealtyTrac. This includes the ten cities
with the highest foreclosure rate among the 211 metropolitan
markets covered by the report and all but one of the top 20. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arizona Cities, Auction Notice, California Nevada, Cape Coral, Causative Factors, Decreases, Default Notice, Florida City, Foreclosure Market, Foreclosure Rates, Ft Myers, Lis Pendens, Mesa Scottsdale, Metropolitan Areas, Metropolitan Markets, Notice Of Default, Notice Of Trustee Sale, Realtytrac, State California, Systemic Problems

Housing Starts, Permits Show Unexpected Improvement

July 24th, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Driven by a dramatic rise in multi-family construction, U.S. housing
jumped unexpectedly to of an annualized rate of 629,000 housing
units in June. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Appetite, Census Bureau, Census Data, Commerce Department, Dramatic Rise, Economists, Family Construction, Future Construction, Home Pr, Housing Boom, Housing Units, Last November, New Projects, Overhang, Peak Years, Press Release, Rental Apartments, Reuters, Single Family, Two Million

Fannie Mae’s HomePath offers incentives to buyers

July 21st, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Interested in taking advantage of the current low mortgage rates and housing prices, but aren’t sure you can handle the down payment and other upfront costs? You might take a look at buying a foreclosed property through the Fannie Mae HomePath program. Read the rest of this entry »

No relief soon from rising food prices, Carney warns

July 21st, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

OTTAWA—Don’t look for relief from skyrocketing food prices any time soon, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney says. Carney said Wednesday agricultural prices are up 40 per cent on a year-over-year basis and will continue to get worse in the near future. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Agricultural Prices, Bank Of Canada, Bank Of Canada Governor, Canadian Households, Commodity Prices, Consumer Price Index, Debt Crisis, Economic Problems, Economic Uncertainty, Economy Returns, Food Prices, Future Food, Headwinds, Inflation In Canada, Inflationary Pressures, Mark Carney, Monetary Policy Report, Price Hikes, Spending Spree, Target

Fed Hits Wells Fargo With $85 Million Fine

July 21st, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Federal Reserve announced a record $85 million fine Wednesday against Wells Fargo for allegedly pushing borrowers with good credit into expensive mortgages and falsifying loan applications.  The Fed accused the nation’s fourth largest bank by assets of steering potential borrowers who could have qualified for prime rates into more expensive subprime loans. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bank Subsidiary, Borrowers, Cash Payments, Cnnmoney, Consumer Protection, Federal Reserve, Housing Bubble, John Stumpf, Loan Applications, Mortgage Applications, Oversight, Predatory Lending Practices, Prime Rates, Restitution, Sales Quota, Small Group, Subprime Loans, Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Financial, Wrongdoing

Lending Opportunity Seen in Home Rehab Biz

July 21st, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Two press releases that came out on Monday may point to a new direction for the residential construction market and perhaps for housing policy.Home builders continue to have little optimism about the new home market according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for July.  The index, floating near its bottom for since October 2008, did rise two points to 15 but this only partially recouped the three point drop seen in June. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bob Nielsen, Builder Members, Composite Index, Construction Market, Current Sales, Foreclosed Properties, Hmi, Home Rehab, Hpi, Market Index, Nahb, National Association Of Home Builders, New Direction, Prospective Buyer, Prospective Buyers, Regional Basis, Residential Construction, Seven Points, Single Family Home Sales, Wells Fargo

Loan Apps: Refinance Demand Jumps, Purchases Down

July 21st, 2011 by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Mortgage Bankers Association today reported a significant increase in the number of refinance applications taken last week, purchase demand on the other hand declined slightly.The Market Composite Index, which takes both purchases and refinances into account, rose by 15.5% to 556.0, it’s fastest pace since the week of March 4th, 2011.  The gain would have been less of an outlier had it not been for last week being the lowest index level since April. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Composite Index, Culprit, Current Report, Exceptions, Exhaustion, Extent, Home Values, Index Level, Index Levels, Interest Rate, Interest Rates, Losing Streak, Mba, Mortgage Bankers Association, Moving Average, Outlier, Purchase Index, Refinance Mortgage, Refinances, Uptick