Archive for the 'Credit & Finance' Category
Saw Tooth or Zig Zag Recovery ? ?
Related Posts: Credit & Finance, Real Estate News, Real Estate Sales
hiSome housing experts now predict what one calls a “saw-tooth bottom” to the housing market, driven by a shadow inventory that could include up to 4.5 million properties. This shadow inventory is more than just bank-owned homes not yet on the market. It also includes sellers who would like to sell but, fearing they can’t, are waiting for signs of a market bottom before putting their homes on the market. Some say this rush to sell will add inventory to the market and at least temporarily drive prices back down – hence, the “saw-tooth” description. Years ago this was desribed as a “zig-zag” trend that if you average the past 6 months on a curve it will be as it really is…..slow but steady recovery.
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Mortgage Rates fell to the lowest this year !
Related Posts: Credit & Finance, Government, Real Estate News
hiMortgage rates fell this week to the lowest level of the year, as rates fell on U.S. government securities. Fixed mortgage rates closely track interest rates paid on long-term Treasury bonds. The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage dipped to 4.93 percent this week from 5 percent a week earlier. It was the lowest level since mid-December, when rates averaged 4.81 percent.
The drop came as investors shifted money from risky European debt to safer U.S. securities. Bond yields fell as a result, and that lowered mortgage rates. Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.
The average fixed rate dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent late last year, pushed down by a campaign by the Federal Reserve to reduce borrowing costs for consumers. The program ended this spring, but rates have remained low, especially after fears that Greece’s government would default shook world markets.
The last time rates for 30-year fixed mortgages averaged less than 5 percent was the week of March 25, when they were 4.99 percent.
This week, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.30 percent, down from 4.36 percent last week.
Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.95 percent, down from 3.97 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.02 percent from 4.07 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.
The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 of a point for 30-year loans 0.6 of a point for 15 year, 5-year and 1-year loans.
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$1.5 Billion on it’s way to help those in a struggle !
Related Posts: Credit & Finance
hiA plan to channel $1.5 billion to housing agencies in five states hit hardest by the real estate crash has Florida officials hopeful they can keep more people in their homes and out of foreclosure. President Obama announced the program Friday while in Nevada for a town hall meeting and campaign push for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The states included in the new program are Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan, all of which consistently rank high on any measure of mortgage woe. But with more than 20 percent of its home loans seriously delinquent or in foreclosure, Florida tops the nation for defaults, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association report also released Friday. Obama administration officials called the $1.5 billion “modest” considering the depth of the nation’s housing crisis but said they hope it will lead states to come up with innovative solutions tailored to their own needs. Those solutions are expected to plug holes in the administration’s earlier Making Home Affordable Program, which has struggled to help unemployed homeowners who don’t have the income to qualify for a loan modification. It also attempts to tackle one of the thorniest issues to come out of the market meltdown – how to cope with upside-down loans where the homeowner owes more than what the property is worth. About 41 percent of South Florida borrowers, and 55 percent of Treasure Coast borrowers were underwater in December, according to analysts at Zillow.com. The $1.5 billion in taxpayer money, which is coming from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, can be used to help negotiate with lenders to write down mortgages on underwater loans.
The money will be doled out to states based on a formula that considers home price declines and unemployment. Officials couldn’t say Friday how many people it might help. There was some optimism Friday that the national housing market has begun to make a turn for the better. The Mortgage Bankers Association survey showed that despite continued record foreclosures, there was a small decrease in the number of loans 30-days late in the last quarter of 2009. That means fewer homes entered the foreclosure pipeline.
Instead, national 30-day delinquencies fell from 3.79 percent to 3.63 percent. In Florida, the 30-day delinquencies fell from 4 percent to 3.67 percent. The drop off may also be attributed, in part, to foreclosure rescue plans such as the Making Home Affordable Program. The program offers incentives to banks to reduce mortgage payments by cutting interest rates or principal amounts, but has been panned by critics for not reaching enough people.
A year into the program, 116,297 permanent loan modifications, including 14,598 in Florida, have been completed. But that’s only a fraction of the estimated 3.4 million loans nationwide that are 60 or more days delinquent.
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Justices adopt Florida foreclosure mediation rules
Related Posts: Credit & Finance, Government, Real Estate News
hiLenders will be required to pick up the tab for investigating and verifying ownership and then try mediation before foreclosing Florida home mortgages under new rules approved Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court.
The rules are designed to help Florida’s judicial system better cope with a flood of foreclosures. They follow a December administrative order by Chief Justice Peggy A. Quince telling local judges to adopt a uniform mediation program.
Florida has the nation’s fourth-highest foreclosure rate. Almost 400,000 cases were filed in Florida’s courts last year.
The rules and corresponding legal forms were proposed by a pair of Florida Bar panels.
The investigate-and-verify rule should help prevent those kinds of errors and give judges greater authority to sanction lenders who do make false allegations, the justices wrote.
The decision was unanimous except for a rule that will require prior approval of a judge before a foreclosure sale can be canceled. Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston dissented.
Last-minute cancelations have needlessly delayed other sales, again clogging the system.
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Fannie can help with closing costs on foreclosures
Related Posts: Credit & Finance, Government
hiFannie Mae, the largest provider of residential home funding in the United States, announced on Friday that it would start to pay closing costs for buyers of foreclosed homes in its inventory. Buyers of qualified properties will get up to 3.5 percent in closing costs or an equivalent amount for the purchase of new appliances.
Fannie wants to clear out the nearly 50,000 properties it has in inventory – listed on HomePath.com, the Web site created by Fannie Mae last year to sell the growing number of foreclosed homes. The offer is available to any owner-occupant who closes on the purchase of a property listed on HomePath.com before May 1, 2010. Applicable properties can be found on HomePath.com, along with property descriptions, photographs, community and school information, and more.
In addition, some Fannie Mae-owned properties are eligible for special HomePath Mortgage and HomePath Renovation Mortgage financing, which offers qualified homebuyers the ability to purchase with as little as 3 percent down.
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