The Home Front
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Barack Obama's Mortgage Modification Plan: Attacking Second Liens
Continue reading… 32 CommentsWhile Barack Obama's plan to rescue homeowners--originally released in mid February--included a comprehensive initiative to lower monthly mortgage payments, it failed to address in detail a related issue that threatens to undo troubled borrowers: second liens.
[See Obama's Loan Modification Plan: 7 Things You Need to Know]
During the housing boom, millions of Americans took out second mortgages--such as home-equity loans--enabling them to buy property without having to come up with much down payment cash, or simply to pay for other things. Today, the government estimates that as many as half of "at-risk" mortgages have second liens as well.
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Mortgage 'Cram Down' Effort Stalls in Senate
Continue reading… 59 CommentsThe effort to enact mortgage "cram downs" appears to be stonewalled--at least for now--in the Senate, according to The Wall Street Journal:
Legislation to give bankruptcy judges the power to reduce home mortgage debt–by “cramming down” the principal–doesn’t appear to have enough votes and will be stripped out of a broader housing bill in the Senate.
The cram-down effort is a major plank of President Barack Obama’s housing rescue, which also offers financial incentives to mortgage servicers to modify loans and allows some homeowners with little to no equity to refinance.
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Home Ownership Rate Drops (Again)
Continue reading… 2 CommentsFrom Forward Capital:
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Bank of America Retires Countrywide Brand Name
Continue reading… 15 CommentsIs is Countrywho or Countrywhom? (I never know.) From B of A:
The Bank of America Home Loans brand represents the combined operations of Bank of America's mortgage and home equity business and Countrywide Home Loans, which Bank of America acquired on July 1, 2008. The Countrywide brand has been retired.
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'Stress Test' Home Price Scenarios
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe Fed on Friday released additional details of the "stress test" that regulators are using to determine whether or not the nation's largest banks have sufficient capital to handle the coming economic hardships. In constructing the test, regulators made forward-looking assumptions about key macroeconomic trends--unemployment, GDP, home prices--that would influence bank performance in 2009 and 2010. These assumptions were divided into a baseline and a more adverse scenario. Banks found to be lacking sufficient capital will be required to raise more cash through private investors or from Uncle Sam. Although regulators aren't expected to make the results public until May 4, the Fed said Friday that "most U.S. banking organizations currently have capital levels well in excess of the amounts required to be well capitalized."
Here's a look at the projections for home prices that regulators used in the "stress test."
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Mortgage Rates Slip to 4.80%
Continue reading… 0 CommentsFreddie Mac's most recent mortgage market survey shows that 30-year, fixed mortgage rates slipped to 4.80 percent this week.
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New Home Sales Drop in March
Continue reading… 0 CommentsMarch new home sales dipped about 1 percent from February and nearly 31 percent from a year earlier, the government said Friday.
From the Census Bureau, via The Big Picture:
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The Top 25 Foreclosure Cities
Continue reading… 3 CommentsFrom RealtyTrac:
RealtyTrac… the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report for Q1 2009, which shows cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona accounted for the 26 highest foreclosure rates in the first quarter among metro areas with a population of 200,000 or more.
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Are Home Sales Stabilizing? 5 Things You Need to Know
Continue reading… 1 CommentAfter existing home sales demonstrated surprising strength in February, fingers were crossed for another increase last month. But when the National Association of Realtors released the March sales data Thursday, housing market optimists got their hearts broken--again--as the figures came in weaker than expected.
March existing home sales slipped 3 percent from the previous month and 7 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the median home price fell 12 percent from March of 2008--to $175,200--but actually increased 4 percent from the previous month.
Here are five things you need to know about the March existing home sales report:
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Bailed-Out Companies Spending Millions on Political Lobbying
Continue reading… 1 CommentIt seems that some of the biggest beneficiaries of government bailout cash have been spending big bucks to shape legislation in recent months.
From The Washington Post:
The biggest spenders among major firms in the group included General Motors, which spent nearly $1 million a month on lobbying, and Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, which together spent more than $2.5 million in their efforts to sway lawmakers and Obama administration officials on a wide range of financial issues. In all, major bailout recipients have spent more than $22 million on lobbying in the six months since the government began doling out rescue funds, Senate disclosure records show.
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Freddie Mac Acting CFO Dead in Possible Suicide
Continue reading… 0 CommentsPolice are calling the death of Freddie Mac's acting CFO an "apparent suicide," according to The Associated Press:
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.
Mary Ann Jennings, director of public information for the Fairfax County, Va., Police Department, said Kellermann was found dead in his Reston, Va., home. The 41-year-old Kellermann has been Freddie Mac's chief financial officer since September.
Jennings said that a crime scene crew and homicide detectives were investigating the death, but that there didn't appear to be any sign of foul play…
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Home Price Overvaluation on the Decline
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIHS Global Insight's U.S. housing valuation analysis for the fourth-quarter 2008 shows that the housing crash has worked to reduce overvaluation in residential real estate markets across the country.
From IHS Global Insight:
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Detroit City Councilman Goes Jingle Mailing
Continue reading… 2 CommentsMore unsettling news from the motor city (via patrick.net):
It was their dream home, a two-story, four-bedroom colonial in one of Detroit's nicest and most stable neighborhoods.
But then, one day in December, City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife packed up their belongings, locked the doors, mailed in the keys and walked away - adding another vacant house to the thousands in a city hard hit by the nation's mortgage crisis.
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Mortgage Rates Fall to 4.82%
Continue reading… 4 CommentsThirty-year fixed mortgage rates declined slightly to 4.82 percent this week. These are remarkably attractive rates, if you can qualify for a loan.
From Freddie Mac:
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The Top 10 Foreclosure States as of the First Quarter
Continue reading… 7 CommentsFrom RealtyTrac:
RealtyTrac has released its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for the first quarter of 2009:
Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 803,489 properties in the first quarter, a 9 percent increase from the previous quarter and an increase of nearly 24 percent from Q1 2008. One in every 159 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the quarter.
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Home Builders Turn More Optimistic About the Market
Continue reading… 1 CommentI wasn't able to get to this yesterday, but: After many gloomy readings in a row, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index increased sharply in April:
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose five points in April to the highest level since October 2008, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. This gain was the largest one-month increase recorded since May of 2003, and brings the HMI out of single-digit territory for the first time in six months – to 14. Every component of the HMI reflected the boost, with the biggest gain recorded for sales expectations in the next six months.
“If you’re a potential buyer who’s been sitting on the fence waiting for a sign that now is the time to act, this is it,” said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. “Some of the most favorable buying conditions in a lifetime are now in place, and they are drawing more consumers back to the market.”
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Housing Starts Plummet in March
Continue reading… 0 CommentsAfter surging in February, home construction reversed course in March, retreating to its second-lowest level ever, the federal government said Thursday. The Commerce department reported that March housing starts plunged nearly 11 percent from the previous month and almost 50 percent from the year-earlier period.
(Image from Forward Capital)
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Lenny Dykstra Reportedly Facing Foreclosure
Continue reading… 5 CommentsWow, quick fall. It wasn't that long ago that flattering stories about Lenny Dykstra the stock picker were everywhere, now the New York Post says he's in danger of losing his home to foreclosure.
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Foreclosures Hit New Record
Continue reading… 1 CommentForeclosureS.com reports that 175,199 homes were lost to foreclosure in March--a new monthly record and a 44 percent increase from the previous month--as lenders lifted foreclosure moratoria.
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Home Buying Applications Drop
Continue reading… 10 CommentsWhen the Mortgage Bankers Association reported last week that applications to purchase homes had posted a fairly significant increase--11 percent--it was considered by many to be another hopeful sign that the housing market could be in the early stages of a comeback.
[See Home Buying Applications Bounce: 5 Things You Need to Know]
That's why the following data point in this week's MBA weekly application survey stings a little bit more than usual:
The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 11.3 percent to 264.1 from 297.7 one week earlier.
