My Mind on Mortgages

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are back in the headlines as lawmakers debate the future of these two mortgage giants.  Many people have heard about Fannie & Freddie but few understand the role they play in the mortgage industry.  I wanted to re-post the summary I wrote back in July of 2008 which you can [...]

NPR’s Planet Money did a podcast on March 1st which compared mortgage delinquency rates in the US & Spain.  In the US mortgage delinquency rates are currently around 10%.  Despite the fact that the unemployment rate is currently higher in Spain the mortgage delinquency rate is down around 3%.  So why the big difference? In [...]

Ever heard of “MERS”? ” MERS” stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. and is a private company at the center of scrutiny for it’s involvement in the current foreclosure mess.  According to Wikipedia MERS is a “privately held company that operates an electronic registry designed to track servicing rights and ownership of mortgage loans [...]

The WSJ published THIS ARTICLE late yesterday which caught my eye.  Apparently the Obama Administration is working on a plan to force a settlement on the part of lenders who have been guilty of questionable loan servicing practices to write down the principal on mortgages in distressed circumstances. To this point mortgage relief for troubled [...]

Planet Money had an interesting podcast last Friday about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and how the creation of the 30 year fixed mortgage led to the subprime mortgage crisis.  In the piece Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera are interviewed about their book entitled “All the Devils are Here“.  In a nutshell, the creation of Fannie [...]

A little backdrop to this post.  Fannie & Freddie got into financial trouble HERE.  They are bailed out HERE.   As you may recall Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, two critical players in the US mortgage market, are currently owned by the Federal Government and are technically in conservatorship.  The US government has sunk almost $150 [...]

I am on vacation this week which means I have some time for some good reading.  And although I plan to spend my week finishing up the 3rd book in Stieg Larsen’s Millenium Series I wanted to post a couple bits of excellent journalism for those who might be looking for some summer-time reading on [...]

If you’ve been a regular reader of “My Mind on Mortgages” over the years then you know that I am a big fan of the Economist magazine.  I appreciate their global perspective and use of economic theory in explaining current events.  From time to time they publish special reports on hot topics that are very [...]

Rob Chrisman wrote in yesterday’s edition of the “Pipeline Press” (a great blog if you want to stay abreast of the changes in the mortgage industry) that new accounting rules may make covered bonds more common with regard to securing mortgages.  I originally blogged about covered bonds back in 2008 when the subprime mortgage crisis [...]

The NY Times published this article yesterday that examines the ethos of our culture as it relates to homeowner’s who are confronting a home that is now worth less than their mortgage.  When I read it I began to think about how our social fabric has evolved along with financial markets. Fifty years ago a [...]