My Mind on Mortgages

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 [...]

One interesting note in this morning’s Existing-Home Sales report from the National Association of Realtors is that the investors purchasing homes comprised of 23% of January’s total.  This is up from December’s figures.  Given that most of the low down payment investment property mortgage programs have been unavailable for a couple years I speculate that [...]

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 [...]

The WSJ published an article today (which you can see HERE) speculating on the housing market in 2011.  Here are some interesting tidbits….. *(2011) could very well be a peak year for foreclosures, says Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties…That’s partially due to issues the industry has [...]

If you want to start your weekend off with a relatively upbeat view of the housing recovery I would encourage you to listen to Tuesday’s Planet Money podcast in which Moody’s economist Mark Zandi predicts that the housing market will stabilize in approximately 12 months.  Here is a brief summary from the Planet Money website: [...]

Brett Arends wrote THIS PIECE in the WSJ today in which he provided 10 reasons why buying a home makes sense.  It’s worth of checking out, here’s a summary: 1) It’s a buyer’s market so buyer’s can get a great deal 2) Mortgage rates are cheap 3) Tax benefits of homeownership 4) When you own [...]

NPR did a feature on the Canadian mortgage & real estate markets today which you can listen to HERE.  My uncle manages a real estate company in Vancouver, BC and I recall a conversation I had with him a few years ago during the sub-prime boom.  He asked me about the underwriting standards at that [...]

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 [...]

The Financial Overhaul Bill which will be signed into law soon when President Obama pens his name on the legislation.  The bill is over 2,300 page long and includes new rules for nearly all facets of the financial economy.  Although much of the attention thus far has been on provisions focused on limiting large bank’s [...]