Mortgage loan applications have increased 23% this last week due to record low rates.
Mortgage loan applications have increased 23% this last week due to record low rates.
Orlando, FL (MBNews.org) -- Historic record low have encouraged many homeowners to refinance according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
We have seen refinancing activity climbed 26.4% just this week week ending January 13, to its highest level since early August, the MBA reported. Meanwhile applications for new mortgages climbed 10.3% week-over-week.
Read more...
Time to buy a house? Home prices have fallen and mortgage interest rates are lower than they have ever been.
Miami (MBNews.org) — Time to buy a house? Home prices have fallen and mortgage interest rates are lower than they have ever been.
A recent report from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, titled “Housing: A time to buy,” written by David Kelly and David Lebovitz, made the case for why a home may be a wise purchase. Read more: Mortgage rates plunge beyond expectations.
Although the U.S. housing market remains extremely depressed, we believe that given current valuations and demographic dynamics, now may be the time to consider an investment in housing,” the report said.
Read more...Goldman, Two Firms Agree on Foreclosure-Signing Practice
Goldman Sachs will compensate some home loan borrowers for wrongful foreclosures under an agreement reached with a New York state banking regulator.
The agreement, which New York financial services superintendent Benjamin Lawsky reached with Goldman [GS 112.16 -4.06 (-3.49%) ] and Ocwen Financial [OCN 13.28 -0.52 (-3.77%) ], contains several measures to strengthen the oversight of foreclosure proceedings.
It also will allow Goldman's planned sale of its Litton Loan Servicing LP unit to continue.
Read more...U.S. asks Bank of America to report back up plans if conditions worsen
The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency plans to sue "more than a dozen" major banks for billions of dollars over alleged misrepresentation of mortgage-backed securities sold before the housing bubble burst, the New York Times reported late Thursday.
The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency plans to sue "more than a dozen" major banks for billions of dollars over alleged misrepresentation of mortgage-backed securities sold before the housing bubble burst, the New York Times reported late Thursday.
Read more...U.S. asks Bank of America to report back up plans if conditions worsen
U.S. regulators have pushed Bank of America Corp. to show what measures it could take if conditions worsen for the Charlotte, N.C., lender, according to people familiar with the situation.
U.S. regulators have pushed Bank of America Corp. to show what measures it could take if conditions worsen for the Charlotte, N.C., lender, according to people familiar with the situation. Read more...
More Americans at Risk of Foreclosure
The number of Americans at risk of foreclosure is rising, reflecting the U.S. economy’s continued struggles.
The number of Americans at risk of foreclosure is rising, reflecting the U.S. economy’s continued struggles.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Monday that 8.44 percent of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the April-June quarter. That figure, which is adjusted for seasonal factors, rose 0.12 percentage point from the January-March period. Read more...
New York AG Kicked Off Foreclosure Probe Panel
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said late yesterday that his New York counterpart, Eric Schneiderman, had been removed from the executive committee working on a multistate foreclosure probe – and potential settlement – with U.S. banks.
| Fed’s Rate Policy Didn’t Cause Housing Bubble, Greenspan Says |
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| Wednesday, 11 March 2009 00:00 | |||
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A surge in growth in China and other emerging markets led to an excess of savings that pushed global long-term interest rates down between early 2000 and 2005, Greenspan wrote in an article. That caused mortgage rates and the benchmark Fed-funds rate to diverge after moving “in lockstep” from 1971 to 2002, he said. The article is part of the former Fed chief’s defense against charges in books such as “Greenspan’s Bubbles” by William A. Fleckenstein that his policy of keeping rates too low for too long inflated the housing bubble. The collapse in the U.S. subprime-mortgage market led to about $1.2 trillion in writedowns and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “Given the decoupling of monetary policy from long-term mortgage rates, accelerating the path of monetary tightening that the Fed pursued in 2004-2005 could not have prevented the housing bubble,” Greenspan said. The Fed cut its target rate for overnight lending between banks to 1 percent in June 2003 from 6.5 percent in December 2000, and left it unchanged for the next year. Between June 2004 and June 2006, it raised the rate in quarter-point moves to 5.25 percent. Foreign demand for U.S. Treasuries helped keep long-term debt yields from rising as the Fed started to raise rates in 2004, leading Greenspan in 2005 to call the anomaly a “conundrum.” Foreign ownership of U.S. government debt doubled between 2000 and 2005 to $2.03 trillion, Treasury data show. Developing Economies Many developing economies adopted policies favoring export- led market competition in the early 1990s, Greenspan said. “The result was a surge in growth in China and a large number of other emerging-market economies that led to an excess of global intended savings relative to intended capital investment,” he said. That “propelled global long-term interest rates progressively lower.” It matters “a great deal” to understand what caused the bubble in the real-estate market, he said. “If it is monetary policy that is at fault, then that can be corrected in the future, at least in principle,” Greenspan wrote. “If however, we are dealing with global forces beyond the control of domestic monetary policy makers, as I strongly suspect is the case, then we are facing a broader issue.” Greenspan, who served 18 years as Fed chief, took office just before the 1987 stock-market crash. He led the central bank during two eight-month-long recessions, the Asian financial crisis, the 2001 terrorist attacks and the bursting of the Internet bubble. Crisis Solution Policy makers should avoid “heavy regulation” in trying to navigate out of this financial crisis, Greenspan said. The solutions are “higher capital requirements and a wider prosecution of fraud, not increased micromanagement by government entities,” he said. Governments need to “ensure responsible risk management on the part of financial institutions while encouraging them to continue taking the risks necessary and inherent in any successful market economy.” SOURCE: Bloomberg
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