Despite the housing recovery and home sales running 10.3 percent above the level of a year ago, mortgage originations are falling, signaling weakening refinancings.
Continue reading...Thursday, April 18, 2013
Since late last year, industry experts forecast a drop in mortgage refinancings as rates rise and a revival of purchase mortgages as the housing recovery creates business for lenders willing to working with home buyers. The spring housing market is here and now the mortgage market is following.
Continue reading...Thursday, March 21, 2013
The Federal Reserve's policy of buying mortgage-backed securities to keep mortgage rates low may be bolstering upper tier home values rather than helping to make homeownership more affordable for entry-level buyers.
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Two new Treasury Department mortgage regulations designed to reduce lender risk will make it impossible for 60 percent of the mortgages being approved today to be approved in seven years. The impact will be greater for mortgages used to buy homes rather than refinance and in the states where prices have been most volatile.
Continue reading...Thursday, January 3, 2013
Despite falling delinquency rates among lenders as a whole, delinquencies increased for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers, especially in Florida. Coincidentally, CoreLogic announced today Florida leads the nation in the size of its foreclosure inventory.
Continue reading...Wednesday, December 26, 2012
As the President and Congress attempt to avoid the "fiscal cliff" scheduled to take effect a week from today, most leading housing economists and housing experts believe housing prices won't suffer if the mortgage interest deduction were limited to mortgages of $500,000 or less and eliminated for interest paid on second mortgages for second homes, a possibility in the final negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff.
Continue reading...Friday, November 23, 2012
As the nation's real estate economy has evolved and slowly improved over the past two and a half years, the geography of almost every leading metric measuring the health of local housing markets has changed to reflect local economic trends and conditions except the one that many economists and policy makers consider to be critical to the national economic recovery.
Continue reading...Tuesday, October 23, 2012
While full service banks and other traditional mortgage lenders have watched their mortgage businesses decline in recent years, credit unions have doubled their market share since 2009 and originated 8 percent of all mortgages in the second half of 2012.
Continue reading...Monday, August 6, 2012
It might be harder to get a loan today, but it costs a little less to close one than it did a year ago because lenders are estimating closing costs netter, according opt the latest annual survey of closing costs by Bankrate.
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Even as demand for mortgages declined with the expiration of homebuyer tax credit in the third quarter, a small number of banks tightened standards on both prime and nontraditional mortgage loans, reversing a slight net easing reported in the second quarter.
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Monday, May 13, 2013
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