Fannie Mae, the largest provider of U.S. residential funding, on Wednesday slashed its forecast for residential investment this quarter following a "setback" in home sales.
Fannie Mae - Mortgage - United States - Business - Financial Services
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 12, 2010. The survey covers over 50 percent of all US residential mortgage loan applications taken by mortgage bankers, commercial banks, and thrifts. The data gives economists a look into consumer demand for mortgage loans. A rising trend of mortgage applications indicates an increase in home buying interest, a positive for the housing industry and economy as a whole. Furthermore, in a low mortgage rate environment, such a trend implies consumers are seeking out lower monthly payments which can result in increased disposable income and therefore more money to spend on discretionary items or to pay down other debt. From the release... The Market Composite Index, a measure...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Despite yesterday’s news that housing starts fell nearly 6% in February (led by weakness in multi-family starts), stock markets managed to move upwards yesterday and this morning that upward trend continues. Sentiment was in part bolstered from the language of the FOMC statement, wherein the central bank said it would maintain "low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period" and the "labor market was stabilizing". Two hours before the opening bell, Dow futures are up 30 points to 10,654 and S&P 500 futures are 3.75 points higher at 1,158.50. With equities up, the US dollar is looking weaker. Meantime, the Euro rose overnight and the pound was the top performing currency. Commodities are also heading upwards with WTI crude oil 79 cents higher at $82...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
After a real estate slump in the Sunshine State, housing units are selling fast as developers and banks try to cut their losses by moving inventory. NBC’s Michelle Kosinski reports. (Today Show)
Real estate - NBC - Michelle Kosinski - Today - United States
Housing construction fell in February as winter blizzards held down activity in the Northeast and South.
Construction - England - Business - Construction and Maintenance - Business and Economy
Remember the tale of six blind men who were asked to describe an elephant so each grabbed hold of a piece of the beast. The man who took hold of the tail described the elephant as a rope, the one who touched the leg said it was a pillar, and the one who felt the trunk said the elephant must look like a snake. Pretty much the same thing happened when Senator Christopher Dodd released his proposed bill to Restore American Financial Stability. While some of the people who might be expected to react such as The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the New York Stock Exchange have thus far been silent, a lot of individuals and groups have grabbed the piece of it that they care about and are either praising the bill - or bashing the hell out of it. Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein in an interview...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Yesterday, just one day shy of the second anniversary of the Bear Stearns collapse, Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, released his long awaited proposal to overhaul the nation's financial regulations. The changes, viewed by many as the most sweeping since the Depression, are apparently backed by the Obama administration. Dodd said that the overhaul is designed to stabilize the nation's financial system in the hopes of preventing a repeat of the near collapse of major players in the fall of 2008. However, forces are both the right and the left appear ready to do battle over many parts of the proposal. Dodd had been working on the proposal with one of the leading members of the committee, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), but recently decided to finish...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
The dollar is weaker and equities look to open higher as investors await the afternoon policy statement from the Federal Reserve Board. Two hours before the opening bell, Dow futures are up 16 points to 10,592 and S&P 500 futures are 2.00 points higher at 1,147.75. Commodities are also on the rise, with WTI crude oil up 18 cents to $79.98 per barrel and Spot Gold up $6.35 to $1,114.80. Key Events Today: 8:30 ― Snow storms and poor weather are expected to push Housing Starts down in February, following a 2.8% gain in January. Demand remains weak overall, though new construction on residential homes is up 21% from last year. Expectations among economists are diverse, ranging from 530k to 591k, and the consensus is 565k. “Although it is highly unlikely we will revisit the record lows...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
The National Association of Home Builders released their monthly Housing Market Index today. Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor. In March, Builder confidence lost the small amount of progress seen in February...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
The Making Home Affordable Program (HAMP) , a joint effort by the Departments of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to prevent foreclosures, is reporting that 168,708 homeowners have now graduated from the HAMP trial modification program and have active permanent modifications by the end of February. This works out to a 12.4 percent conversion rate, a modest improvement from January when the permanent modification conversion rate was 9.2 percent. The program, which began last spring, has now enrolled 1,094,064 borrowers in modifications which lower mortgage payments to a maximum of 31 percent of monthly income. 1,354,350 invitations to participate in the program have been extended to distressed homeowners. This is 34 to 45 percent of the goal of 3 to 4 million set for the end of...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
The National Association of Home Builders says its housing market index slipped in March, as harsh winter weather and competition from foreclosed properties hurt builders' sales prospects.
National Association of Home Builders - Home Builders - Real estate - Foreclosure - Business
Equity markets are mostly lower across the globe Monday, leading US stocks to open sharply lower ahead of a moderately busy schedule. Two hours before the bell sounds, Dow futures are off 30 points to 10,543 and S&P 500 futures are down 4.50 points to 1,142.00. Commodity prices are mixed as WTI crude oil is trading down 58 cents to $80.66 per barrel but Spot Gold prices are up $2.37 to $1,104.27. Key Events This Week: Monday: 8:30 ― The Empire State Manufacturing Index is expected to expand for the eighth consecutive month in March. The consensus expects the index to fall 3 points to 22.0 in March, reflecting strong growth overall in the region. Economists from Nomura worry that the strong figures in February may not have been wholly accurate due to the early timing of the release. “Most...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
For its coming out party, the Sunset Vine Tower threw a glitzy bash worthy of a Hollywood opening, complete with free food, booze and live music.
Apartment - Hollywood Los Angeles California - Business - Travel and Tourism - Oceania
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are in limbo waiting to find out if they will be accepted for the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program.
Mortgage - Presidency of Barack Obama - United States - President - Business
Owners of bad loans are increasingly making deals with borrowers to avoid a foreclosure. Lawmakers are more accepting of these solutions even if they mean the borrower loses the home.
Foreclosure - Loan - Business - Real estate - United States
Fitch Ratings is warning that the expiring homebuyer tax credits, the end of the Fed's MBS Purchase Program , and the growing maturity of various government loan modifications programs are likely to increase loss severities on distressed mortgage loans later this year. The report says that these factors as well as low interest rates and the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed securities purchase program have led to an improvement in both home prices and loss severities since the second quarter of 2009, but this is unlikely to continue. The $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers and $6,500 credit for move-up buyers will be effectively expiring with the deadline for signed sales contracts on April 30. Buyers must complete the sale by June 30 so any drop off in sales...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
USDA Section 502 loans are primarily used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas. Funds can be used to build, repair, renovate or relocate a home, or to purchase and prepare sites, including providing water and sewage facilities. There is no required down payment. The lender must determine repayment feasibility, using ratios of repayment (gross) income to PITI and to total family debt. John Rodgers called my attention to the following bulletin released by the USDA: This message is to notify you that program funding for the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program will likely be exhausted by the end of April, 2010 . Once funding is exhausted, the Agency will not issue Conditional Commitments “subject to receipt of appropriated funds. ” This...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
As reported on February 26 , Freddie Mac has decided to stop purchasing and securitizating loans utilizing the interest only payment option. Freddie's deadline for PURCHASING these loans was set as September 2010, however no application/LP approval date cut-off was provided in the bulletin. This deadline was announced yesterday in Bulletin 2010-7 Here is the verbiage from the release: Effective for mortgages with application dates on or after June 13, 2010 , and for mortgages with Freddie Mac settlements on or after September 1, 2010 we are: Retiring our Initial InterestSM Mortgage offering. Beginning June 13, Initial Interest Mortgages will not be eligible for submission or resubmission to Loan Prospector® . Plain and Simple : if you want to sell Freddie Mac an interest only loan,...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
The Federal Reserve reported on their weekly purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS). In the week ending March 10, 2010, the Federal Reserve purchased a gross total of $29.4 billion agency MBS. In that week the Fed sold $19.4 billion mortgage-backeds (supported the roll), for a net total of $10.0 billion agency MBS purchases. While this amount is unchanged from the previous week, the broader trend of a decline in weekly purchases continues. The goal of the Federal Reserve's agency MBS program is to provide support to mortgage and housing markets and to foster improved conditions in financial markets more generally. Only fixed-rate agency MBS securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae are eligible assets for the program. The program includes, but is not...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Equities are higher and the dollar is weaker following positive data from Europe and ahead of key retail sales numbers at home. More than two hours before the opening bell, markets edging higher with Dow futures are up 21 points to 10,569 and the S&P 500 pointing up by 2.25 points to 1,148.25. Meantime, the dollar is slightly weaker, WTI crude oil is up 51 cents to $82.62 per barrel, and Spot Gold is up $7.93 to $1,117.43. Sentiment was boosted as Eurozone industrial production hammered expectations and jumped 1.7% in January, marking the biggest gain in more than two decades. Figures for December were also revised up. Industrial production also jumped 2.7% in Japan, also beating expectations. Back in the US, headlines are beaming that Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Fed, has...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Swelling ranks of homeowners who are seriously delinquent but haven't yet lost their homes may soon lead to a new round of foreclosures.
Foreclosure - Real estate - Business - RealtyTrac - United States
Today RealtyTrac® released its February U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The RealtyTrac report shows that foreclosure filings, which include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions declined 2 percent from January. A total of 308,524 properties in the United States received one of the listed notices during the month. This equates to 1 house in every 418 units. Compare that to January's ratio of 1 in every 409. That works out to a 10% month over month improvement. However, when comparing data from one year ago (Feb 2009), the ratio is still 6% worse. James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac says, "The 6 percent year-over-year increase we saw in February was the smallest annual increase we've seen since January 2006 , when we began calculating...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Increasing the minimum down payment required for a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan from 3.5 percent to 5 percent could be a double whammy, affecting both potential homebuyers and the economy as a whole according to David H. Stevens, FHA Commissioner. At the same time, a lower loan to value ratio (LTV) by itself is not a particularly good indicator of buyer risk. In a statement prepared for a hearing Thursday afternoon by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, the Commissioner said if the agency raised the minimum down payment to 5 percent "as some have suggested," it would adversely impact the housing market recovery. The agency has conducted an evaluation of the loan files of a large sample of recent loans to identify homeowners...( read more ) Forward this article via email: Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.
Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is scheduled to expire.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.
Jobs in Washington D.C. are growing quickly, and in 2008 the city produced more in goods and services than almost anywhere in the country.
Washington DC - Weather - Recession - United States - Washington
Why are the mansions of one of America’s richest women sitting vacant? Click to follow this photo narrative of the reclusive Huguette Clark and her father, William Andrews Clark, the "Paris millionaire senator." Where is Huguette Clark? And what will become of her fortune?
United States - Wealth - Narrative - Government - Politics
The number of buyers who agreed to purchase a home fell sharply in January, a sign that demand for housing is sinking this winter as stormy weather slammed Eastern states.
Business - Construction and Maintenance - Residential Housing - Real estate - Thomson Reuters
The government is giving homeowners another year to refinance their loans under a little-used program designed to help borrowers whose homes have plummeted in value.
Loan - Refinancing - Government - Mortgage - United States
Construction spending fell for a third straight month, pulled down by a slump in private nonresidential spending and weak public construction, a government report showed.
Public school - Business - Construction and Maintenance - Consulting - Economic
