Image by Getty Images via Daylife Home Affordable Gets a Solution for Second Mortgages Okay, first off if you don't currently read Mike Shedlock (aka Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis) immediately do so now (Mish's RSS) and return. He seems to be one of the few not running a blind-sheep commentary on how the government (all parties included) are running this economic recovery. Here are his thoughts on the latest "tinkering" with the Home Affordable program--incentives for the writing down of … [Read more...]
Looking for Mortgage Recovery and Attacking Mortgage Fraud
April 28, 2009 By 2 Comments
Image via Wikipedia Looking for Anything that Says Real Estate Recovery Home price deceleration leads the front-page real estate and mortgage news. "While the declines in residential real estate continued into February, we witnessed some deceleration in the rate of decline in some of the markets," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee. Still, 10 of the 20 metro areas reported record year-over-year declines. As of February, the 10-city index is down 32% from its mid-2006 peak … [Read more...]
Shifts in Mortgage Banking? Hyper-Inflation and Federal v. State Banking Powers
April 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Image via Wikipedia Federal Reserve and Hyper-Inflation Andy Kessler asks a very important question: How do you "Put the Toothpaste Back in the Tube?" Kessler begins thinking about how the Federal Reserve might go about heading off inflation as the economy begins to recover: But how? Doing the opposite of what it is doing now. By raising interest rates. By sopping up dollars by not only selling Treasuries, but also selling all those mortgage-backed securities and other toxic stuff bought from Bear … [Read more...]
Are Mortgage Brokers Vanishing?
February 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Image by TheTruthAbout... via Flickr I caught this quote over on LeadCritic.com (a blog about mortgage lead generation): we have slowed for 2 reasons - the first is that all the leads we had purchased in the past are finding us again - or we are finding them - so no need for "new" leads, but more importantly is that our funding source (warehouse banks) options have constricted. I would think this is the same for many lenders - even the banks (some - cant speak for all of course) who you would … [Read more...]
Robert L. Johnson Announces Plan to Assist Homeowners with Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis; Proposal Seeks $1Billion from the Federal Government
December 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Private sector steps out to help modify mortgage loans. Robert L. Johnson proposes to work-out 200,000 mortgage loans a year. Leveraging $1 billion from th US government Johnson would raise another $7 billion in private funds--turning his minority-owned Union Trust Bank into Homeowners First Bank to solely distribute loan modification funds to mortgage servicers. … [Read more...]
TARP Reversal, Mortgage Servicers on Hot Seat, China Rapidly Slowing
November 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment
TARP Reversal, Paulson ADHD? Paulson leads his dramatic redirection of the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) with an adaption of John Maynard Keynes, “When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?”: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, whipping out his dead economist quote book, used this gem from John Maynard Keynes to justify his bombshell Troubled Asset Relief Program update and redirection: "I will never apologize for -- for changing an approach or a strategy when the … [Read more...]
AMEX Bank, ABA No New Regs, Big Bank Loan Modifications, Economist Turn Negative, 10 Benefits of Recession
November 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment
American Express Becomes a Bank American Express becomes a bank, getting unprecedented speedy approval to become a Federally chartered bank. This is likely a smart preemptive move by American Express to hedge mounting credit card troubles by gaining access to TARP bailout funds. The cautionary part of this tale--how bad might those mounting losses be for the Federal Reserve to waive even the cursory 30-day waiting period? Bad! American Express Co. won U.S. Federal Reserve approval to become a commercial … [Read more...]
Obama "Big Bang," Auto Industry, First Time Home Buyer, China Stimulus Package
November 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Obama Gearing Up "Big Bang" Reform Plan? The Obama team is analyzing analogies of FDR and attempting to avoid warnings of Carter-style open 100 days. This is certainly on the minds of an Obama economic advisory board that is in full motion on Obama's opening economic moves. "We can't afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, healthcare, education and tax relief for middle-class families," said Mr Obama. "We also need a rescue … [Read more...]
The Obama Mortgage Market Edition
November 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
TARP II-A Better Troubled Asset Relief Program Will Obama focus on building a "better" TARP? One that looks more like the original Paulson plan, zeroing in on setting a price on the seed of the mortgage meltdown--"troubled assets?" Notably a portion of the TARP acronym, but reprioritized immediately out of the gate to a bank recapitalization plan. The argument being presented by some is that we are still facing the same problem Paulson called an emergency meeting of Congressional leader to warn … [Read more...]
Obama Reviewed, China, TARP Update, Bank of England, Wal-Mart Indicator
November 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Obama Election Reviewed Everyone is jumping in with there review and assessment of President-elect Obama. Here is what the financial services wonks are saying: Blown Mortgage is tracking Obama's Housing Promises Henry Blodget on the Yahoo! TechTicker is noting Obama already reseting expectations Wall Street Journal is ttracking Economists reactions to Obama Paul Kedrosky says Wall Street doesn't care China Crash Debated Economist Nouriel Roubini, noted economic doomsdayer often attributed with … [Read more...]