Roger's Blog

If you read the local paper, the Idaho Statesman, the business headline said sales had "plummeted" in July.  To get the real story, you have to read into the article some more.  Yes, the July 08 sales compared to July 07 is down 39%, that's 701 sales vs 972.  A better way to look at our market is...

I was on a conference call today with one of the big mortgage insurance companies.  Their combined losses this year are going to be in the Billions.  As a result, they have increased their rates.  Just a few points off a fico can mean much higher rates.  In declining markets, they are limited to ...

CMG mortgage announced that they are suspended funding any more home ownership accelerators due to market conditions.  For several weeks they have been negotiating with a new investor to fund the program.  When it became apparent that the new investor's pricing would not be any better than what t...

This new law, signed by President Bush last week will bring significant changes to our industry.  Some are, in my opinion unnecessary and risky.  There are some positives aspects of the new law, so in this post, I will touch on those. First, the increased loan limits of the last economic stimulus...

Its gotten really busy after the holiday weekend.  I guess its also gotten busy for all those banks that decided to shut down operations. Since I last posted, Three of my sources have shut down.  Wilmington Financial, a subprime company that was not doing much business anymore.  Indymac Bank shut...

Hello Everyone, I am back after a cross country adventure.  It involved a drive from South Florida to Boise.  I noticed a couple of things along the drive.     There are a lot of new homes still being built in some markets.  The energy situation has led to increased exploriation, producti0n, and ...

Hello Everyone, Its been a while since I posted, I've been busy with end of school year stuff.  I've also had a bit of writers cramp.  With that in mind, here's one of the bigger stories since my last post. Effective June 1st, Fannie Mae has made new changes to its underwriting software, called D...

It seems our national medias have been pushing were in a recession for the last 6 months or so.  They say that in my opinion to actually create a recession by discouraging consumer spending.  Many people dont pay a lot of attention to the real numbers, and in this case they are being mislead by t...

This morning Countrywide shut down its local fulfilment center here in Boise.  We got no notice, but did receive an email informing us that all files are being shipped to Seattle fulfilment center immediately.  I didn't have any loans with them, but others in my office had files ready to close.  ...

One of the big advantages of FHA financing was that there is not minimum credit score.  You could get someone approved for 95% cash-out refinance who had a credit score in the 500's.  Instead, FHA looked at other indications of the borrowers ability to repay the loan.Recently several lenders have...