RECENT BLOG POSTS
The Obama administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) is set to expire on June 10. It’s a central component of the federal government’s foreclosureprevention efforts and is currently one of the only mortgage relief programs to help underwater borrowers refinance into more affordable...
02/27/2010
Reversing a long historic trend, mortgage default risk for consumers with high FICO scores now exceeds their credit card default risk, Minneapolis-based FICO recently reported. The provider of analytics and decision management technology said it uncovered this disturbing trend through observation...
02/27/2010
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Sales of new single-family homes plunged last month, underscoring the fragility in the housing market.Sales dropped 11.2% in January from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The decline brought sales to their lowest level since ...
02/24/2010
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Negative equity continues to diminish the severity of foreclosure for many homeowners. Numerous industry studies show that borrowers become more likely to defaulton their mortgage or simply walk away from the debt obligation when they owe more on the home than it is worth. Despite that home value...
02/24/2010
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According to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey of Real Estate Market Conditions, short sales accounted for a substantial 15.9 percent of home purchase transactions in January. This was well above the share of other distressed property activity – with damaged REO accountin...
02/23/2010
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Nationwide housing production hit its strongest pace in the last six months this January, posting a 2.8% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000 units, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Commerce Department.“Builders are starting to see the positive impacts of home bu...
02/22/2010
Uncle Sam is trying to get out of the business of running the U.S. mortgage market. The trick will be withdrawing support without toppling the nation’s fragile housing recovery in the process.The government rescued the sector last year with a series of unprecedented measures that staved off a cat...
02/20/2010
Both the national residential delinquency rate and new foreclosures initiated dropped in the fourth quarter of 2009. Is it a sign that the industry may have finally turned the corner on the housing crisis? The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says yes.“We are likely seeing the beginning of the ...
02/19/2010
“Homeowners are finally succumbing to the notion that, in most areas, declining home values over the past year are no longer the exception, they are the rule,” said Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist.American homeowners’ confidence in their own homes’ values has fallen to the lowest level...
02/19/2010
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The refinancing wave that swept the nation when mortgage rates hit historic lows last year is petering out, leaving behind millions of homeowners who could not qualify for the best rates.Half of the nation's borrowers have mortgages with rates above 6 percent even though the average rate on 30-ye...
02/18/2010