Financial Reform Back In Headlines Our elected officials return from the July 4th recess this week, and those in the mortgage business are waiting to see if the Senate passes the Financial Reform Bill and passes it along to the president for his signature – as expected. Among other things to note, the bill establishes [...]

Tax Credit Deadline Now Sept 30 President Barack Obama signed HR 5623, the “Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010,” a three-month extension on the closing deadline for first-time home buyers to receive the tax credit. Potential homeowners with offers currently under contract now have until September 30 to close the deal, instead of the [...]

There sure seems to be a lot of confusion and unanswered questions out there, and unfortunately almost every answer lies in the halls of Congress—and it appears this morning they’ve reached some agreement. Here are summaries from Bloomberg and CNNMoney, which still leave this open list of questions for mortgage borrowers and lenders:

Lawmakers Solicit Consumer Comments On 7 Financial & Housing Reform Topics Do you want some input in financial reform? There are many ways to do this, and here is another. The public will have the opportunity to submit written responses to seven questions that will be published in the federal register online at www.regulations.gov. The [...]

What Are Covered Bonds, And Can They Help Housing? Lately there has been some talk in the investor community about using covered bonds to supplement or replace mortgage-backed securities, therefore helping the secondary market for mortgages, which in turn would help originators. What is a “covered bond”? In this case, covered bonds are debt securities [...]

The most-asked questions by home mortgage borrowers so far in 2010 are about where rates will go, how to lock rates in a volatile trading environment, and how home appraisals affect the lending process. Each question is addressed below.

Cash-Out vs. Cash-In Refi Stats Remember when cash-out refinancing was the bulk of our business, and any investor who would tweak their price slightly on this product would either see all or none of the business? Four or five years ago, that category of loan hit 88%, which, according to Freddie Mac, put another way, [...]

Comeback For Jumbo Loans What is the American Securitization Forum? Darned if I know, exactly, but they were meeting in Washington DC and came out with a statement conjecturing that non-agency product (a $1.2 trillion market 4-5 years ago, $25 billion in ’08 and $44 billion in ’09) may start to be securitized again later [...]

Hitler on Home Appraisals OK, for anyone who deals with appraisals in any form, here’s a great YouTube video: a Hitler rant on new appraisal regulations. One of the better lines is, “Wells Fargo and BofA getting appraisals done by appraisal companies they own – It’s like Michael Jackson running a freaking boys camp! My [...]

Rates May Hold When MBS Buying Ends At least there is no ambiguity about what the Fed is doing in their mortgage purchase program. Last week the Fed purchased a net $12 billion in agency MBS, bringing its total net purchase to $1.161 trillion. But everyone has a pretty good sense of how this movie [...]