FHA Commissioner David Stevens resigned Thursday and will vacate his post end-of-April. Former mortgage banker Stevens stepped in July 2009 and helmed the FHA during a tricky time: FHA-insured home loans were jolted back into relevance when Congress drastically increased FHA loan limits to (regional caps of) $729,750. But this increase happened in a crisis
Conforming Loan Limit
Fannie & Freddie Hearing Feb. 9 Scott Garrett, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets, announced that he would hold a hearing Wednesday on Feb. 9 on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “This hearing will be the first in a series of hearings to examine the steps Congress can take
Awaiting Irish Bailout Mortgage security prices ended Friday about where they started, worse by a few “ticks” (less than .125) on only $800 million of sales. So locks are way down, or everyone sold their pipeline already. Either way, if demand is steady or strong, and fewer mortgages result in less supply, look for mortgage
Fed Bought 73% of All Agency MBS In 2009 Here’s something to ponder: Given the production statistics, in the past year the Fed has purchased 73% of the mortgages that government-backed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae have turned into securities. Nervous about the end of March, when the Fed plans/expects to end its
Rate/Market Update Rates have remained steady for the past two weeks at levels about .25% above all-time record lows. This despite the Fed’s easing off of mortgage bond buying. This past week the Fed bought $13.5b of mortgage bonds, the lowest amount since Week 1 of the program in January. The weekly averages have been
No doubt the folks at Freddie Mac were tired of hearing people ask them about high-cost loan limits, and Thursday they released them. “Today, we are announcing that our base conforming loan limits will be maintained at their current 2009 levels for 2010, with the maximum loan limit for a 1-unit single-family property remaining at
US Bank Expansion, CIT Bankruptcy What do Bank USA, National Association of Phoenix; California National Bank of Los Angeles; San Diego National Bank; Pacific National Bank of San Francisco; Park National Bank of Chicago; Community Bank of Lemont, Illinois; North Houston Bank; Madisonville State Bank of Madisonville, Texas; and Citizens National Bank, of Teague, Texas
US Bank Expansion, CIT Bankruptcy What do Bank USA, National Association of Phoenix; California National Bank of Los Angeles; San Diego National Bank; Pacific National Bank of San Francisco; Park National Bank of Chicago; Community Bank of Lemont, Illinois; North Houston Bank; Madisonville State Bank of Madisonville, Texas; and Citizens National Bank, of Teague, Texas
Attack of the FHA loan files? Most of the United States begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. So by my calculations, that means that this Sunday here in the U.S. most of us “fall back” and it
The MacArthur Foundation gave out its annual ‘genius’ awards last week. This year’s awards went to a journalist, a mental health scientist, and a couple who sold their house three years ago. Well, maybe they want to buy it back. Even though the availability for jumbo loans wasn’t what it once was, the IRS has
The loan limits that make it possible for high-cost markets like the Bay Area and Los Angeles to have conforming loans up to $729,750 are set to expire December 31, and the $8000 tax credit available to homebuyers expires November 30. As of this writing on October 5, there’s been no indication as to whether
The other day my boss commented that, “If every employee contributed half of their life savings to our firm, we’d be on the road to profitability!” I knew things were getting tough when they replaced “Bring Your Child to Work Day” with “Bring Your Child to do Work Day”. On the other hand, the margarita
Rate Levels Rates on conforming loans up to $417k and super-conforming loans up to $729k continue to trade up and down as much as .5% per week, and this week we’re on the wrong side of that. Rates on Jumbos from $729k to $3.5m are about the same. Unlike loans up to $729k, jumbos aren’t
Rates on conforming loans up to $417k and super-conforming loans up to $729k have been on a wild ride in the last 7 weeks, spiking up .875% then regaining .625% of that in the past three weeks, for a net increase of .25%. Inflation and bond market oversupply concerns lead the run up, then worse
In late breaking (true) news, my kids brought home their Redwood High School year books yesterday. It turns out that a member of the yearbook staff who designed the cover, in artsy fashion, put in writing that, when viewed in the mirror, reads “Redwood Sucks [male body part]”. It doesn’t help that I believe that
Over the weekend I was in the express lane at the store quietly fuming. Completely ignoring the sign, the woman ahead of me had slipped into the express check-out line pushing a cart piled high with groceries. Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward looked into the cart and asked
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