If you think that mortgage banking is tough, try living in Florida. Bank of America said it expects to implement new lending guidelines after it combines operations with Countrywide Financial Corporation. In testimony before the Federal Reserve in Chicago, Bank of America unveiled new mortgage lending guidelines. The combined entity will offer retail customers the
Countrywide
Does $5 billion buy you the right to shutter Washington Mutual’s broker business? You bet it does. It buys you the right to tell Washington Mutual to eliminate the business channel by May 31st (loans must lock by tomorrow, and most loans must fund by June 13th). WaMu announced yesterday to their employees that they
From the U.S. Master Tax Guide: “Points on a home mortgage loan for the purchase or improvement of, and secured by, a principal residence are deductible in the year paid to the extent that the payment of points is an established practice in the area… are designated as points on the RESPA settlement statement (HUD-1)
Yesterday Thornburg Mortgage announced, in a filing with the SEC, it will allow an investor to acquire up to $300 million worth of stock in the company’s offering of $1 billion of convertible debt. The purchaser would have to provide assurances that the ownership would not jeopardize the company’s REIT qualification. The news is a
Anyone who has been in a car and seen a bike on a city street, watch the video below. That includes all of you that are reading this on your Blackberry in your car right now. Now down to business. Here’s a graph of the correlation (or lack thereof) between Fed Funds and mortgage rates.
At the center of the global credit crisis is an endless debate about bailouts. Banks bailing borrowers out. Banks bailing each other out. Central banks bailing private banks out. Pro-bailers argue that the whole system is interdependent. Anti-bailers want excessive risk takers to suffer and flush the system clean. The debate rages with no solution
Fixed and ARM rates continue to rise and fall by .375% to .5% every few trading days, and we can expect more of the same this week as markets digest JP Morgan Chase buying Bear Stearns for $240 million on Sunday. This compared to Bear Stearns’ $6.73 billion value a week ago and $18.7 billion
The last time mortgage rates were this bad compared to Treasury rates, dinosaurs roamed the earth…and this morning it continues. After Jobless Claims fell 24,000 to a much lower-than-expected 351,000, we find the 10-yr at 3.67% but 30-yr mortgage prices worse by .50 in price. Fixed income investors need to be reminded why they should
In conjunction with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, six major lenders announced a plan to stop foreclosures on defaulting borrowers to give them a chance to keep their homes. This is a good sign that banks are willing to help ease the housing market pain, and also a tacit admission of the perils of loose underwriting
Fixed and ARM mortgage rates opened this week up about .125% following an extremely volatile holiday-shortened trading week. Rates were up and down about .25% every other day. This is a significant swing for a given week, let alone single trading days. This week looks to be more of the same as investors battle over
Rates for conforming fixed, conforming ARMs and jumbo fixed are about .125% lower since the Fed cut both the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate and the Fed-to-bank Discount rate by .5% on September 18. With the next Fed meeting at the end of this month, it’s important for everyone to remember: Fed rate moves are not