After last week’s proposal by a democratic representative of a moratorium on the new appraisal rules imposed on residential mortgage lenders, this week republican congressman is on board. More on this below from San Francisco Chronicle. Even if this does go through, lenders won’t back off their implementation of new appraisal rules, because they have
HVCC
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
Ah, inflation – at all levels. During the life of a 30-yr fixed-rate mortgage, there are bound to be periods of inflation. It is debatable, in the market of mortgages, whether or not borrowers and lenders take inflation into account. Certainly ARM loans do to some extent. But bond prices (aside from TIP securities, some
Manhattan Condo Prices When I graduated from Cal with a fresh business degree, I tried to get an apartment in Manhattan. They wouldn’t let me in. I knew it would be expensive, but I just assumed that for $2,000 a month, the toilet would be inside the apartment. That has changed a little, since in
Home Appraisal Issues I overheard the kids last night talking about doing chores. My daughter said, “If we stop dusting, we could use the coffee table for a message board!” Speaking of message boards, I have seen a few analysts state that they believe property appraisals are keeping a lid on values. More precisely, when
What are top loan agents saying? One broker wrote, “Things have been good for me lately, which has been much needed. Hopefully it will keep up, as I have a lot of brokers that were waiting to lock for 15 days, so unfortunately they’re in a little bit of trouble now. The DU Refi Plus
There are some clever folks out there. One of them created this lamentation of the new appraisal rules (known as HVCC, the Home Valuation Code of Conduct), sung to Joe Cocker’s “All Night Laundry Mat Blues”: We got the all day HVCC blues Brokers can’t use appraisers that they choose The AMC we’re using they
To: New York Attorney General, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight The Home Valuation Code of Conduct (“HVCC”) stands to be an important step forward for consumers and the Real Estate industry, but in its current form there are some important changes that require your attention. In its current
Stocks, Especially Banks, Rally On Stress Test Results I am the first to admit that if I had to make a living as a day trader, I would be bankrupt within a month. Yesterday was a perfect example. Bank stress test results have been leaked out, showing, for example, that Citi, Bank of America, and
Loan Officer Quotes On Appraisal Rules & FHA Loans Here are some quotes from real-live people in the mortgage business, concerning the HVCC & FHA loans: “You are correct. Bank of America doesn’t buy without an appraisal on VA IRRR’s.” “I am sure that Countrywide/BofA will NOT purchase them at all. The problem with GMAC
As we’ve been discussing (1, 2, 3), new Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) rules went into effect Friday that prevent loan officers from talking to home appraisers. Our previous posts focus on getting home financing transactions done in the context of the new rules. This post is an opinion piece. My opinion is that
Although this has nothing to do with mortgage banking, in mid-April I noted a website to track the money in their wallet. (The government also tracks cell phones, by the way.) It would appear that health officials are using the site to estimate the spread of Swine Flu. Computers are amazing things. Can Loan Agents
Market Roundup Before we launch into the plethora of investor updates, let’s take a look at the market. With the absence of any bond-market news, the focus continues to be on stocks. Asian stocks rallied last night back to levels last seen in October. To many, in spite of the poor earnings results by many
As we’ve covered in detail, the so-called Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) went into effect today, which officially cuts off mortgage loan officers from ordering appraisals or even talking to appraisers during a property transaction. Specifically, this is for Fannie/Freddie qualified loans, and portfolio loans (like jumbo mortgages) do not have to comply since
Mark Twain said, “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” If one read the newspaper lately, you’d have seen that it’s getting pretty crazy; we’re bailing out Wall Street, we’re bailing out banks, we’re bailing out car companies…In fact, there was a special box
What is MERS? MERS, a classic “behind the scenes” vendor in the mortgage business, made headlines last week. And tonight, when you’re tucking the youngin’s into bed, you can show them this graphic of the process. Should put just about anyone to sleep. BofA Drops Countrywide Name In a Bloomberg news story, Bank of America
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