WHY PEOPLE MOVE Among those who moved between 2009 and 2010, Census said almost 44% of them (16.4m) did so for housing-related reasons, such as the desire to live in a new or better home or apartment. Thirty percent moved for family reasons (including marital status), and 16% for employment. In 2010, 37.5m people 1 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Goldman, US Bank Earnings Goldman announced its 1st quarter earnings today. Earnings rose 91% in the quarter, to $3.46 billion, up from $1.81 billion in the same period last year, while revenues increased 36 percent to $12.78 billion, up from $9.42 billion in the quarter a year ago. The bank’s bond, commodities and currency trading [...]

No Fee Reverse Mortgages? If a senior citizen pays even one penny for a reverse mortgage, is the borrower paying too much? The latest trend in reverse mortgage lending is for the lender to charge no origination or servicing fees. MetLife, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, and now Financial Freedom and Generation Mortgage are all taking [...]

Homebuyer Tax Credit Expiration Reminder Two nuns, a penguin, and a man with a parrot on his shoulder walk into a bar. The bartender says, “What is this – some kind of joke?” Not a joke are two key deadlines looking: the end of the first time home buyer tax credit is in sight, and [...]

First Bank Failure of 2010 The first bank to fail this year is Horizon Bank (WA), with 18 branches that are now being run by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, who also assumed all of Horizon’s $1.1 billion of deposits. More On Friday’s Jobs Report As you can imagine, the economists spent the weekend [...]

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 [...]

“A woman in Great Britain has died after being hit in the back of the head by a golf ball, on the first hole. Her husband was so distraught he only played the front nine.” Stories like that are terrible, and it is hard for men to catch a break. It is also hard for [...]

In a roundabout way, this is may be a sign of further good news about the economy or real estate markets: Flagstar added only four areas to their declining markets list: Honolulu, Kalamazoo, Manchester, and Niles-Benton Harbor. In turn, they removed over a dozen areas from their declining market list, including Akron, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, [...]