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, [...]

It was a tough weekend for many. Not only did the last WWI veteran to fight in the trenches pass away in England at the age of 111, but the “Yo quiero Taco Bell” Chihuahua Gidget died at age 15. Truly a broad spectrum of news, although neither was a mortgage banker, which could help [...]

Before school ended, I noticed that one of my daughter’s homework assignments (in “Romance Languages”) was not turned in. When I asked her what happened to it, she replied, “Canis meus id comedit.” (“My dog ate it.”) Click the link for more handy Latin phrases (like “I never received that buy-back request!”).

RATE UPDATE Zero-points rates on conforming loans up to $417k and super-conforming loans up to $625,500 have improved to start this week as stocks have sold off and mortgage bonds have rallied—when bond prices rise in a rally, yields (or rates) drop. With the government participating in mortgage bond markets, lenders are pricing more conservatively [...]

MORTGAGE INDUSTRY ROUNDUP For any loan agents who admit, “I didn’t realize that verified employment wasn’t the same as verified income”, please contact an underwriter. I am waiting for someone to ask something like, “Can I get a stated income second behind my reverse mortgage, and use the income from my reverse mortgage for what [...]

It is said that 90% of reverse mortgages are HECM’s (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage). Will the meltdown in home values affect holders of HECM FHA-backed reverse mortgages? HECMs come with a Federal Housing Administration guarantee that protects the lender and the homeowner from falling property values. Therefore, if the loan balance exceeds the value of [...]