Fannie & Freddie on Foreclosure Debacle
Which States Do Which Kinds of Foreclosures?
Loan agents and consumers often want to know which states carry out which types of foreclosure. Here you go. In the “silver lining” category, the immediate result is that with thousands of foreclosures being delayed, the sales market won’t be flooded with these REO properties for resale. That, in turn, could help stabilize prices in the near term.
Fannie/Freddie On Foreclosure Debacle
The agencies are certainly stepping into the foreclosure issue. “Freddie Mac is deeply concerned about recent news reports that affidavits used in foreclosure proceedings may have been executed inappropriately and without proper notarization. In response, on October 1, 2010, we issued an Industry Letter that reinforces for Servicers of Freddie Mac-owned mortgages the critical importance of ensuring that the legal rights of borrowers are protected.” Fannie, in a similar letter (are they still two separate companies?) said similar things, and both are requesting servicers review their servicing operations with respect to foreclosures that are either currently pending or within the applicable judgment review period in each state.
Market Roundup
By the time the dust settled on Monday (and there was very little dust), current rate sheet mortgage prices improved by about .250 in the securities market. Whether or not the investor passes that on to the agent or borrower is up to them. Pending Home Sales, while still pretty low, showed some signs of improvement. If you’re looking for a few reasons that a few investors improved pricing, one has a mixture of quantitative easing (QE) expectations, a flight to quality bid on terrorist warnings in Europe, and lower stocks. The 10-year note rallied about .375 in price down to 2.48%, but only $500 million in MBS’s crossed the wires.
We don’t have much market-moving news until Friday. Even then, there may not be much. Weekly jobless are not generating any excitement while they remain between 450,000 and 500,000. For Friday’s expectations, looks for an increase in the unemployment rate to 9.7% from 9.6%. The majority of the US people need jobs and need to see housing stabilize. Granted, since the last Fed’s FOMC meeting, the 10 year note rate has fallen about 25 basis points while mortgage rates have declined just 5 basis points. Not much may happen ahead of Friday – and don’t forget the bond and mortgage markets close early on Friday ahead of the Columbus Day holiday. So far this morning both the stock and bond markets are slightly better than Monday’s close, with the 10-yr yield sitting around 2.45%.