Fixed mortgage rates end year just under 4 percent
Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
Washington DC, United States (AHN) – Average fixed mortgage rates in the United States end 2011 near all-time record lows. The 30-year fixed home loan exits the year at 3.95 percent.
According to Freddie Mac, the rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage has stayed at or below 4 percent for nine consecutive weeks. It averaged above 5 percent just twice in 2011.
For the week ending Dec. 29, the 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 3.95 percent, up from 3.91 percent the prior week, and below 4.86 percent in the same period a year ago.
Rates on 15-year fixed mortgages averaged 3.24 percent, up from last week’s 3.21 percent, and below 4.20 percent a year ago.
Mortgage rates hit historic lows in 2011, but did little to help the ailing housing market, which is set to close out 2011 as the worst on record for new home sales.
Tight credit, stringent credit standards, and uncertainty about the economy kept many Americans from taking advantage of the never before seen, record low, mortgage rates.
SEC charges former Freddie and Fannie execs with fraud
Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged six former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with securities fraud for misrepresenting the holdings of their high-risk mortgage loans.
Targeted were three former execs of Freddie Mac, including CEO Daniel Mudd, chief risk officer Enrico Dallavecchia and executive vice president of single family mortgage business Thomas Lund.
The SEC is also going after former Fannie Mae executives: CEO Richard Syron, executive vice president and business officer Patricia Cook and executive vice president for the single family guarantee business Donald Disenius.
The SEC is seeking financial penalties that were not disclosed
Fannie and Freddie, mortgage giants that play a key role in the United States housing market by keeping down the cost of mortgage rates, were the recipients of the biggest financial federal bailouts of the latest financial crisis. Top executives at these firms took home some $100 million in salaries and bonuses.
New fed rules to aid more underwater homeowners
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Monday morning the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced new rules that will allow many more “underwater” homeowners, those who owe more than their properties are worth, to refinance at current historical low mortgage rates.
Up to a million borrowers are expected to take advantage of the new program, the FHFA estimates. Originally rolled out in early 2009, the program has fallen far short of the number of people it was expected to help.
Prior to the new rules, only borrowers who owed more than 25 percent more than their homes are worth could participate in the program. The new rules have no cap on how much a borrower owes.
Only mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be eligible under the new rules.
Officials hope the new rules will help the ailing housing market and the flailing economy. By reducing monthly payments, more homeowners will hopefully avoid foreclosure and have more cash to spend, giving a much-needed boost to the depressed economy.
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HUD helps American homeowners with mortgage problems through $1 billion emergency loan fund
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has made available a $1-billion lifeline to American homeowners who have problems with their mortgage payments.
The fund, launched in June, is part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Its aim is to help homeowners who face foreclosure because they lost their jobs, suffered income reduction, had an economic reversal or a medical condition which make it difficult for them to pay their monthly dues.
The emergency interest-free loan covers a portion of their monthly mortgage up to 24 months or a maximum of $50,000.
According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, the emergency loan program covers 27 states and Puerto Rico. He estimated the program would assist about 30,000 distressed borrowers through an average loan of $35,000.
If recipients of the loan stay in their homes and be current on their payments, the interest-free loan would be written off.
The 30,000 homeowners expected to be helped by the program, however, is only a fraction of the estimated 1.8 million homeowners battling foreclosure. With the HUD expected to be deluged with applications, the department would likely spend the entire fund by the end of Washington’s fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Applicants have until July 22 to submit complete applications. If there are more applicants than what the fund could accommodate, the HUD would use a lottery system to determine beneficiaries of the loan.
There are five additional states that have slightly different rules because they started accepting emergency loan applications earlier under similar programs run by the states. One of them, Maryland, committed $4.2 million to 121 troubled homeowners. Aside from that amount, the state was allocated another $40 million by the HUD.
Another state is Virginia, which has a separate fund aimed to assist 1,223 homeowners. Virginia got another $46.6 million from HUD.
The $1-billion fund complements the Hardest Hit Fund, which made available a larger $7.6-billion fund to troubled homeowners in 18 states and the District of Columbia – which are considered the states hardest hit by the housing crisis.
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Half of Americans suffering while rich prosper
Yonkers, NY, United States (AHN) – The saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” is seemingly true based on a two-year study of the groups. For American households earning less than $50,000 per year, it has been far more difficult on the economic road to recovery than their more affluent counterparts.
For more affluent households, those earning $100,000 or more, economic recovery began as far back as February 2010—when the Consumer Reports Sentiment Index score for this group moved into positive territory (above 50). In that time, sentiment among this affluent group, which represents 18 percent of Americans, has continued to rise and has reached a two-year high of 54.8.
However in the same period, sentiment levels of households earning less than $50,000 bottomed out in October of 2009. Since then, sentiment has barely risen among this group that represents 50 percent of the U.S. population.
“We are seeing a tale of two very different recoveries,” said Ed Farrell, a director of Survey Research at the Consumer Reports National Research Center. “While things have been improving for the wealthiest Americans for some time, lower-income families still have very little to be positive about.”
Analysts believe the disparity in sentiment levels could be attributed to the fact that lower-income households have suffered more pronounced and frequent financial troubles throughout the last two years.
Estimates place the financial suffering among lower-income Americans as being three to five times the level of those earning $100,000 or more over the course of the recession.
One of the biggest areas of disparity between the two groups is in their ability to afford medical coverage and prescription medication. The percentages of home ownership is a clear predictor of the two groups. Ninety percent of affluent households claim to own a home while only half of the lower income group can say the same.
Even now, missed mortgage payments among households earning less than $50,000 have soared, and are approaching 9 percent in June. Among the more affluent Americans, missed mortgage payment claims are below 2 percent and falling.
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Foreclosure Contractors Face New Scrutiny From States
United States (ProPublica) – by Marian Wang
While federal and state officials investigating flawed foreclosures have largely focused on holding the banks accountable and bringing relief to wronged homeowners, officials in a few states have begun targeting the more obscure middlemen of the foreclosure scandal.
Prosecutors in California and Illinois have sent subpoenas to Lender Processing Services, one of the largest firms that processed mortgage documents for the banks. (Read more about LPS in our guide to who’s who of the foreclosure scandal.)
As we’ve noted, the firm—which helps handle more than half of all U.S. mortgages—has been accused of using the same “robo-signing” practices as the major banks, such as signing and notarizing documents that appeared inaccurate or invalid. Bank employees have testified under oath that they relied on LPS to vet the information in foreclosure documents.
LPS has had its share of legal troubles over its mortgage processing. Michigan’s attorney general announced an investigation last month into potentially fraudulent mortgage documents processed by an LPS subsidiary. (LPS has said that it discontinued the practices used by the subsidiary.) Along with the big banks, the firm recently received an order from federal regulators to correct problems with its processing of mortgage documents. (Read that consent order.)
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also sent a subpoena to Nationwide Title Clearing, another firm contracted to provide mortgage services to banks. As we’ve noted, Nationwide Title Clearing employees have testified to robo-signing thousands of mortgage documents—known as assignments—that establish the ownership of a mortgage loan and are key to establishing who has the right to foreclose on a homeowner.
Nationwide Title Clearing said in a statement that its procedures have been “thoroughly audited and examined for accuracy” and that it would cooperate with any investigation. LPS declined to comment.
The latest actions on foreclosure problems as an attempted comprehensive settlement by all 50 state attorneys general has hit a few roadblocks. As we noted in our cheat sheet on bank investigations, the negotiations have been hampered by disagreement with the banks over the size of penalties as well as some disagreement among the attorneys general—at least eight of whom have opposed any settlement that would require banks to cut borrowers’ mortgage debt.
Bloomberg reports today that Bank of America has also received independent scrutiny from the attorneys general of Utah and Connecticut accusing the firm of invalid foreclosures and insufficient loan modifications. Utah warned that it would sue.
– Provided by ProPublica.org
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Bad Credit Loan – Loans To Repair Defective Credit Status With Loans
If you are consulting lenders for loans, first question would arise regarding your credit status, but not in case of a bad-credit loan. Lenders providing such loans easily accept your recent credit status and will not hesitate offering you loans. Bad credit personal loans cater to the needs of taking personal loans as well as help in healing blemished credit rating. So that means, even if with a poor credit status, your requests for personal loans can be approved. Dual benefits of these loans include helping borrowers to handle their financial crisis and giving chances to recreate a good credit status once again.
How to Strengthen Deformed Credit Status with a Loan?
With wide range of personal loans made available for bad credit scorers by several lenders, you can easily find an appropriate loan for bad credit. Not just personal loan, you can also manage a bad credit refinance loan, bad credit mortgage or a bad credit auto loan that may complements your requirement. You may also possibly secure a lower interest rate with the loan for bad credit you are taking. Interest rates of loans for people with bad credit depend on various aspects attached to the loans offered.
Determining Interest Rates of Bad Credit Loan
The interest rates can be higher or lower for a bad-credit loan depending on borrower’s credit rating, involvement of collaterals, income structure of borrowers’, involvement of additional securities like down payment in the scenario and the loan amounts taken. Obviously, lenders can easily provide personal loans for bad credit if the loans are somehow secured. If borrowers use their collaterals like home or ready for down payments, lenders know that the loan payments will not likely to be defaulted.
How Collaterals Can Reduce Interest Rates of Bad Credit Loans
A bad-credit loan secured with collaterals like home or property is usually available at reduced rates. These loans are charged with much lower interest rates than unsecured personal loans. Usually, the interest rates of secured loans for bad credit can be higher than standard mortgage loans offered. However, if the value of the property used as pledge for loans is higher than the loan amount offered, interest rates of the bad-credit loans will be lowered. Repayment term of a bad credit loan vary depending on purpose of the loans taken, however the term ranges from 6 to 8 years.
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Canada duty
Activity Up Despite Rising Rates
The Mortech-Mortgage Daily Mortgage Market Index for the week ended Dec. 18 rose to 260 from 188 a week earlier. The conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.68 percent this week, climbing from 4.51 percent. Although mortgage rates jumped, refinance activity picked up.
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Reverse mortgages can be risky & costly for seniors
New report highlights concerns about the growing reverse mortgage market and the need for stronger oversight
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Feldman Law Center – Home Loan Modifications as Homeowners Best Option
Feldman Law Center – News by Feldman Law Center – For all the negatives that have been written about loan modifications, and there have been a lot, the option is far and away the best option for struggling homeowners trying to stay in their homes and preserve their credit scores. As property values have plummeted, the possibility of selling or refinancing the home has been erased. That leaves foreclosure, a short sale, or short refinancing as the remaining options outside of a loan modification for homeowners to resolve their issues with their lenders. All of those options do extreme damage to credit scores and stay on the homeowners’ credit report for a minimum of seven years.
A home loan modification is basically a change in the terms of a homeowner’s existing mortgage with the objective of bringing the monthly mortgage payment back in line with the homeowner’s current financial situation. By modifying the existing mortgage, the transition doesn’t affect the credit score of the homeowner. Additionally, the credit score of the homeowner does not carry much weight in the modification process.
A home loan modification’s main feature is normally the alteration of terms on the existing mortgage’s first five years. It’s not unheard of for modifications to alter terms for the life of the mortgage but most of them cover the first five years. It is hoped by all that conditions in the economy, real estate values, and the job market improve enough by that time that homeowners will either be able to sell the property or afford payments at the higher levels that go into effect once the modified rates revert back to their original levels. The modification benefits the lender by keeping the homeowner in place, which results in continued cash flow from the property, and by preventing the property from going into foreclosure and back on to the books of the lender.
As simple as the process has been made to sound here, the negotiation of terms on a mortgage is not in the normal purview of a homeowner. Hiring legal representation is the best way for a homeowner to ensure that will get the best results possible for their personal situation. An attorney will base the negotiation for the loan modification on the homeowner’s total financial picture, including credit card and consumer debt. Where it makes sense, the firm may initiate debt negotiations, along with the home loan modification, on the other debts carried by the homeowner including credit cards, revolving debt, consumer loans, unpaid medical bills, etc.
The law firm will also assist in the drafting of a hardship letter, which details the conditions of the challenges facing the homeowner. Hardships can include an adjustable rate mortgage with payments that have increased to the point where they are out of reach of the homeowner, pay cuts, job losses, illness, or divorce. The hardship letter should also include the homeowners plan for dealing with and getting past the current hardship. From that point negotiations begin, the ultimate prize being the modification.
If you are struggling with your mortgage payments, are behind on payments, and/or facing foreclosure, talk to an attorney’s office that specializes in home loan modifications. The Feldman Law Center has executed over 600 loan modifications and has the experience and knowledge to get the best possible results to address your specific needs. Call them today at (949) 544 8224.
