Archive for March, 2008
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
"Average mortgage rates were up for all loan products reported," said
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief
economist. "However, for the first 11 weeks so far this year, the average
30-year fixed rate is still below 5.9 percent, and the average 30-year
rate in January was the lowest ...
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
OFHEO announced a major initiative in cooperation with the two
government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to increase, by perhaps as much
as $200 billion, the liquidity of the mortgage-
backed securities market.
This reduction combined with the increase of the portfolio caps
announced last month should allow Freddie and Fannie to purchase or ...
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Housing starts and the pulling of construction
permits continued to decline in February according to a
monthly report issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
The only region of the country where permitting was up month-over-
month was in the west where it increased...
...
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Due to some feedback from our article on the new GFE
and YSP, we wanted to try and clarify things. Let's
preface "mild correction" by admitting that there are fewer more hotly
contested debates among compliance gurus than disclosure of PFC's
and YSP. After working over the years with numerous ...
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
PMI Group reported a record loss of $1.01 billion or
$12.51 a share for the fourth quarter of 2007.
The losses were tied both to the growing rate of foreclosures which
cost PMI negative income of $236 million in its U.S. mortgage insurance
operations.
In other mortgage news, Option One Mortgage
Corporation, ...
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
The Federal Reserve had a busy weekend.
The Fed announced a new lending program aimed at the
20 large investment banks that serve as "primary dealers" and trade
Treasury securities directly with the Fed. The program would allow...
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
The news wasn't surprising but the price tag was a real
stunner.
On Sunday J.P. Morgan chase agreed to pay $2 per
share to acquire failing Wall Street investment bank
Bear Stearns, lock, stock, and barrel. And the purchase
price, by the way, will be paid entirely in stock and includes ...
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Friday, March 14th, 2008
On Friday HUD released a proposed mortgage reform
package designed to help consumers better understand the terms
of the loans they are considering and offering guidelines for shopping
for different products.
The changes, if enacted, will reform the 30-year old
Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).
One feature of The Good Faith ...
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Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Thursday released
recommendations from the President's Working Group on Financial Markets
(PWG.)
To address the current financial situation and to guard against a
repeat in future years the PWG made six broad
recommendations:
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Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Life for Carlyle Capital has gotten even worse than
we reported last week and by Thursday morning it appeared that the hedge
fund would not survive. Another loser from last week, Thornburg
Mortgage had a bit of a respite earlier this week but got
clobbered by new news Thursday morning. ...
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