Housing Mortgages Information

Reports Continue to Show Home Price Declines

February 2, 2012 – 2:22 pm
Posted To: MND NewsWireCoreLogic and Lender Processing Services (LPS) have each released their most recent Home Price Indices . CoreLogic's HPI covers December; LPS's covers the month of November. Here is a quick review of each. LPS found that the average home price for transactions during November was $199.000, down 0.6 percent from the October average. This is the fifth consecutive month that this index has declined. Preliminary information on December sales indicates that the HPI might have lost another 0.8 percent during that month. When the market peaked in June 2006 the total value of the U.S. housing inventory covered by LPS was $10.8 trillion. The value has declined 30.6 percent to $7.5 trillion since that time. Price changes were consistent across the country, increasing in 13 percent of the ZIP Codes in...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may ...

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MBS RECAP: 2/2/2012

February 2, 2012 – 1:22 pm
Posted To: MBS CommentaryMBS Live : MBS RECAP Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 104-03 : +0-05 FNMA 4.0 105-25 : +0-02 FNMA 4.5 106-29 : +0-00 FNMA 5.0 108-01 : +0-00 GNMA 3.5 105-14 : +0-05 GNMA 4.0 107-31 : +0-03 GNMA 4.5 109-07 : +0-01 GNMA 5.0 110-30 : +0-02 FHLMC 3.5 103-27 : +0-03 FHLMC 4.0 105-14 : +0-01 FHLMC 4.5 106-12 : -0-01 FHLMC 5.0 107-19 : +0-00 Pricing as of 4:04 PM EST Afternoon Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 1:55PM : Google Mortgage Rate Search Discontinued Google: "Google Advisor mortgages has been discontinued We’ve been prioritizing our product efforts across Google, which means taking a hard look at products that haven’t been as successful as we would have hoped. To that end, we’ve closed down the mortgage...(read more)Forward this ...

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Homeowners Continue Shift Away from Cash-Out Refinancing

February 2, 2012 – 1:14 pm
Posted To: MND NewsWireHomeowners who refinanced their homes during the fourth quarter of 2011 either refinanced for about the same amount or actually brought cash to the table according Freddie Mac. Fewer than 15 percent of those who refinanced during the quarter increased their loan amount by 5 percent or more. This is the lowest percentage of "cash-out" borrowers in the 26 years that Freddie has been tracking the statistics. During those 26 years covering 1985 to 2010 the average percentage of cash-out borrowers was 46 percent. Thirty-seven percent of refinancing homeowners took out new loans of approximately the same size as the old loan but nearly half (49 percent) actually brought cash to the table, reducing the amount of the new loan to a median ratio of .74 of the old loan. The percentage of "cash-in" borrowers...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone ...

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Mortgage Rates Maintain Record Lows Ahead of Friday’s Jobs Report

February 2, 2012 – 11:59 am
Posted To: Mortgage Rate WatchFor the second day in a row, Mortgages Rates are just slightly better than unchanged. Best-Execution remains at 3.875% for conventional 30yr fixed loans, and the slight improvements seen today have benefited the borrowing costs required to obtain those rates. (learn more about how we calculate Best-Execution in THIS POST ). Also in the same vein as yesterday, the stratification between lender offerings continues to lessen, and the improvement in our measurement of rates today reflects that consolidation more than a broad-based movement down in rate. That said, 3.75% got a bit closer to vying for the Best-Execution crown. The similarities to yesterday keep on coming... MBS (the "mortgage-backed securities" that most directly affect mortgage rates) pressed further into all-time highs today, almost...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

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MBS Rallying At All-Time Highs, Time To Look At FNMA 3.0 Coupons?

February 2, 2012 – 9:50 am
Posted To: MBS CommentaryWe've posed this question almost a month ago ( read more... ) and the answer is fairly similar this time around. That said, MBS prices are higher and more time has passed with the broader rates market trading in a reasonably stable range. These factors (especially the "time passing" part), if they continue, mean that we should indeed expect 3.0 production to continue ramping up. Fannie 3.5's have been by far and away, the dominant production coupon for conventional loans for several months. This is important because it means that lenders would be going out on too risky a limb by offering any rates lower than those that "fit" into 3.5 coupon buckets. During this time, LLPAs, N/O/O's and the like kept plenty of a market around for 4.0 coupons, not to mention the fact that huge numbers of 4.0...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy ...

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MBS MID-DAY: 2/2/2012

February 2, 2012 – 8:22 am
Posted To: MBS CommentaryMBS Live : MBS MID-DAY Open MBS Live Dashboard FNMA 3.5 104-03 : +0-05 FNMA 4.0 105-26 : +0-03 FNMA 4.5 106-29 : -0-01 FNMA 5.0 108-01 : -0-01 GNMA 3.5 105-14 : +0-04 GNMA 4.0 107-32 : +0-04 GNMA 4.5 109-07 : +0-01 GNMA 5.0 110-29 : +0-01 FHLMC 3.5 103-27 : +0-03 FHLMC 4.0 105-14 : +0-02 FHLMC 4.5 106-13 : +0-01 FHLMC 5.0 107-21 : +0-02 Pricing as of 11:04 AM EST Morning Market Updates A recap of MBS Market Updates provided by MND Analysts and streamed live to the MBS Live Dashboard . 10:08AM : Bernanke Testimony on Economic Outlook and the Federal Budget Situation "Uncertain job prospects, along with tight mortgage credit conditions, continue to hold back the demand for housing. Although low interest rates on conventional mortgages and the drop in home prices in recent years have greatly...(read more)Forward this article ...

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Housing Assistance 2012: Another Herculean Task for the FHA

February 2, 2012 – 7:19 am
Posted To: Voice of HousingBeginning the 37th month of his presidency, the Obama Administration today announced a laundry list of new programs to help struggling homeowners, crack down on abusive lending practices, make mortgage documents easier to read, convert REO to rental, and other assorted initiatives. Some require Congressional approval; others are a work in progress, and a couple can begin quickly. At the heart of the announcement is a broad new refinance program with the venerable FHA stepping in (once again) to help save the mortgage market by offering current but underwater non-FHA borrowers another lifeline. Concurrently, the Administration appears to be on the verge of a broad-based “ REO-to-Rental ” initiative by announcing a pilot project to be led by FHFA, HUD, and Treasury. I think the Administration...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

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Citi Exits Broker Biz; Fed Addresses Sticky Second Mortgage Situation

February 2, 2012 – 6:18 am
Posted To: Pipeline PressYesterday, as I was standing in line at Franklin's BBQ in Austin, Texas, my head began to spin. Not because of the great smell, or from wondering why all these people weren't working at 11AM instead of standing in line, but from trying to keep track of all the continued government intervention in the housing market - not that it hasn't always been there. As I tell folks, nothing is going to happen to Freddie and Fannie until 2013, if at all, and the way Congress and the president keep using the agencies to try to accomplish policies they certainly are not going away. The HARP 2.0 initiative aimed at helping agency homeowners to refinance. Then came HAMP 2.0 (this past Friday), aimed at helping to encourage more modifications. Yesterday Obama unveiled a separate refinancing program (discussed...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story ...

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SEC Names Ex-Credit Suisse Employees in Subprime Fraud Scheme

February 2, 2012 – 6:01 am
Posted To: MND NewsWireFour former investment bankers and traders from the Credit Suisse Group were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday violating multiple sections of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 while trading in subprime mortgage bonds . The indictments allege the four engaged in a complex scheme to fraudulently overstate the prices of $3 billion of the bonds during the height of the subprime credit crisis. The four are Kareem Serageldin, the group's former global head of structured credit trading; David Higgs, former head of hedge trading; and two traders, Faisal Siddiqui and Salmaan Siddiqui. According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Serageldin oversaw a significant portion of Credit Suisse's structured products and mortgage...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone you know that may want to read it.

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The Day Ahead: Markets Ready To Discount Data As NFP Looms

February 2, 2012 – 5:06 am
Posted To: MBS CommentaryDomestic economic data is in slightly shorter supply on Thursday after two more robust days. But what it lacks in sheer number of reports, it makes up for in other ways, such as scheduled Fed buying in Treasuries as well as 3 Fed speakers. Fisher and Evans are non-voters and generally represent the opposite ends of the FOMC's spectrum of hawkishness, meaning markets are well-able to predict what these two will say. Bernanke, however, is always a potential mover, and will be speaking tomorrow in front of the House Budget Committee. Even so, the order of the day may well be waiting for tomorrow's Jobs data. With the possible exception of Consumer Confidence, we haven't seen much evidence that this week's economic reports have been significant drivers of trade. Scheduled Fed buying has been one...(read more)Forward this article via email:  Send a copy of this story to someone ...

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