BK Could Save Your Home
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Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web
Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web |
Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans Defect; Plan To Blame Government For CrisisThe four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday, according to people familiar with the commission's work.Read more |
Where Home Prices Are Falling DangerouslyNot long ago it looked like the housing market was on the mend in most major U.S. metropolitan areas. But now prices are falling fast again in many. Foreclosures and vacant homes lingering on the market are depressing prices, and the home buyer tax credit that expired in July is sorely missed. In September home prices fell in 18 of the 20 metro areas tracked by Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller composite home price index. That was worse than August, when 15 of the top 20 cities were down month-over-month... |
BofA Says Investors Extend Deadline in Putback Fight...Owners of some bonds linked to home loans created by Bank of America’s Countrywide Financial Corp. agreed to extend deadlines set in an Oct. 18 letter, the lender said yesterday in a statement, without identifying the holders. Pacific Investment Management Co., BlackRock Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were among investors demanding that the bank repurchase loans packaged into $47 billion of bonds, people familiar with the letter said in October.Read more |
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A Questionable Plan to Aid Underwater HomeownersThe U.S. economy can't truly recover until the housing market revives. Yet recent data indicate that prices, already off an average of 30 percent from their peak in 2006, have still not touched bottom. Lending conditions are tight, and mortgage rates are ticking up again. Nearly a quarter of mortgage borrowers are "underwater," owing more than their houses are worth.Read more |
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Fed Had Warnings But Chose to Disregard Them
Alan Greenspan's housing bubble coffee break
New evidence that the Federal Reserve had ample warning trouble was brewing in 2005, but chose to ignore it
On Friday, the Federal Reserve released the transcripts of its 2005 Open Market Committee meetings -- the gatherings in which the Fed's Board of Governors takes the pulse of the economy and then decides upon the appropriate interest rate policy. Calculated Risk looks at the transcript of the June meeting, and engages in a wry cut-and-paste.
(Atlanta Fed president Jack Guynn is discussing his negative views on the housing boom:)
My supervision and regulation staff thinks this is an accident waiting to happen in our area. And while the local market excesses probably do not represent systemic national risk, the shakeouts could have serious regional consequences. My bank supervision staff points out that housing-related credit risks to our bank lenders are not so much from defaults on permanent mortgage financing that we talked about yesterday, but rather from lending for land acquisition, development, and construction. The ugly picture we have seen before -- and that they think we may very likely see again before long -- goes something like this: the drying up of sales of new units; the painful decision of developers to go ahead and complete the construction of additional units to make them saleable, further depressing the market; and speculators who had hoped to see big capital gains walking away or defaulting on their contracts, giving their properties back to the lender. Perhaps it's because of where I sit, but I am less comforted than some of my colleagues about the housing situation ...
CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN. Let's take a break for coffee.
Most economically damaging coffee break of all time? Perhaps, but skimming through the report, I was also taken by a long summary of the subprime mortgage market, delivered by Fed Gov. Mark Olson.
Wells Fargo Trims the Fat
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Quicken Court Case Not Ending
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Will Debt-Ceiling Debate be Geithner's Swan Song?
Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web |
Will Debt-Ceiling Debate be Geithner's Swan Song?... Geithner said speculation about his departure was being driven by his decision to commute to New York so his son can finish his final year of high school there. “I live for this work,” he said at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever done. I believe in it. We have a lot of challenges as a country. I’m going to be doing it for the foreseeable future.” ...Read more |
Reasons Why Potential Buyers Should Get Off the Fence... Interest Rates: Why start with interest rates? They may be the most important factor to consider at this time. A number of economic forces threaten to push up interest rates in the days, months, and years to come. ... ... Prices: If you think that future interest rates are hard gauge, then you'll be really frustrated by home prices. The housing market is officially in double dip territory, as national prices have fallen below their recession lows. ...Read more |
Looking Back to 2008 at BofA's $2.5 Bil Purchase of Countrywide... When Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial for $2.5 billion in stock in 2008, it must have seemed like a good deal. The troubles with Countrywide, then the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, were known at that point -- defaults and foreclosures were piling up, and there were rumors that bankruptcy could be around the corner. But Kenneth Lewis, then Chairman and CEO of Bank of America, maintained an optimistic tone.Read more |
The Deal Behind BofA's $8.5 Bil Countrywide MBS Settlement Deal
... This deal, struck with the noteholders in 530 trusts that issued securities backed by Countrywide mortgage loans, would not have happened without Gibbs partner Kathy Patrick. She put together a coalition of major institutional investors that BofA’s trustee on the securitizations, Bank of New York Mellon, could not afford to ignore. Patrick sent a red-alert warning to the bank last October, by announcing publicly that Gibbs & Bruns and its bondholder clients were gearing up for litigation.Read more
Don't Blame Freddie and Fannie, Blame Banks and Builders
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Sees Good Times in 2011
Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web |
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Sees Good Times in 2011Jamie Dimon says the story of 2011 will be America blossoming again. Two years after the financial meltdown, the chairman and CEO of one the top U.S. banks, JPMorgan Chase, (JPM) says businesses have plenty of capital and are starting to expand again. Dimon should know, sitting atop more than $2 trillion in assets and overseeing 230,000 employees. Analyzing his more than 5,000 branches, and 90 million credit cards, Dimon says there are still some weak spots for the economy, such as foreclosures in the pipeline and new regulation which he says will make banking more expensive for customers.Read more |
Changes at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Could Transform Mortgage Landscape... Fixed 30-year mortgage rates in the 5% range? Minimum down payments below 5%? Jumbo-sized home loans for high-cost markets at regular interest rates? Kiss them goodbye — possibly sooner than you might guess.Read more |
Homeless Ex-Mortgage Broker Susan Schneider Shows Housing Bust Hit Agents Hard... Schneider, once a mortgage broker with plenty of disposable income, arrived one cold winter morning with her possessions in tow, looking for a hot meal. ... ... She'd worked in the mortgage business in Northern Virginia since 1998. Then, in 2005, searching for a change of scenery, she moved to Texas and took a job as a loan officer at Countrywide Financial, the home-loan behemoth now owned by Bank of America, whose lax lending practices made it the poster child of boom excess.Read more |
Foreclosure Attorney Stern Selling Hillsboro Beach Estate Properties - and Perhaps a SuperyachtIn yet another sign that times are tougher for Plantation foreclosure attorney David Stern, he is looking to unload luxury assets worth tens of millions, including two estate properties on Hillsboro Beach that stretch from the Intracoastal to the blue waters of the Atlantic and what is believed to be his Italian-built superyacht. Stern, 50, made a fortune by building Florida's largest foreclosure legal practice, with an army of attorneys and more than 1,000 employees processing paperwork for repossessions throughout the state.Read more |
Geithner Called Housing Giants Biggest 'Moral Hazard'U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the biggest sources of “moral hazard,” leading investors to count on a bailout for risks gone wrong. Geithner, in a November 2009 interview with the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, also said he initially opposed a government bailout of insurer American International Group Inc., and changed his mind when he realized the alternative would have been a “terrible nightmare” on a worldwide scale.Read more |
Mortgage News Headlines
Headlines and Blogs from Around the Web |
Fannie, Freddie Narrow Losses but Seek More Aid... Fannie Mae also reported a $21.7 billion loss for all of 2010, narrowed from a loss of $74.4 billion the year before. Freddie Mac's loss last year was $19.8 billion, compared with a $25.7 billion loss in 2009. "The good news is that their losses are shrinking," said Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The bad news? "This is just the calm before the storm. ... They're going to be hit with some staggering losses," Sanders said. ... |
Should Mortgage Servicer Lawsuit Settlements Include Principal Cuts?... The Big Pro: It Could Stabilize the Market The administration may argue that this program could finally stabilize the housing market. In just the few months since the foreclosure crisis began last fall, tens of thousands of foreclosures have been delayed. That caused foreclosure rates to plummet in the latter part of 2010. The running assumption has been that these foreclosures are just delayed -- not avoided.Read more |
Banks Bristle at Mortgage-Loan Plan... Though a unified settlement is uncertain and would have to appease regulators, banks and state attorneys general, some officials are pushing for banks to pay more than $20 billion in civil fines or to fund a comparable amount of loan modifications for distressed borrowers. The proposal "would bring with it enormous costs that would far outweigh any potential benefits," Chris Flanagan, a Bank of America Corp. mortgage strategist, said in a research note Thursday.Read more |
House Republicans Target Obama's Mortgage Program... When Congress returns from recess next week, the House Financial Services Committee will vote on legislation that would dismantle the Home Affordable Modification Program, and three other initiatives. "In an era of record-breaking deficits, it's time to pull the plug on these programs that are actually doing more harm than good for struggling homeowners," said Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala.Read more |
MBA Panel: Mortgage Servicing Industry Should Ramp Up Technology... Diane Pendley, managing director at Fitch Ratings, said the servicing programs for loans sold to government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac vary greatly from private servicing platforms. That adds to the problems currently facing servicers when trying to complete a modification, she said. ... ... Joe Dombrowski, executive consultant at Fiserv, said the servicing industry was caught somewhat flat-footed in regard to using technology properly to meet the needs formed by the housing crisis.Read more |
Mortgage-Backed Securities Will 'Reemerge': Lew Ranieri...Lew Ranieri is known as the "father of securitization" because he helped invent the securitized mortgage in 1977 while working for Salomon Brothers. He's even been credited with inventing the word "securitization."Read more |
Subprime Bonds Are Back
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Alternative Idea to Save Housing
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Fannie and Freddie Hiding Over $100 Billion of Losses?
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Uncle Sam Looking for a Ref! (Video)
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Deutsche Bank Sold Mortgage-Linked 'Pigs' as Market Buckled, Lawmakers Say
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More Mortgage Mischief: Elizabeth Warren Revs Up Her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
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