Why older people should pay off their mortgage
COMMENTARY: SCOTT BURNS It's always good to have readers who pay attention. Last week, when I was asked how a young Army lieutenant should invest, I focused on finding a low-cost fund that invested in a broad portfolio and suggested three such funds. Readers quickly pointed out that I had overlooked the same federal Thrift Savings Plan that I have often praised. Bottom line: If you are in the military, ...
2009-06-23 03:58:55 Austin American Statesman
Mortgage Rates Only Part Of Equation: Know Your DetailsWhile some mortgage rates have been increasing in recent weeks, overall, interest rates are the lowest we have seen in a generation.
Homeowners and first-time buyers getting a mortgage in the months ahead will likely enjoy a rate that will keep their borrowing costs low for the next few years. Indeed, borrowers who have renewed or
refinanced a
mortgage in the past year now pay mortgage interest rates ...
2009-06-22 09:01:57 Huliq.com
Mortgage foreclosures heading through the roof
The Obama administration's $75 billion program to reduce foreclosures has been beset by backlogs and delays, leading many overstretched homeowners to complain about unreturned phone calls and inaccurate information from lenders, while others say they were denied help for reasons that weren't clear. Details of the plan were unveiled in early March. The goal is to prevent up to 4 million foreclosures ...
2009-06-19 14:12:42 Coshocton Tribune.
Rates Fall on Monday, According to Zillow
Mortgage Rate Monitor SEATTLE, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The weekly
average rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for
30-year fixed mortgages increased last week to 5.72 percent, up from
5.48 percent the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate
Monitor, compiled by leading . Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed
mortgages rose to ...
2009-06-16 11:48:21 Canada
Falling yields on both mortgage securities and
Treasuries are likely to push current mortgage rates lower in the coming
weeks. Rates on 30-year FRMs fell to 5.52% on Monday after closing last
week at 5.67% and 5.72% the previous week. Today's mortgage rates look
to be stabilizing for now. Treasury yields continued their drop last
week. Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries fell from 3.86% midweek ...
2009-06-16 11:48:21 Huliq.com
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A proposed new consumer
protection agency would have vast powers to overhaul U.S. mortgage
lending practices, upending current federal rules aimed at protecting
home buyers. The new agency would have authority to require lenders to
offer mortgages with simple terms alongside more complex mortgage
products, according to a fact sheet circulated by Obama administration
officials ...
2009-06-16 17:42:09 Morningstar.com
Homes such as this one on Riverfront Drive in
Roseburg are now eligible for financing through the Rural Development
mortgage program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The
News-Review/file photo A home mortgage program that almost seems too
good to be true it doesn't require a buyer to make a down payment is set
to become even better in Douglas County. Next week, the U.S. Department
of ...
2009-06-16 14:13:31 Oregon
News-Review
Benefits to the bank's customers include faster
approvals, streamlined documentation requirements for qualified
applicants, and continuous access to their
mortgage loan processing
status. America's Labor Bank - Amalgamated Bank has launched a new
alliance with PHH Mortgage to provide customers with a comprehensive
range of home financing services, from pre-approval letters to loan
origination and ...
2009-06-16 15:42:20 Banking
Business Review
Mortgage Brain has revealed that contracted
users of the Key its business management, mortgage sales and compliance
process software have increased by over 100% in the past twelve months.
With a number of high profile companies and thousands of mortgage
advisers selecting the system to support their mortgage sales business,
the firm said the Key saw over 100,000 new log-ins during the last three
...
2009-06-16 11:37:58 Mortgage
Solutions
All Nationwide fixed mortgages facing increases
Nationwide is raising the cost of its entire fixed-rate mortgage range
following recent steep increases in wholesale funding costs. The group
is increasing its fixed-rate deals by an average of 0.2%, but some loans
will see their rates jump by up to 0.86%. The move follows steep
increases in swap rates, which fixed-rate mortgages are based upon,
during ...
2009-06-16 08:54:10 Which?
As the fixed income crowd chows down on another
$8-billion of Canada Mortgage Bonds, its becoming clear that this ramped
up government program has been a blessing for income seekers. The price
will be set on another monster issue of five-year Canada Mortgage Bonds
on Tuesday morning, and the expectation is this triple-A rated debt will
be sold at a premium of 42.5 basis points to the comparable government
...
2009-06-16 07:41:32 Globe and
Mail
People really prefer doing business with someone
they can sit across the table from and look them in the eye, says Tim
Gristy of Gristy Financial Services, Inc. Doing business with someone
over the phone in California or even some other city in Texas for a
reverse mortgage just doesn't give most people the level of confidence
needed when making such an important decision. I have so many clients
...
2009-06-16 04:57:03 Lubbock
Online
Britain's biggest lenders raise interest rates
by up to 0.7 percentage points across two, three and five-year fixes
James Charles Britain's biggest mortgage lenders have hit borrowers with
sweeping increases to the cost of fixed-rate mortgages, prompting
accusations of profiteering and fears that the housing market recovery
could be put in jeopardy. Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) is ...
2009-06-16 08:08:15 The Times
Real estate trends is a generic term used to describe any consistent pattern or change in the general direction of the
real estate industry which, over the course of time, causes a statistically noticeable change. This phenomenon can be a result of the economy, a change in mortgage rates, consumer speculations, or other fundamental and non-fundamental reasons.
A real estate trend is the catalyst for the change, and it is usually a concept, a belief, a philosophy, or an event. Sometimes a real estate trend evolves to meet a specific need, while others evolve when new products or solutions are launched. For example, when more lenders began offering creative financing products, more borrowers were able to afford a mortgage (at least on paper). At other times, a trend from another industry spills over into the real estate industry and is adopted.
Therefore, a trend must have substance and be based on fact. Over time, it will cause pattern of change. Monitoring changes and tracking trends is a not an exact science and can be very hard to predict.
Plan to sell San Quentin, other properties is questioned
Posted: 06/03/2009 04:17:32 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO - San Quentin State Prison. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The California State Fairgrounds.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to put some of his state's biggest landmarks up for sale to help erase a $24 billion budget deficit is fraught with questions, chief among them: How can California taxpayers possibly get a good deal in this slumping real estate market?
Schwarzenegger, who has also proposed deep cuts in education, health care, welfare and parks, wants to sell off some property outright, sell office buildings and then rent them back from the new landlords, and lease some state land to developers.
"Everywhere I go, I hear stories about families selling off their boats and motorcycles to make ends meet. They have garage sales and yard sales," he told the Legislature this week, offering his rationale for selling assets. "They know that you don't have or keep a boat at the dock when you can't put food on the table."
The governor said California could generate $3 billion from selling seven landmarks and 11 office buildings scattered around the state.
In most cases, however, it would take a few years to complete the sales, doing nothing for California's immediate budget crisis. Moreover, selling in the middle of a recession and a downturn in real estate is a questionable proposition.
v
"Fundamentally, this is the wrong time to do this," said Robert Griswold, a real estate author and member of the planning commission in San Diego. "The market is down and is now in the favor of people looking to buy these properties and not in the favor of the state."
Fred Aguiar, Schwarzenegger's secretary of consumer services, defended the proposal, saying many of the properties cannot be compared to ordinary commercial or retail space because they are unique and often sit on prime land. He said potential buyers have already inquired about the sites, though he would not identify them.
"These are some very valuable properties," Aguiar said. "When you start a bidding process on valuable properties, I think a lot of people will be surprised at the kind of prices they will fetch."
The state estimates that San Quentin State Prison - situated on 488 picturesque acres on the San Francisco Bay - could bring in $1 billion in today's market. It is widely assumed that any buyer would be interested primarily in the land and might tear down all or some of the 1880s prison to make way for condos or some other development.
It is unclear, however, where California's death row would be housed, and how long it would take to move the prison's 5,150 inmates - a process that could cost many millions of dollars and eat into any proceeds from San Quentin's sale.
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The state has not put a price tag on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum but estimates any sale of the 86-year-old stadium could take two to three years. The expectation is that a buyer would continue to operate the stadium, which can seat more than 100,000 people and was the site of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics.
Democratic state Sen. Rod Wright said lawmakers should be careful about holding a fire sale of valuable landmarks.
"When New York was in the middle of a crisis, they never considered taking out Central Park," Wright said. "It would be like the Romans trying to sell the Trevi Fountain or the French trying to sell the Arc de Triomphe or the British trying to sell London Bridge. Those are landmarks."
(Actually, the British did sell London Bridge, which was shipped to the U.S. and rebuilt at Lake Havasu City, Ariz.).
Paul Habibi, a real estate lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, said California taxpayers could be shortchanged if the state moves forward with a sale now. In general, commercial properties in California have lost 25 percent to 35 percent of their value since the market peaked several years ago, Habibi said.
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"This is the classic pawn shop mentality of trying to divest the state's assets," he said.
Red tape, investors hamper housing aid-US official
June 03, 2009: 05:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's plan to refinance mortgages for as many as 9 million troubled homeowners is off to a slow start due to government bureaucracy and the challenge of unwinding Wall Street's bad mortgage bets, a U.S. housing official said Wednesday.
Obama announced the housing rescue plan in mid-February but officials are still signing up mortgage finance companies to participate and collecting paperwork from troubled homeowners in search of help, said James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
"Borrowers are required to submit the required documentation, be approved for a modification, and successfully perform under a three-month trial," Lockhart told a congressional panel as he outlined some steps that a troubled borrower might face before getting mortgage relief.
The Obama housing plan goes further than past efforts to aid distressed homeowners because it targets both delinquent borrowers and those who could simply use some financial relief. But officials are still racing to save borrowers.
Lockhart, the chief regulator for housing finance companies
Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, told a House Financial Services subcommittee that one part of the program that would pay mortgage companies cash to reduce a borrower's payments to 31 percent of their income would not see significant results until "current activities ramp up in late summer."
The Obama administration has tapped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to coordinate the bulk of the housing rescue but they have only been able to reach a small faction of troubled borrowers.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac control 30.4 million home loans, but they have been able to steer less than 9,000 troubled borrowers towards an emergency sale that avoids
foreclosure, Lockhart said. In the first three months of the year, the companies foreclosed on 41,264 properties, he said.
One in every 374 homeowners who carry a mortgage balance -- a record 342,000 households -- received a foreclosure notice in April, the real estate research firm RealtyTrac said last month.
"These programs are not anywhere close to answering the crisis," National Community Reinvestment Coalition President John Taylor told Reuters by telephone.
Officials can rewrite the terms of troubled home loans that they control through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other housing agencies, but they have trouble reaching the many mortgage investments created by Wall Street during the five-year housing boom that are outside their control.
Lockhart said the modification program that stresses affordability is "especially challenging" because it primarily targets loans that have passed through Wall Street and have been sold to investors. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will permit some borrowers to refinance into cheaper loans under the other key housing-rescue program.
The Obama administration has promised to spend up to $275 billion to spur mortgage modifications and while consumer advocates have welcomed such efforts, some say that more needs to be done.
