March 2007 - MND NewsWire

A lot has happened to the subprime market and the players in it since the virtual meltdown two weeks ago. This does not purport to be a definitive roundup of activities in the last week, there has been a lot going on.

Reports on the sales of both new and existing homes were released on Friday, March 23 and Monday, March 26 and they pointed in distinctly opposite directions.

NAR�s chief economist David Lereah said the strong gain was a surprise. "Some of the rise in home sales may be from mild weather that brought out shoppers in December, but fundamentals have improved in the housing market and buyers see a window now with historically-low mortgage interest rates and competitive pricing by sellers." He warned, however, that...

Mortgage rates were essentially unchanged during the week ended March 15 according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The only real change was in the one-year Treasury-indexed ARM which...

Every cloud has a silver lining, usually shining on somebody else. Now, with the owner-occupied sector of housing in a downturn, it is the apartment industry's turn.

The National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC) recently declared "It's official. The dark days of the apartment market recession are officially over." This euphoric claim is...

Lots of chickens came home to roost on Tuesday but they didn't exactly fly in unannounced.

First the news about the subprime mortgage market got even worse with several major subprime lenders releasing news about their financial condition that could only be described as disquieting.

Then there were those delinquency figures. The MBA report is worth a thorough analysis, particularly in light of the many categories they use to present...

Freddie Mac seems to be seeking a little cover in its March 2007 Economic Outlook released late last week. These monthly forecasts always have a theme which the authors tend to torture relentlessly and this month it is the old adage - "In Like a Lion..." News about the housing market is likened to the "proverbial March weather, with each warm breeze followed by an icy blast." The outlook states that most analysts expect things to improve late in the year and buyer traffic in the spring market will provide an important test of the environment. But, hedging its bet, Freddie quotes "even the most cheery forecasters" as warning about two possible storms still on the horizon.

Recently we reported on a new nationwide system for licensing and regulating mortgage lenders on the state level.

The system will include an Internet based central mortgage licensing system which will allow applicants to complete one set of forms and submit them to all states in which they do or wish to do business.

...last week the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), the national trade association representing the mortgage brokerage industry, released a statement condemning the initiative...