Mon, Nov 19 2007, 8:00 AM
The stock market by mid-day on Monday was heading toward another hefty
loss and analysts were blaming - what else - fallout
from the sub-prime mar...
Thu, Nov 15 2007, 8:00 AM
Both long and short term interest rates dropped slightly last week
according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week
ended Nove...
Wed, Nov 14 2007, 8:00 AM
No matter what you may think about Zillow , the
Seattle-based real estate firm and its somewhat crazy approach to the
market, credit must be given ...
Tue, Nov 13 2007, 8:00 AM
It has long since passed the point where the downgrade of a company's
credit rating or an announcement of reduced earnings because of problems
with ...
Tue, Nov 13 2007, 8:00 AM
It is one of the small ironies of the subprime crisis
that the very competition that private mortgage insurers thought was
ruining their bottom li...
Mon, Nov 12 2007, 8:00 AM
The Federal Reserve has released the October 2007 Senior Loan
Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices which addresses
changes in the supp...
Fri, Nov 9 2007, 8:00 AM
I'm not going to rewrite the HR 3915 bibles that have
already been written. This article will simply collate the most valuable
information availab...
Fri, Nov 9 2007, 8:00 AM
James B. Lockhart, III, Director of the Office of Federal Housing
Enterprise Oversight ( OFHEO ) took the New York State
Attorney General to task Th...
Thu, Nov 8 2007, 8:00 AM
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo�s recently announced
investigation of eAppraiselT, a division of First American reverberated
throughout...
Wed, Nov 7 2007, 8:00 AM
As expected, the House Financial Services Committee passed
HR3915 out of committee to the full House of Representatives
with a favorable vote of 4...
Wed, Nov 7 2007, 8:00 AM
Mortgage rates fell last week to their lowest point
in nearly six months according to the results of Freddie Mac's Primary
Mortgage Market Survey f...
Mon, Nov 5 2007, 8:00 AM
Sides are quickly being drawn over a pending bill before the House of
Representatives which, if passed, will put in place some
stringent new standa...
Fri, Nov 2 2007, 7:00 AM
On November 1, New York State Attorney General Andrew M.
Cuomo announced that he is bringing suit
against one of the largest real estate apprais...
Thu, Nov 1 2007, 7:00 AM
What a fascinating and tumultuous time is upon us! Both the housing and the mortgage market are convulsing wildly! There are so many facets to the "bi...
Thu, Nov 1 2007, 7:00 AM
Mortgage rates showed substantial
declines for the previous week according to Freddie Mac's
Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Similar drops were re...
Wed, Oct 31 2007, 7:00 AM
Consumers, at least those who live in large apartment
complexes , may be poised to win one for a change if an article
by Stephen Labaton published ...
Tue, Oct 30 2007, 7:00 AM
As was widely expected on Monday, Merrill Lynch &
Company Tuesday morning announced the "immediate retirement" of
Stan O'Neal as the company's C...
Mon, Oct 29 2007, 7:00 AM
Several weeks ago we wrote two-parts of a three-part series on
foreclosure fraud , i.e. scams perpetrated against
troubled homeowners ostensibly to...
Mon, Oct 29 2007, 7:00 AM
A death watch was underway on Wall Street on Monday as investors and
financial analysts waited for what was rumored to be the imminent
resignation o...
Fri, Oct 26 2007, 7:00 AM
Countrywide Financial Corp , the largest mortgage
lender in the nation announced, before the stock marketed opened on
Friday, that it is posting a l...
Fri, Oct 26 2007, 7:00 AM
There were some pretty scary statistics swirling
around Capitol Hill on Thursday as the Joint Economic Committee (JEC)
released a report attaching...
Thu, Oct 25 2007, 7:00 AM
There was the tiniest ray of sunshine in the September New Residential
Sales Report issued on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S.
Depart...
Thu, Oct 25 2007, 7:00 AM
It was one of those weeks when one had to wonder if Freddie Mac and
the Mortgage Bankers Association were operating in the same universe. The
former...
Wed, Oct 24 2007, 7:00 AM
The NAR report blamed the sales decline on temporary problems in the
mortgage market which disrupted sales and distorted prices on sales
closed duri...
Wed, Oct 24 2007, 7:00 AM
A popular theme in the responses we have received to our request for
feedback from the foreclosure front has been the
confusion , delays, and infle...
Mon, Oct 22 2007, 7:00 AM
A few weeks ago we asked you to tell us what you were seeing out
there ; stories about the effects of the subprime debacle and the
credit crunch on ...
Thu, Oct 18 2007, 7:00 AM
Reuters News Service and the Associated Press are both quoting a story
in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the controversial
CEO of Countr...
Thu, Oct 18 2007, 7:00 AM
There is an old Western expression that a person's mood is "lower than
a snake's belly." Well lift up that snake and you just might find a home
buil...
Thu, Oct 18 2007, 7:00 AM
Buoyed by the strong employment figures for September that were
released last week, mortgage interest rates rose
slightly in all categories accord...
Wed, Oct 17 2007, 7:00 AM
The fallout from the mortgage meltdown continued today as ResCap, a
division of GMAC Financial Services, announced that it will be
restructuring its...
Wed, Oct 17 2007, 7:00 AM
Secretary of The Treasury Henry M. Paulson , Jr., is
in danger of becoming a household name in the midst of the sharp housing
downturn.
"The hou...
Mon, Oct 15 2007, 7:00 AM
Three major U.S. banks announced on Monday that they were responding
to some week-end jaw-boning by the Treasury Department and
forming a consortiu...
Fri, Oct 12 2007, 7:00 AM
Looks like people are finally starting to take the mortgage
situation seriously, and by people we mean the federal
government and major industry p...
Thu, Oct 11 2007, 7:00 AM
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) and many New
England based mortgage brokers had a rude shock last
week when a well known Harva...
Wed, Oct 10 2007, 7:00 AM
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist released
a statement saying "Mortgage rates eased slightly this week following
three w...
Tue, Oct 9 2007, 7:00 AM
...Or, if terms are defined too broadly they could allow prosecution
for activities that are not fraudulent at all. S. 1222 is once again
cited as f...
Mon, Oct 8 2007, 7:00 AM
While news events have conspired to delay finishing the series on
fore
closu...
Fri, Oct 5 2007, 7:00 AM
According to Reuters News Agency, this announcement places Merrill
Lynch at the top of the growing pile of investment and mortgage companies
which h...
Thu, Oct 4 2007, 7:00 AM
What is happening out there? We know that
mortgage companies are closing right and left and that people are being
laid off in huge numbers from t...
Wed, Oct 3 2007, 7:00 AM
Long term mortgage rates during the previous week did
not respond at all to the drop in the Federal Funds Rate announced by the
Federal Reserve a ...
Tue, Oct 2 2007, 7:00 AM
The National Association of Realtors ( NAR ) on Tuesday
released preliminary figures on sales contracts that were pending at the
end of August and t...
Mon, Oct 1 2007, 7:00 AM
There was actually some good news in real estate on Friday. The bad
news was it had nothing to do with the housing slump or the mortgage
crunch.
...
Fri, Sep 28 2007, 7:00 AM
The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development issued their monthly joint report on August new house
sales on Thu...
Thu, Sep 27 2007, 7:00 AM
According to Sudeep Reddy and Michael Corkery writing in The Wall
Street Journal, "The housing market is going into a deeper chill, and
consumers ar...
Wed, Sep 26 2007, 7:00 AM
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist
commented that, "Mortgage rates were largely unchanged in the previous
week, with long...
Tue, Sep 25 2007, 7:00 AM
Several Executive Branch surrogates indicated late last week that the
Administration was sort of willing to compromise about the role of
Freddie Mac...
Tue, Sep 25 2007, 7:00 AM
Probably no one who has read a paper or a website in the last 60 days
expected anything different, but the monthly report from the National
Associat...
Mon, Sep 24 2007, 7:00 AM
Foreclosure scammers have a wide variety of modes of
operation and no limit to the kinds of people they target. Particular
favorites are the elderl...
Fri, Sep 21 2007, 7:00 AM
It seemed to smack a bit of desperation at the time, but in hindsight
it appears to look more like marketing genius.
Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. ...
Thu, Sep 20 2007, 7:00 AM
