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Mortgage rates fall, 1st time since February 2008-03-20 13:00:42 Fed actions spur drop in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, but ARM rates still climb.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Borrowers looking for fixed-rate mortgages can now find the lowest rates in more than a month. But experts warn the decline may not last for long.
Rates on fixed-rate mortgages dropped sharply in the past week, after the Federal Reserve [...] Read more:February
, Mortgage
Sector Glance: Mortgage Companies Rise 2008-03-20 12:59:05 NEW YORK -
Shares of mortgage lenders and thrift banks jumped Thursday in the aftermath of regulators’ decision to ease restrictions on how much Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can grow their portfolios.
Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ), sponsored by the government, buy [...] Read more:Companies
, Mortgage
, Mortgage Companies
Mortgage News: U.S. moves to free up funds for mortgages 2008-03-20 12:57:26 Federal regulators relax capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move could add $200 billion to the pool of money available for home loans.
By E. Scott Reckard and Maura Reynolds
March 20, 2008
Seeking to boost the economy by making mortgages cheaper and easier to get, the government said Wednesday that it would further ease [...] Read more:Mortgage
, moves
Mortgage News: Seven firms closed in Calif. mortgage fraud probe 2008-03-20 12:56:03 LOS ANGELES — In August 2007, investigator Eric Bremner found evidence in a shredder at Olympic Escrow that he says confirmed borrowers’ complaints that they had never signed the mortgage documents that pushed them into a financial hell.
Bremner found pieces of documents that had been cut to remove signatures and notary seals. Loan applications, escrow [...] Read more:Calif
, firms
, fraud
, Seven
Most homeowners plan to reduce mortgage debt 2008-03-20 12:52:12 Using extra cash to pay down principal: Survey
The controversy over subprime lending may be making headlines, but Canadian homeowners remain fundamentally conservative when it comes to their mortgages.
About one-third of respondents in an annual survey released yesterday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said they had made a lump-sum payment at some point to try [...] Read more:reduce
Canadians in a hurry to pay off mortgage 2008-03-20 12:50:46 Canadians who have recently purchased, renewed or refinanced a mortgage want to quickly pay off their debt, a survey by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation indicated Wednesday.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said they wanted to pay their mortgages off as fast as possible and one-third said they had made a lump-sum payment toward that [...] Read more:Canadians
Mortgage News: Mortgage Reforms Clear Senate 2008-03-20 12:48:33 The Maryland Senate
has unanimously approved mortgage lending bills aimed at addressing the state’s rising foreclosure rate.
Senators voted without debate to approve three bills. The measures include setting up a new crime of mortgage fraud and a bill to give homeowners more time before a foreclosure can be made final.
Read Full Article Read more:Clear
, Mortgage
, Reforms
Mortgage News: Ultimately, leverage flipped the economy 2008-03-20 12:46:10 Raise your hand if you do not quite understand this whole financial crisis.
It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel as if they should understand it. But they do not, not really. The part about the housing slump seems simple enough. With banks whispering sweet encouragement, people bought homes [...] Read more:economy
, Mortgage
, Ultimately
Mortgage News: The Way Out of the Financial Ditch 2008-03-20 12:44:18 Re “In Sweeping Move, Fed Backs Buyout and Wall St. Loans” (front page, March 17):
Finally, we can see the essence of George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism in his administration’s Wall Street rescue. Will Washington soon extend the same care and compassion to America’s schools, family farmers, people without health care and our inner cities?
Socialism for [...] Read more:Financial
, Mortgage
Mortgage Interest Rates on long-term mortgages fall 2008-03-20 12:41:25 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was back under 6% this week: Freddie Mac
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Long-term mortgage rates dropped sharply this week, while adjustable-rate mortgages barely budged from last week’s averages, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey released Thursday.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.87% for the week ending March 20, down from last week’s 6.13% average. The [...] Read more:Interest
, Mortgage
, Rates
Goldman Sachs to cut up to 15% of staff: report 2008-03-21 20:43:01 NEW YORK — GoldmanSachs
Group Inc. plans to shed up to 15% of its work force, from its capital markets division and related support staff, the New York Post said on Friday.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Post said the cuts are expected to come in the firm’s capital markets division, which includes [...] Read more:Goldman Sachs
, report
Investor News: Profits, Fight Over Home Auctions 2008-03-21 20:40:48 Irvine-based National Home Auction Corp., an upstart foreclosure auction company, helped sell more than $40 million of bank-owned homes in a single day earlier this month.
Not a bad day’s work for a company that’s been in business less than a year, held its first auction in late February and is fending off charges that it [...] Read more:Investor
Greenspan defends interest rate policy 2008-03-21 15:23:44 WASHINGTON, Mar 21, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) — NO MATCHES FOUND. | news | PowerRating | PR Charts — Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan
defended his interest rate
policy, but said he should have monitored banks more closely.
“I don’t know a of a single example of when interest rate policy has been successful [...]
Fed cuts won’t affect 30-year loans 2008-03-21 15:21:55 The Federal Reserve’s decision to slash short-term interest rates might spare midstaters from a recession, but it won’t save them money on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages.
Here’s why: mortgage rates are not tied to short-term interest rates. Fixed-rate mortgage products are tied to bonds. And right now, bond traders aren’t in a generous mood.
As of March 16, [...]
FOCUS Federal Reserve cuts to interest rates benefit banks, not consumers 2008-03-21 15:03:29 WASHINGTON, Mar. 19, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — The FederalReserve
’s rate cutting campaign is benefit
ing banks
and financial institutions, but the interest rate declines have yet to pass through to the average American.
‘If you are waiting for real interest rates to bail us out, its probably not going to happen that way,’ [...] Read more:consumers
Mortgage News: Good credit may not be good enough 2008-03-21 14:11:03 HOUSING: Lenders get tough as areas such as the South Bay grow in risk. Some insurers rate the region as `distressed.
By Muhammed El-Hasan, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 03/20/2008 11:24:51 PM PDT
Warren Snyder, who co-owns Carriage Realty & American Broker Loans in Torrance, has already seen his business slow because of the weak housing market.
It may come [...] Read more:credit
, Mortgage
Pension Plans Take Chance on Mortgages 2008-03-21 14:09:37 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The subprime mortgage crisis has yielded at least one benefit for states: Mortgage-related investments have become so cheap that they are luring some pension funds to buy.
Retirement systems in South Carolina and Pennsylvania are nibbling at the securities, betting that they have been beaten down so much that the ones with [...] Read more:Pension
The Fed’s Interest Rate Cut Doesn’t Mean Mortgage Rates Will Fall 2008-03-21 14:08:03 Typically, when the Federal Open Market Committee cuts interest rates, like it did earlier in the week, the rate consumers pay for a mortgage loan falls. But unfortunately for borrowers, these are atypical times.
One only has to open a newspaper or turn on a TV to hear about the malaise in the housing market, [...] Read more:Interest
, Mortgage
, Rates
Lender News: NovaStar will pay $2M to settle involuntary bankruptcy attempt 2008-03-21 14:05:53 American Interbanc Mortgage LLC has agreed to accept slightly more than $2 million to end its bid to force a unit of NovaStar
Financial Inc. into involuntary bankruptcy
.
American Interbanc filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against NovaStar Home Mortgage in January in an attempt
to collect a judgment against the unit. A California court ruled in [...] Read more:Lender
Interest rate cuts attempt to prod nervous lenders to help US housing market 2008-03-21 03:15:55 The battered housing market
in the United States has gotten some good news from Washington recently. On Tuesday of this week the Federal Reserve cut key interest rates down to 2.25%. This rate cut, and predicted further cuts in the future, may help Ame
(EMAILWIRE.COM, March 20, 2008 ) SAN FRANCISCO, Calif – The battered housing [...] Read more:attempt
, Interest
California Senate approves bill on mortgage debt 2008-03-25 04:14:20 SACRAMENTO — The state Senate
approved a bill Monday to help California
homeowners whose lenders have forgiven part of their mortgage debt.
The bill would end a requirement that homeowners report that part of the loan that was forgiven as income on their tax returns.
Read Full Article
Federal banks can buy more mortgage-backed debt 2008-03-25 03:44:54 The nation’s 12 Federal
Home Loan Banks were freed Monday to boost their purchase of mortgage-backed
bonds by about $150 billion — another government step to pump money back into a market that slumped as the housing crisis deepened.
Directors of the Federal Housing Finance Board, the banks
’ regulator, approved the temporary increase. The purchases will [...]
Charges laid in alleged nationwide mortgage scam 2008-03-25 03:43:43 SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - U.S. officials said on Monday that they had charged 19 people with targeting desperate homeowners facing foreclosure and stealing at least $12.6 million through illegal mortgage and loan activities.
At a news conference in the California capital Sacramento, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said “Operation Homewrecker” investigated one of the largest mortgage frauds ever [...]
Clinton Calls for $30 Billion for Home Mortgage Crisis 2008-03-25 03:42:00 PHILADELPHIA — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
returned to one of her major campaign themes Monday — the economic impact of the home mortgage crisis — and called on Congress to provide $30 billion to help states and communities lessen the number of foreclosures.
In a speech at the University of Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton proposed several other [...] Read more:Crisis
, Mortgage
Nineteen indicted in huge foreclosure case 2008-03-25 03:37:39 Mar 24, 2008 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — NO MATCHES FOUND. | news | PowerRating | PR Charts — Federal officials announced the indictment of 19 people Monday in what they call the largest “foreclosure rescue” scam in the nation, one that allegedly took in more than $12 million [...] Read more:indicted
Suthers indicts 10 for mortgage fraud 2008-03-25 03:30:44 Colorado Attorney General John Suthers on Monday announced indictments against 10 individuals who allegedly participated in a large mortgage-fraud
operation.
Those indicted face 29 charges, including theft, forgery, computer crime and violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.
Between the spring of 2004 and spring of 2007, the individuals allegedly used false invoices and shell [...]
Real Estate News: Home sales rise on biggest-ever price drop 2008-03-24 15:20:34 Realtors’ group sees record 8.2% decline in year-over-year price
s in February.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A record plunge in prices of existing homes produced only a modest increase in sales in February, according to the latest reading on the battered housing market by an industry trade group released Monday.The National Association of Realtors reported that sales [...] Read more:Estate
, Real Estate
Real Estate News: National home sales up, prices down 2008-03-24 15:19:23 Sales of existing home sales increased in February, a gain real estate industry observers are hoping signals a rebound on the horizon for the nation’s struggling housing market.
Existing-home sales, including single-family houses, townhomes and condominiums, rose 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 units, the National
Association of Realtors (NAR) [...] Read more:Estate
, Real Estate
Real Estate News: Ray Of Light In U.S. Home Sales 2008-03-24 15:16:26 The American housing industry got some unexpected good news on Monday as falling home prices seem to be encouraging buyers to return to the battered market.
The National Association of Realtors reported the results of its latest housing survey on Monday, beating Street expectations. The report showed sales of existing homes increased by 2.9%, to 5.03 [...] Read more:Estate
, Real Estate
, Sales