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Are Sweeping Changes Coming for Mortgage Finance?Adding to a mounting chorus in the nation's capital that the Bush administration must do more to reverse the nationwide housing slump, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday spelled out several aggressive steps that government could take to fix the main cause of the recession. |
U.S. Foreclosure-Start Rate Almost 7 PercentRising unemployment in states already hit hard by foreclosures helped boost mortgage-delinquency rates in the third quarter from the second, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today. |
Lenders Nervous About Risk, Even If the Risk Isn't YouLenders of all sorts are more cautious because there's more risk that people will run into job losses, take hits on their income and have problems staying current on loans. |
Home Loan Fraud Still Rising; Florida Leads NationDespite more stringent underwriting of mortgages in the wake of record foreclosures, lenders continued to battle home loan fraud during the second quarter of the year, with Florida borrowers again submitting more questionable loan applications than borrowers in any state in the nation, according to an industry report released Tuesday. |
Pimco's Gross sees lower U.S. 30-Year Mortgage RateU.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rates, which are pivotal to the fortunes of the battered housing market, will fall steeply in reaction to government steps to buy mortgage-related securities, the manager of the world's biggest bond fund said on Wednesday |
New Home Sales Fall to Slowest Pace Since 1991Sales of new homes fell in October to the lowest point in nearly 18 years while the median price of a new home dropped to the lowest level since 2004. |
S&P/Case-Shiller: Home Prices Plunged a Record 17.4% in SeptemberThe U.S. housing market is currently suffering the worst downturn since the Great Depression. A huge supply of unsold homes, tighter lending standards and record foreclosures have pushed down home prices, deflating a bubble from the early part of this decade. This was reflected in the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices issued on Tuesday, which indicated prices of single-family homes in September plunged a record 17.4 percent from a year earlier. |
Home Loans Prove Increasingly Tricky to ObtainIt's common knowledge that about the only hurdle to getting a mortgage in recent years was the ability to fog a mirror. But with the economy on the skids, the rules have changed. Lenders now continually are tightening standards and are increasingly unwilling to make any exceptions for fear they won't find a loan buyer on the secondary market. |
Existing-Home Sales Dip 3.1% in OctoberSales of existing homes in the United States fell by 3.1 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.98 million units, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. |
FDIC Chair Urges Bailout Funds for Foreclosure ReliefFDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair said yesterday in Baltimore that the one step the federal government still needs to take in this financial crisis is to stop unnecessary foreclosures. And it can do so, she said, by spending about $24 billion of the bank bailout money on a program to modify troubled loans. |
Buying? Selling? What to Look for in a Real Estate AgentWhen picking a real estate agent, think of yourself as an employer hiring for your company: Require a good resume, check references and do a thorough interview. As CEO, you must recruit the best talent. Buying or selling a house is just like a business deal -- and you need the right lieutenant to get the job done. Agents should be familiar with neighborhoods and selling trends. You want someone who will go above and beyond to make things happen in this slow real estate market. |