Some Florida homeowners will receive a full year of payments on their mortgage, up to a maximum total of $24,000, from the Hardest Hit Fund, the Palm Beach Post reported. The full-year plan marks a change from what had been a six-month payment schedule under the plan that had a cap of $12,000. “We’re very excited to announce these changes just approved by our board this morning,” said David Wescott, chief administrator for the Florida Hardest Hit Fund at the Housing Finance Corporation. [more]
Posts Tagged ‘mortgage’
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Just because President Barack Obama’s latest budget proposal calls for rollbacks in mortgage interest deductions solely for high-income taxpayers, should a homeowner assume that all of his or her write-offs are secure from attack? Absolutely not. In fact, those tax benefits — from capital gains exclusions to home equity and second-home interest deductions — might be more vulnerable to broad-based cutbacks during the next two years than at any time in decades.
Here’s why: An influential, bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — led by a so-called “gang of six” in the Senate — is drafting a legislative framework that would essentially seek to implement much of the president’s deficit-reduction commission report released last December. [more] -
Is the foreclosure scandal overblown? In this video from the “DealBook” team at The New York Times, reporters Joe Nocera and Andrew Ross Sorkin take the pro and con viewpoints, respectively. “If the person next to me doesn’t deserve to be in their home, does that mean I have the right to kick them out?” Nocera asks, rhetorically.
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Multi-family lending declined sharply between 2008 and 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual multi-family lending report, released today. Developers nationwide secured $52.5 billion in loans for new apartment buildings in 2009, marking a 40 percent decline from the dollar amount loaned in 2008. In total, 2,725 different lenders financed projects in 2009, according to the report. The top five lenders — in terms of dollar value lent — were Wells Fargo, PNC Real Estate, Deutsche Bank Commercial Real Estate, CBRE Capital Markets and Capmark Financial Group. TRD
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Spurred by recent improvement in nationwide employment, the commercial real estate market is beginning to firm up, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s second-quarter market report. The office sector improved as “businesses eased job cuts and started to hire,” in the second quarter, according to a statement from the MBA. Meanwhile, in the multi-family market, a nationwide trend toward renting a home — rather than owning — has helped landlords. “Since the end of 2005, census figures indicate the number of households owning their home has declined by 370,000 while the number of households renting has increased by 3.25 million,” the MBA said. TRD
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Marina Walsh
Independent mortgage bankers nationwide saw profits surge during the second quarter of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, which reported an average profit of $917 on each loan originated, up from the first quarter, when that figure was down at $606. Meanwhile, firms saw a total average production volume of $196.6 million in the second quarter, compared to $157.8 million during the previous quarter. Marina Walsh, an associate vice president with MBA, said that the first-time homebuyer tax credit likely spurred this upward momentum. “The significant rise in loan origination volume during the second quarter reflects the surge in first-time homebuyers seeking to take advantage of the tax credit before the deadline expired,” Walsh said. But, even with this quarterly rise in activity, the MBA data showed profits significantly below those seen during the same time period a year earlier. “A year before, quarterly production volume averaged $280.9 million,” Walsh said. TRD
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The age-old debate of government involvement in the mortgage market was rehashed in this CNBC video, in which commentators Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman duke it out. While Liesman questioned the effect that higher mortgage rates might have on the suburban housing market, Santelli seemed to think that U.S. homebuyers need to get “tougher.” -
The age-old debate of government involvement in the mortgage market was rehashed in this CNBC video, in which commentators Rick Santelli and Steve Liesman duke it out. While Liesman questioned the effect that higher mortgage rates might have on the suburban housing market, Santelli seemed to think that U.S. homebuyers need to get “tougher.” -
Countrywide Financial is under fire for allegedly giving preferential loans to numerous Fannie Mae employees during the run-up to the housing market collapse, according to the Associated Press. Countrywide, which had been the largest granter of subprime mortgages in the nation, gave discounted mortgages to more than three dozen Fannie Mae employees, according to company documents released under a subpoena from Congress. The loans were reportedly granted in the midst of a burgeoning multi-billion dollar business relationship between the two groups, potentially creating a significant conflict of interest. Sibling organization Freddie Mac has a strictly-worded policy against that practice, according to Doug Duvall, a spokesperson for the group. “We have a code of conduct that says employees cannot solicit or accept discount prices or more favorable loan terms on the basis of their being Freddie Mac employees,” Duvall said. Fannie Mae representatives have declined to comment on the accusations. [AP via HuffPo]
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The Obama administration’s foreclosure prevention efforts are facing major obstacles, according to the Associated Press, with more than 40 percent of the homeowners engaged in the president’s mortgage aid program already dropped out. Of the 1.3 million participants who have enrolled in the program since March 2009, about 30 percent — 390,000 — have received permanent modifications on their home loans, the Treasury Department reported. While the program has been able to slash mortgage holders’ monthly payments by $500 a month, on average, many participants have complained that red tape and confusing paperwork makes the program difficult to complete. Further compounding the program’s problems, many of the borrowers who receive temporary modifications have troubling transitioning to a permanent modification, industry experts say, rendering the program largely ineffective. [Palm Beach Post]
