Making Home Affordable

Making Home Affordable.  Help is only a phone call away. If you know someone struggling to stay afloat, to pay their mortgage, Help is a Phone Call away. Get free advice from a housing expert. HUD-approved housing counselors work with you and your mortgage company on your behalf, and their expertise is available for free. Call 888-995-HOPE (4673) to speak with an expert about your individual situation.

Making Home Affordable has real help to offer, but you must contact your mortgage company or a housing expert to take action. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get on the road to financial recovery. Not taking action can only make things worse. Remember, many Americans have taken the first step towards modifying or refinancing their mortgages, and so should you if you are having trouble making your mortgage payments. There is help available:  Request for Home Affordable Modification, Speak With an Approved Housing Expert or Contact Your Mortgage Servicer.

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Fraud Foreclosures On Active Duty Military

Than banks continue to settle suits over fraudulent lending including foreclosing on active duty members across the country.

About 5,000 homes owned by active-duty members of the military and their families may have been foreclosed on by 10 leading lenders in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which aims to protect members of the military from financial distress, according to data released last week by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

There is more here.  What is to be sure is the housing recovery is a long way off.

B of A Employees Jumping Ship / Freddie Sinking Ship

Bank of America has said they plan to cut 30,000 jobs as competitors see an influx of resumes and phone calls out of B of A. There is much more here (B of A says they have 288k employees).

It looks to me B of A is headed to the chopping block; probably to result in a good bank/bad bank with wall street favorites picking up the good pieces and the tax payers picking up the rest.

In the meantime, the other bad bank, is looking for another $6 billion from the taxpayer as they report a stunning $4.4 billion quarterly loss. That brings their tab to about $50 billion--which doesn't include big sister Fannie.

If you have been caught in the housing downturn give credit repair houston texas a visit for a free credit repair plan.

Stop Paying 2nd Mortgage?

let's take a look / more at the link

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By Kenneth R. Harney

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Are you delinquent on your first mortgage but still making monthly payments on your home-equity credit line or second mortgage?

If so, a finance and real estate professor from DePaul University has some controversial advice for you: Stop paying on your second immediately.

Rebel Cole believes you are simply throwing good money after bad. If you are seriously delinquent on the first mortgage, you're likely headed for foreclosure unless both of your lenders agree on a modification or principal-reduction plan. But because you continue to make payments on the second, the bank that holds that revenue-producing note might have minimal motivation to participate in a workout, he thinks. Cole estimates that between 1 million and 3 million homeowners are in this position nationwide -- making it a big problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092400126.html

Housing Crises through 2012

JPMorgan Suspends Certain Foreclosures As Doubts Grow Over Legality

Even as August saw more Americans lose their homes to foreclosure than in any other month on record, there are growing concerns over the legality of many of those proceedings.

JPMorgan Chase has suspended legal proceedings on 50,000 foreclosures, due to concerns about the validity of the foreclosure documents, a spokesman for the bank toldCNBC Wednesday (hat tip to Zero Hedge).

JPMorgan spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the AP Wednesday that "employees signed some affidavits about loan documents without personally verifying the files."

The decision is the latest signal of a potentially massive stall in the nation's foreclosure process. Last week, after GMAC Mortgage halted its foreclosures in 23 states, the Washington Postreported that one of GMAC's employees hadn't read the roughly 10,000 foreclosure documents he approved each month (and now Coloradowants to be added to that list of states). It then turned out that the "robo signer" might not have been alone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/jpmorgan-suspends-foreclosures_n_744289.html

foreclosures will continue unabated

let's take a look

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Obama Homeowner Program Hits 10-Month Low As Prices Drop And Foreclosures Surge

The number of homeowners receiving permanent relief under the Obama administration's primary foreclosure-prevention initiative hit a 10-month low as home prices dropped and repossessions jumped, threatening more homeowners just as the administration's aid program winds down.

Just over 33,000 homeowners had their monthly mortgage payments reduced in August for the next five years as part of the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program, Treasury Department data released Wednesday show. Obama promised in 2009 that some 3 to 4 million homeowners would be helped. About 449,000 borrowers have thus far received mortgage modifications.

The program, sold as a $50-billion effort, is unlikely to spend that much helping delinquent homeowners keep their homes. Nearly one and a half years into the program, only 1 percent of that money has been spent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/22/hamp-obama-homeowner-program-hits-low_n_735720.html

Bank gets caught lying in court filing.

let's take a look

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Saving Americans Requires Sticking It to Them: Jonathan Weil

The banks were saved by the American people. Now who will save the people from the banks?

Last week, in a rare and possibly fleeting victory for the little guy, Ally Financial Inc.’s mortgage-servicing unit temporarily halted evictions tied to foreclosures in 23 states. This came after some attorneys for homeowners caught the company saying things that weren’t true in its court filings.

There’s no sense complaining to the federal government about Ally’s conduct, though. That’s because the Treasury Department is the company’s majority shareholder, after spending $17.2 billion of bailout money on Ally under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-23/saving-americans-requires-sticking-it-to-them-jonathan-weil.html

Shadow Housing Inventory Weighs on Market

let's take a look

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U.S. Home Prices Face 3-Year Drop as Inventory Surge Looms

The slide in U.S. home prices may have another three years to go as sellers add as many as 12 million more properties to the market.

Shadow inventory -- the supply of homes in default or foreclosure that may be offered for sale -- is preventing prices from bottoming after a 28 percent plunge from 2006, according to analysts from Moody’s Analytics Inc., Fannie Mae, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc. Those properties are in addition to houses that are vacant or that may soon be put on the market by owners.

“Whether it’s the sidelined, shadow or current inventory, the issue is there’s more supply than demand,” said Oliver Chang, a U.S. housing strategist with Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. “Once you reach a bottom, it will take three or four years for prices to begin to rise 1 or 2 percent a year.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-15/u-s-home-prices-face-three-year-drop-as-inventory-surge-looms.html

Housing Crisis

EXCLUSIVE: Fannie and Freddie's Foreclosure Barons

— Illustration: Lou Beach

How the federal housing agencies—and some of the biggest bailed-out banks—are helping shady lawyers make millions by pushing families out of their homes.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/david-stern-djsp-foreclosure-fannie-freddie?page=1

Really good article. If the housing crises has hit home credit repair Houston has experience working with credit bureaus collectors and original creditors.

Home Buyer tax credit really a loan

lets take a look:

By Martin Vaughan

Snip......

More than 2.6 million have claimed the first-time home-buyer tax credit since it was enacted in July 2008, for a total of $19 billion in tax breaks.

At first, the credit was structured like a no-interest loan of up to $7,500, and required taxpayers to pay it back over a 15-year period.

Congress later eliminated the repayment requirement for homes purchased after 2008. But taxpayers who claimed the credit for homes purchased in 2008 will still be required to repay it in 15 equal installments, beginning when they file their 2010 income tax return. That will apply to about 950,000 taxpayers, TIGTA said.

snip

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/09/irs-needs-strategy-to-recoup-home-buyer-tax-credit/

Housing Prices out of line with Income

Excellent article on Housing Prices from a blogger at political calculations

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"When exactly did the U.S. housing bubble begin?

Better yet, can you tell from the Case-Shiller Home Price Index when it began?

Take a look for yourself. Could it have begun in 1997, when house prices, after adjusting for inflation, bottomed? Could it have been in 2000, when these real house prices exceeded rents? Or was it in 2003, when real house prices began growing even faster than they had in the period from 1997 up to that point?

Here's what James R. Hagerty found when he asked the question of two housing and mortgage industry experts in November 2009. First, he asked Edward Pinto:"...........

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2010/02/better-method-for-detecting-housing.html

New Homes DOA

let's take a look

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New Home Sales Plummet

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- New home sales plummeted to a record low in May, the first month following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. This snapped a two-month streak of gains.

New home sales declined 32.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000 last month, down from an downwardly revised 446,000 in April, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Sales year-over-year fell 18.3%

This is the slowest sales pace since the Commerce Department began tracking data in 1963. The prior record was set in September 1981, when new homes sold at an annual rate of 338,000

http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/23/real_estate/new_home_sales/

GSE's are a sinking ship

lets take a look

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Fannie and Freddie tab is $146B and rising

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

NEW YORK TIMES

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual city with more houses than Seattle. The mortgage finance companies, created by Congress to help Americans buy homes, have become two of the nation’s largest landlords.

Bill Bridwell, a real estate agent in the desert south of Phoenix, is among the thousands of agents hired nationwide by the companies to sell those foreclosures, recouping some of the money that borrowers failed to repay. In a good week, he sells 20 homes and Fannie sends another 20 listings his way.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/E744C01438F6DB698625774700815937?OpenDocument

Mortgage Market a Mess

let's take a look

FHA Home-Financing Volume sign of a "very sick System"

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S.-owned mortgage insurer, may be involved in more home-purchase transactions than borrowing financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

FHA lending last quarter may have topped the combined volume of government-supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a home-lending market that’s still a “government-financed market,” David Stevens, the agency’s head, said today at a conference in New York, citing research by consultant Potomac Partners.

“This is a market purely on life support, sustained by the federal government,” he said at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference. “Having FHA do this much volume is a sign of a very sick system.”

The FHA, which backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, insured $52.5 billion of home-purchase mortgages in the first quarter, compared with $46 billion of purchases of the debt by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Washington-based Potomac Partners.

The FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which regulators seized in 2008, have been financing more than 90 percent of U.S. home lending after a retreat by banks and the collapse of the market for mortgage bonds without government-backed guarantees.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-24/fha-home-financing-volume-sign-of-very-sick-system-update2-.html

Mortgage volume down big-time!

let us take a look

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WASHINGTON — The number of customers applying for a mortgage to purchase a property fell to the lowest level in 13 years last week, a sign the housing market is struggling without government incentives.

Purchase volume declined 5.7 percent and is at its lowest point since February 1997, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

Overall mortgage application volume, which includes loans for purchases and refinancings, dropped by 12.2 percent during the week ending June 4, compared with the previous week. Refinance volume tumbled 14.3 percent.

"Purchase applications are now 35 percent below their level of four weeks ago, as homebuyers have not yet returned to the market following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit at the end of April," said Michael Fratantoni, MBA's vice president of research and economics.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iIvqFRg66XEuDVbUOooZbk-FI9lgD9G7SG280

Big Banks' Bet against Main Street

This is a must read article by the Wall Street Journal. Let's take a look

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The Busted Homes Behind a Big Bet

ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP, N.J.—The government's civil-fraud allegation against Goldman SachsGroup Inc. centers on a deal the firm crafted so that hedge-fund king John Paulson could bet on a collapse in U.S. housing prices.

It was a dizzyingly complex transaction, involving 90 bonds and a 65-page deal sheet. But it all boiled down to whether people like Stella Onyeukwu, Gheorghe Bledea and Jack Booket could pay their mortgages.

They couldn't, and Mr. Paulson made $1 billion as a result.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704133804575198120387721724.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

Who coulda knowed?

let us take a look

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Defaults Rise in Loan Modification Program

The number of homeowners who defaulted on their mortgages even after securing cheaper terms through the government’s modification program nearly doubled in March, continuing a trend that could undermine the entire program.

Data released Wednesday by theTreasury Department and the Housing and Urban Development Departmentshowed that 2,879 modified loans had been ended since the program’s inception in the fall, up from 1,499 in February and 1,005 in January.

The Treasury Department said it could not explain the growing number of what it called cancellations, almost all of which were apparently prompted by the borrower’s being unable to make the new payment. A scant number — 37 — were because the loan had been paid off, presumably because the borrower sold the house.

About seven million households are behind on their mortgage payments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/business/15mortgages.html?src=me

Loan Modification is a credit Killer

let's take a look..

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some homeowners who sign up for the government's mortgage assistance program are getting a nasty surprise: Lower credit scores.

For borrowers who are making their payments on time but are on the verge of default, the Obama administration's loan modification program can reduce their credit score as much as 100 points. That makes it harder to get a loan and can present a problem when applying for a new job.

Housing counselors say it's unfair, especially because the news often comes as a surprise to homeowners.

"Why should people's credit be hurt even worse when they're trying to do the right thing?" said Eileen Anderson, senior vice president at Community Development Corp. of Long Island, a housing counseling group in New York.

And many homeowners are angry that a program designed to help carries such a penalty, said Kathy Conley, a housing counselor with GreenPath Inc., a nonprofit group in Farmington Hills, Mich.

"It's a feeling of being duped," she said.

Still, the impact is far less severe than a foreclosure, where borrowers typically find their credit is in tatters for years. That's due to the cumulative impact of many months of missed payments and the foreclosure itself, which drags down a homeowner's' credit by 150 points or more on a scale of 300 to 850.

To enroll in the Obama administration's $75 billion "Making Home Affordable" program, borrowers enter a trial period in which they make at least three payments. But some are finding out that their credit score takes a dive during this trial phase. It happens once their mortgage company notifies the three big credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Credit-scores-can-drop-after-apf-1601705094.html?x=0

Non favored Banks Cash Strapped?

Banks scramble to raise cash after Fannie Mae cuts

NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - Banks scrambled to raise cash this week after U.S. mortgage finance agency Fannie Mae abruptly slashed the number of financial institutions that hold its funds, market sources said on Friday.

The move forced banks dropped by Fannie Mae to liquidate Treasuries and other short-term securities and borrow in the open market so they can return money Fannie Mae had with them, they said.

The banks had to collectively raise $100 billion to pay back Fannie Mae, said an analyst who declined to be identified.

The cash scramble on Wednesday and Thursday led to a spike in overnight interest rates on federal funds and repurchase markets to their highest levels since December.

It is unclear why Fannie Mae made the sudden move to reduce the number of banks to hold its cash.

Nearly all the financial institutions cut by Fannie Mae were foreign banks, market sources said.

Fannie Mae has declined to comment on the matter.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN0522784220100305

Commercial Real Estate delinquent balance up 326%

let us take a look

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In January 2010, the delinquent unpaid balance for CMBS increased by another $4.3 billion, up to $45.94 billion from $41.64 billion a month prior. The overall delinquent unpaid balance is up 326% from one-year ago (when only $10.79 billion of delinquent unpaid balance was reported for January 2009), and is now over 20 times the low point of $2.21 billion in March 2007. The distressed 90+-day, Foreclosure and REO categories grew in aggregate for the 25th straight month – up by $7.42 billion (28%) from the previous month and over $27.95 billion (508%) in the past year (up from only $5.51 billion in January 2009). This included a substantial jump in 90+-day delinquency in January 2010.

Overall, the total unpaid balance for CMBS pools reviewed by Realpoint for the January 2010 remittance was $797.3 billion, up slightly from $797.18 billion in December 2009 (affected by

some servicer and trustee reporting delays). Both the delinquent unpaid balance and delinquency percentage over the trailing twelve months are shown in Charts 1 and 2, clearly

trending upward. The resultant delinquency ratio for January 2010 of 5.76% (up from the 5.22% reported one month prior) is over four times the 1.281% reported one-year prior in

January 2009 and 20 times the Realpoint recorded low point of 0.283% from June 2007. The increase in both delinquent unpaid balance and ratio over this time horizon reflects a steady increase from historic lows in mid-2007.

https://www.realpoint.com/PublicDocDisplay.aspx?i=6Z4f4G6%2b0QA%3d&m=i0Pyc%2bx7qZZ4%2bsXnymazBA%3d%3d&s=LviRtUKXqs8kml5dHt7FTeE2SZmY0Fvqd4iX49Mk/9UapyiFTEO6TA%3d%3d