Free Republic

When it comes to residential mortgages, big banks are waving the white flag. Banks originated 74% of all mortgages in 2007, but their share fell to 52% in 2014, the most recent data available from the Mortgage Bankers Association. And it could go even lower. But even at these levels, the big bank backtrack is reshaping a lending landscape that’s already undergone seismic shifts since the housing bubble burst. While there’s widespread agreement that banks should have been reined in — and perhaps punished — after playing a major role in the housing bubble that helped tank the economy, the...

Movie sequels are rarely as good as the original films on which they're based. The same dictum, it appears, holds for finance. The 2008 housing market collapse was bad enough, but it appears now that we're on the verge of experiencing it all again. And the financial sequel, working from a similar script as its original version, could prove to be just as devastating to the American taxpayer. The Federal National Mortgage Association (commonly referred to as Fannie Mae) plans a mortgage loan reboot, which could produce the same insane and predictable results as when the mortgage agency loaned so...

The elite Wall Street bank announced on Thursday it reached a $5.1 billion deal to put to rest claims made by the government over its toxic mortgage deals. ... Goldman said it has agreed to pay a $2.4 billion civil penalty, pay $875 million in cash and provide $1.8 billion in consumer relief.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- What Fed rate hike? One week after the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates from record lows, the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage went the other way: It dipped to 3.96 percent from 3.97 percent last week, mortgage giant Freddie Mac says. The drop is a reminder that the Fed has only an indirect influence on long-term mortgage rates, which more closely track the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note. And that rate, in turn, tends to stay down as long as inflation remains low and investors keep buying Treasurys. The 10-year Treasury yield has...

Anyone heard this bit of audio? Economic crisis President Bush mortgage speech 2002 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9viaJatpo

Democrats and the media insist the Community Reinvestment Act, the anti-redlining law beefed up by President Clinton, had nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession. But a new study by the respected National Bureau of Economic Research finds, "Yes, it did. We find that adherence to that act led to riskier lending by banks." Added NBER: "There is a clear pattern of increased defaults for loans made by these banks in quarters around the (CRA) exam. Moreover, the effects are larger for loans made within CRA tracts," or predominantly low-income and minority areas. To satisfy CRA examiners,...

A proposal in Seattle meant to increase homeownership among Muslims by offering financing compliant with strict Islamic law -- known as Sharia -- is gaining ground in the latest test for local leaders trying to accommodate diverse religious beliefs. "We will work to develop new tools for Muslims who are prevented from using conventional mortgage products due to their religious beliefs," Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said during a press conference July 13. "Sharia," which comes from the Koran and means "the right path," prohibits the payment of interest -- the primary way lenders earn. Many of Seattle's 30,000 practicing Muslims,...

CoreLogic (CLGX) could create an additional 500 jobs and workers in North Texas as part of it larger consolidation in the region, according to an article in the Dallas Business Journal. The move will combine two centers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area into one, large operations hub. The article said that CoreLogic plans to make the $68 million, 325,600-square-foot campus at 3001 Hackberry Road in Cypress Waters its new regional campus. CoreLogic plans to relocate at least 1,300 full-time positions with an average annual salary of $57,000 from Westlake and Richardson into the new regional campus. In the next four...

In “This Is What Happens When A Millennial Tries To Get A Job,” we highlighted 1) high youth unemployment (U-6 at nearly 14%) and 2) the failure of America’s university system to prepare new entrants for the job market, on the way to painting a rather grim picture for America’s newly-minted college graduates. We’ve also been keen to emphasize the fact that the “strong” labor market is anything but, as wage growth is essentially non-existent and upside “surprises” benefit from the now ubiquitous “vanishing worker.” Given this, it’s no surprise that many of America’s best and brightest find themselves serving...

Housing: If you need federal subsidies to pay your apartment rent, it's a good bet you can't afford to buy a new home. But don't tell that to the Obama regime. It's pressuring banks to lend even to Section 8 voucher recipients. In a new regulatory bulletin, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns home lenders that they can be investigated for discrimination if they reject Section 8 vouchers as a valid source of income for low-income minorities applying for mortgages. The agency argues that underwriting policies that exclude such welfare payments could have a "disparate impact" on minority borrowers and...

Timeline proving that the mortgage industry crisis is the Democratic socialist experiment. Another socialist experiment failed, this time a massive federal effort, imperiling the whole US banking industry. Facing this economic disaster, can an informed American people put their trust Obama’s socialist ideology to bring remedy? Will they bring in an acetylene torch to put out the fire? http://eyesandearsweekly.blogspot.com/2008/10/narrative-for-change-proven-failure-of.html

Some 5.4 million homes, or 10.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were still in a negative equity position, or "underwater," in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to CoreLogic, as their owners owe more on the mortgage than the home is currently worth. This is down considerably —18.9 percent, from a year ago—but it still keeps these borrowers from putting their homes on the market, because they would lose money. .. Additionally, of the 49.9 million U.S. homes with a mortgage, approximately 10 million (20 percent) have less than 20 percent equity, and 1.4 million have less than...

My breakfast companion looked gloomy. He’d flown into Washington from Vienna the day before. When he deplaned, he found a shocking email waiting for him: a demand from his banker for immediate payment of €12,000. Although a resident of Austria, he had taken a home mortgage in Swiss francs, which carried a lower interest rate than mortgages in euros. But 48 hours before he had arrived in the United States, the Swiss franc had surged by 20 percent against the euro. That currency appreciation had wiped out his equity in the house. His frightened banker wanted a new infusion of...

The interest rate has balanced around 0 in a level between minus 0.03 percent plus 0.03 percent. Most have paid a modest positive interest rate, but there are so few who have had a negative rate. It is quite an unusual situation, says Lise Nytoft Bergmann. It is residential customers who have chosen to stick with F1-loan that now benefit from the negative interest rate. F1 loan form has otherwise been strong returns in recent years in favor of fixed interest loan. Although interest rates are negative, it is not something that can be felt by customers as contributions and...

When they moved into the house in November 2005, Kofi was earning $82,740 as an IT consultant for a government contractor, and Comfort, then 43, was making $30,000 as an administrative assistant. But in the overheated mortgage market of the time, they said everyone told them that they could buy a $600,000 house. They made a $60,000 down payment and all their mortgage payments for more than 2½ years — through September 2008. But the house was financed with subprime loans, which reset to higher rates after short time periods, creating what are known as “shock payments.” The Boatengs said...

WASHINGTON — Mortgages with low down payments can be just as safe if other underwriting conditions are met, a federal housing regulator said Tuesday. Mel Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee, after Fannie Mae FNMA, +0.47% and Freddie Mac FMCC, +0.47% both started making mortgages available to those who make down payments of just 3%. That has raised the ire of Republicans, who say the move risks a repeat of the housing bubble. “All things being equal, is a 3% down loan riskier to the taxpayer than...

Dear Mona,It seems like homeownership is a common data filter in the social sciences. But nearly everyone I know who “owns a home” is paying a mortgage. How many “homeowners” have actually paid off their houses?John, 34, Mount Vernon, Washington Dear John,Your question is an important one, not only because home ownership can have big consequences for the economy, but because 56 percent of all the housing units in America (that includes trailers, apartments and houses) are owned by the people who live in them.According to last year’s American Community Survey, one in three of those owner-occupied housing units doesn’t...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Americans will soon be able to buy a home with a down payment as low as 3 percent, compared with the current minimum of 5 percent, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say. The new lending guidelines announced by the companies Monday are designed to help more low-income and first-time buyers afford homes. Millions of Americans lost their savings or no longer had the income needed to set aside money for a home in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. That has held down the sales of houses and...

Meet the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking By Matt Taibbi | November 6, 2014 "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'" Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing. Back in 2006, as a...

Republicans are the adults in Congress while the Democrats, liberal to the core, will never admit we are being set up for another financial crisis It is a cliché, but true, that history repeats itself. This is largely due to the failure of each new generation to learn anything from the past as well as the human tendency toward the bad habits of greed and power-seeking. Only the names and faces change. That is why the next financial crisis is entirely predictable. On October 23, The Wall Street Journal had an article, “Relaxed Mortgage-Lending Rules Clear Final Hurdle.” The financial...