Mortgage Best Rate

Posts Tagged ‘news’

After months of fine tuning and Capitol Hill bickering, financial reform is finally official. President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law Wednesday, kicking the surrounding media frenzy into an even higher gear.

Last week we shared some folks’ speculation as to how the then-pending bill might affect the mortgage analytics industry. With those prognoses now a bit more real, these week we’ve been paying attention to some more specific and tangible implications. Industry groups and banks, for example, are mailing the White House with their specific concerns about setting the right precedent right out of the gate in terms of lending regulations. And on the broader end of the spectrum, there are also those of the belief that no legislation can change Americans’ innate borrowing habits overnight.

An excerpt from the Wall Street Journal’s piece on the housing groups’ pleas:

The Mortgage Bankers Association submitted perhaps the most specific vision for a new housing finance structure. Under its model, privately-owned corporations would apply for government charters to guarantee mortgages and package them into securities. The timely payment of interest and principal on the securities would be guaranteed by the government.

The model eschews the implicit federal guarantee that many blame for allowing Fannie and Freddie to grow too large and reckless.

“In our proposal, the extent of federal backing would be greatly constrained, making explicit what is guaranteed and what is not, and establishing mechanisms to properly capitalize, price and supervise those activities,” MBA Executive Director Benjamin Hatfield wrote.

The comment letters highlight some crucial fault lines in the debate over the extent and structure of the government’s role in the housing market.

Bank of America argued that housing GSEs shouldn’t hold portfolios of mortgages or mortgage securities, for example. The community bankers group, however, said that holding loans on their balance sheets allowed Fannie and Freddie to serve smaller lenders that were selling small volumes of loans into the secondary market.

The question of ensuring that mortgage credit flows to poorer borrowers is another flashpoint.

Critics blamed Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s affordable housing goals for increasing the enterprises’ risk. State housing agencies and community groups, however, say that backing loans from underserved markets should be a core part of housing GSEs’ public mission.

“Buying affordable loans did not get Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into financial trouble. Buying bad loans did,” the National Council of State Housing Agencies wrote in a letter.

The American Bankers Association argued that housing GSEs should support the availability of mortgage credit broadly and efforts to serve poorer borrowers or other underserved markets should be left to other programs or entities.

A group of housing groups and academics, in a joint letter, said policy makers should relax their emphasis on homeownership and focus more on ensuring an adequate supply of cheap rental housing.

“Going forward, policy makers must refocus on the goal of promoting affordable and stable housing options, and pull back from the idea of emphasizing homeownership, regardless of sustainability or cost, as a goal for its own sake,” the groups wrote.

Industry remains concerned about the disruptions caused by switching to a new structure, particularly if the housing market remains fragile. Policy makers should focus on the costs to the industry of the adjustment to a new regime, the Independent Community Bankers of America argued.

“Just changing the GSEs’ names would entail a significant re-write of most mortgage processing, underwriting and servicing technology platforms,” the group wrote.

Save your breath, says Rachel Beck of the Associated Press. No matter how the new legislation shakes out in practice, Americans will always over-borrow:

New regulations, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Wednesday, can only go so far to prevent future financial crises like the one we are living through. Banks will still lend. And many of us will borrow too much.

“You can’t legislate diligence,” says Robert Lawless, an expert on consumer credit at the University of Illinois College of Law and a contributor to the blog Credit Slips. “You can’t pass laws that make people be careful when they take out loans.”

…

Amazingly, the pace of consumer borrowing hasn’t fallen off that much, even in the wake of the recession and financial crisis. Mortgage lending has dropped, but borrowing on credit cards and other loans, such as for autos, is only slightly below historical levels.Federal Reserve data shows consumer borrowing ran at an annual rate of .42 trillion in May. That was the 15th decline in 16 months, but the amount is still on par with the winter of 2007, when credit was still booming.

The new rules might get rid of the riskiest loans in the marketplace. Regulators will be able to ban financial products they think are unsafe or outlaw things that might be confusing, like the fine print on credit card or mortgage applications. Mortgage lenders will also be required to verify a borrower’s income, credit history and employment status.

Those are good first steps, but they’ll be meaningless if Americans continue to ignore the basics rules of avoiding credit disasters.

We have to understand the kinds of loans were are getting, and whether we can afford them. An adjustable-rate mortgage isn’t a bad thing on its own, but it can be if you don’t realize your rate could go from 2 percent to 10 percent five years from now.

We don’t need a wallet full of credit cards. We have to save more. We have to read the disclosures on every loan we get.

“You can’t force people into long-term financial stability,” says Todd Mark, vice president of education at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas. “Plenty of people still don’t understand the dangers of debt.”

Mark and other credit counselors worry what happens next, when the economy improves and credit flows more freely. If the unemployment rate finally retreats, the bingeing could come back, maybe even more than before.

“When credit is easy, it can be rational to over-borrow,” says Lawless of the University of Illinois.

Unless Americans radically change their approach to credit, we know where this story goes in five or 10 years. It will look a lot like the mess we’re in today.

<br>

Find More Mortgage Articles

We all tend to be prone to overreaction. All you need to do is turn on the news to find out the latest apocalypse du jour. Of course, the vast majority of these expected calamities that we get ourselves worked up about never in fact show up in our lives. Let’s face it; we are a bunch of Chicken Little’s running around shouting about the falling sky. One recent example of this is the media’s incessant shouting about the skyrocket Read the rest of this entry »

If you are in the marketplace for a new mortgage, it may be for any quantity of reasons. It may be that the money you would like to borrow is meant to purchase a home for you to live in, or maybe an investment property. Or it could be used to pay off your existing home loan so that you can refinance into a new lower, maybe fixed rate mortgage.

If that’s the case, I don’t have to tell you that the last few weeks ha Read the rest of this entry »

European turmoil is the biggest boost to the American home buyers. Investors seeking a safer side on their moneys protection are coming to the US and in return the real estate buyers are getting a great deal, as the mortgage rates are nearing to 50 year low.

After the Federal Reserve stopped the $1.25 trillion purchase of mortgage backed securities, industry experts expected the rate to rise. But now the same experts exp Read the rest of this entry »

Rates on 15 and 30 Year Fixed loans have been pretty stable the last month. In contrast mortgage rates on 5 and 1 year ARMs have been falling. 1 Year rates fell from 5.22 to 5.06 this week. This is the lowest 1 Year Arms have been since early March. Its a little weird considering banks are losing a lot of money on ARMs from people going into foreclosure when they reset.

One would think that banks would be di Read the rest of this entry »

Every American dream of owning a house, but with real estate prices touching the sky, this dream remains unfulfilled for many. Do not let that happen to you. Search for the best mortgage rates and a private home. If your credit history is good, the better! Are you a low, that would suit your repayment plan. Ask your lender about adjustable rate and fixed mortgage.

Rate mortgage can change Read the rest of this entry »

Everett Mortgage Expect higher Interest Rates Soon

As of March 1st expect FHA mortgage rates, VA mortgage rates, and all other long term interest rates to rise. Expect prices for homes for sale in Everett to fall. I am not Chicken Little and saying the sky is falling but there is going to be some very dark clouds coming soon. Here is why. The Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) will no longer be buying Mortgag Read the rest of this entry »

Home Equity Mortgage Loans have the characteristics of second mortgage loans and secured loans. These loans are secured in nature because the home is placed as collateral here. Home owners can easily get m Read the rest of this entry »

When getting a mortgage, especially if you’re a first time buyer it can seem a bit daunting, with all the jargon flying about fixed rate, variable rate, tracker etc. It can feel confusing when trying to get a mortgage sorted coupled with the pressure and time constraints to get all the paperwork sorted for your new house it can be a pretty daunting task.

This article will hopefully give you a general idea of Read the rest of this entry »

Mortgage lender or different Student Loan discount Plans

When you are consolidating your student loans, it is obscure to be entangled by the disparate repayment plans weight the market. Read the rest of this entry »