Free Republic

More African-Americans are being squeezed out of the housing market. Not only are they less likely to apply for a mortgage than any other ethnic group, but African-Americans are also 2.4 times more likely to get denied a mortgage than Whites, a recent study conducted by Zillow and the National Urban League found.

Even though household formation by millennials is at a record low percentage, home sales are at modest levels thanks to investor all-cash buying. Market-Watch notes All-Cash Home Sales Reach New High. More Americans are buying homes in all-cash deals, according to a new report. But real-estate experts say this increase may not be a good sign for the health of the housing market, which may also be impacted by the Federal Reserve’s decision to pull back on its bond-buying program. All-cash purchases accounted for 42% of all sales of residential property in November 2013, up from 39% during the previous...

As many are painfully aware, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed in price from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008. Fannie Mae stock was trading at $60.81 on September 28, 2007 and fell to $1.71 by September 30, 2008. That is quite a drop. But Fannie Mae’s equity is now at $2.73 while Freddie Mac’s is at $2.52 per share. Both started showing signs of life in March 2013, spiked on May 28th, fell again, but has regained upward momentum since September. Who is in the running to purchase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provide private market...

The most left-leaning candidate for City Council speaker says she would consider using eminent domain to seize homes that are in foreclosure from banks – a move that could leave taxpayers subsidizing the mortgages. Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan/Bronx), a close ally of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, said she was open to the proposal when asked about it during a forum in Queens Thursday night featuring five main contenders in the race for speaker. “The idea of using eminent domain in a reverse way… as a way of seizing those properties from the bank as a way of making those homes affordable...

EDMOND — Mortgage services company Adfitech Inc., Edmond's largest private employer, said Friday it would lay off half its workforce in December. The company said it would lay off 320 employees because of “abrupt changes in customer needs.” The layoffs are scheduled to take effect Dec. 20. Adfitech said the layoffs were necessary for the long-term viability of the company, which provides outsourcing services to major lenders, banks and mortgage companies. Adfitech has about 620 employees in Edmond, according to a March report from the Edmond Economic Development Authority. After the planned layoffs, the company will fall behind OU Medical...

Fannie Mae Risk-sharing Notes are trading tighter, according to analysts at Credit Suisse. Mid-market spreads for Fannie Mae risk-sharing CAS securities tighter than pricing levels on Oct. 15, Credit Suisse analysts say in report today. • M1 at +167bps vs. +200 • M2 at +482bps vs. +525 • Both had priced “significantly tighter than initial guidance” • CS, BofAML were joint leads • Freddie Mac STACR indicative levels at +210, +535, CS says • Priced at +340, +715 in July • NOTE: ~75 investors participated in $675m Fannie deal, ~50 in $500m Freddie deal, meaning typically only small blocks trade,...

A sign advertising low-interest housing loans at the Crescent Shores Subdivision in Lincoln, Delaware. The government shut-down has halted the processing of these loans, which are aimed at low- and moderate-income buyers. The week-old federal government shutdown is a disaster on many levels. For rural America, one major impact is in the area of housing. For the near future, low- and moderate-income homebuyers who have applied for mortgages guaranteed or made directly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service are out of luck. So are very low-income homeowners seeking repair grants or loans.

PHH Mortgage is laying off a third of its Jacksonville work force, cutting 365 positions by December. The move, of which employees were notified Thursday, leaves about 700 workers left on the First Coast. Most of those that are being laid off work in the mortgage origination department. They will received 60 days pay in lieu of notice, said Dico Akseraylian, vice president of communications for parent company PHH Corp. The move comes on the heels of Wells Fargo and Chase announcing layoffs in their mortgage department. PHH's reason for the cuts are similar to those of other industry players,...

What does the government shutdown mean for the mortgage market? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t affected by the shutdown. While the FHA is still processing loans, it’s operating with a vastly reduced staff, which could lead to delays. The FHA is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, which has just 64 of 2,972 employees reporting to work right now. The biggest issue facing the mortgage market is that the Internal Revenue Service isn’t issuing Form 4506-T, which is what most lenders currently use to verify borrowers’ incomes. For loans ready to close now,...

The “Goodbye Larry! (Summers)” Treasury yield decline yesterday was short lived. After Summer pulled out as a candidate for Federal Reserve Chairman, the US Treasury 10 year yield fell 11 basis points yesterday morning, but the exuberance quickly went away. ust10091713. Speaking of interest rates, the National Association of Home Builders Market Index was flat for September compared to August, but missed expectations by the most since April. nahbhbindex09171`3 If we compare the NAHB Index with new home sales, we see a daunting gap between builder “optimism” and reality. nahbnhs091713. And if we include the Bankrate 30 year rate, we...

President Obama gave a speech touting how far the US has come since the jarring Lehman Brothers collapse five years ago. “The U.S. has come a long way since September 2008,” according to President Obama. Well, not in terms of household income since REAL median household income continues to decline. household-income-monthly-median-growth-since-2000 (1) And the less than 1% of the population continues to suffer. [Note how the top 1% fared under President Clinton!] inomr Mortgage purchase applications have tanked along with the employment-to-population ratio. empopombapurch And the labor force participation rate continues to fall along with M2 Money Velocity. lfpm2v We...

John Lennon said it best. Sort of. “Instant Government Karma’s gonna get you Gonna knock you right in the head You better get yourself together Pretty soon your gonna be dead Thanks to the rise of social programs and wars, government spending has exploded up to 24.4% of Real GDP. govtsizewh That is a whopping 1/4 of the total economy! Let’s look at a few empirical oddities. 1. Mortgage purchase applications are falling with the employment to population rate. empopombapurch 2. M2 Money Velocity is falling with labor force participation rate. lfpm2v 3. 43% of Americans pay no Federal taxes....

Housing: Under pressure from civil-rights activists, federal bank regulators have killed tougher mortgage rules requiring minimum down payments and credit scores for loans bundled into securities. Here we go again. The Fed, FDIC, SEC and three other agencies regulating Wall Street have adopted the same weak underwriting standards the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau set earlier this year for loans. The Dodd-Frank Act was supposed to require banks and other issuers of mortgage-backed securities to retain 5% of the credit risk of the bonds on their books to avoid the moral hazard that led to the financial crisis, when lenders quickly...

The S&P Case-Shiller repeat sales house price index for 20 metro areas rose 0.89% in June, and rose 12.07% YoY. Now THAT is a big increase in house prices! cshp082713 House prices are back to October 2008 levels. cschart082713 But Case-Shiller was no surprise if you follow CoreLogic’s Loan Performance HPI that came out earlier. Atlanta was the leader on major metro areas in June. csloanhp082713 And Washington DC is the worst performing major metro (but still up 1% in June). csmetro082713 csmetro2082713 House prices continue to rise despite flat-lined mortgage purchase applications. cs20mbap082713 Inflation in college tuition is rivaling...

When the mayor of Richmond, Calif., and a gaggle of activists and homeowners showed up at the Wells Fargo Bank headquarters in downtown San Francisco this month, they were on a mission to speak with the bank’s chief executive. They wanted the bank to drop a lawsuit aimed at stopping Richmond’s first-in-the-nation plan to use the government’s constitutional power of eminent domain to “seize” hundreds of mortgages from Wells Fargo and other financial institutions. … Wells Fargo, three other banks and even the Federal Housing Finance Agency think otherwise. The banks have filed two lawsuits alleging that the plan is...

There are more rumblings from the Jackson Hole central banker party going on in Wyoming. Central bankers from Japan and the U.K. predicted their new campaigns to encourage expansion will work, sustaining support for global growth even as the Federal Reserve considers a reduction in stimulus. As the annual gathering of central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, drew to a close yesterday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said his souped-up asset-buying “has started to exert effects” on the world’s third-largest economy. Bank of England Deputy Governor Charlie Bean said the U.K.’s pledge this month to avoid raising...

Here are the minutes of the most recent FOMC meeting. Federal Reserve officials were “broadly comfortable” with Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s plan to start reducing bond buying later this year if the economy improves, with a few saying tapering might be needed soon, minutes of their last meeting show. In other words, it was a hawkish set of minutes pointing to tapering. The reaction in the US Treasury 10 year yield? ust10082113 And agency MBS prices fell about 12 basis points. mbs082113 And the globe is awash in blood (as in rising sovereign yields). wbm082113 Here is a photo of...

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), mortgage applications declined 4.56 from the previous week. mbastata082113 Most of the decline in mortgage applications was refinancing applications. They fell 7.72% from the previous and have fallen since May 1st when Treasury and mortgage rates began to rise. mbarefirates Mortgage purchase applications rose 1.2% from the previous week. And purchase applications have fallen since May 1st despite today’s report. mbapurchasefreddierate Existing home sales rose faster than expected at a rate of 6.5% versus the expectation of 1.4%. ehs082113 Of course, 60% of home sales are all cash and many are foreign and...

Richmond's controversial plan to seize underwater mortgages through eminent domain includes loans for at least two homes purchased for over $1 million as well as other high-end properties - a revelation that appears to undermine the city's argument that the plan would combat blight. The city is pursuing mortgages with balances ranging from $98,000 to $1.12 million, according to data collected by Marc Joffe, an analyst who received the property addresses, loan balances, offer amounts and other information through a California public records request and shared them with The Chronicle. --SNIP-- Eminent domain is the seizure of private property for...

In their efforts to promote the re-election of Barack Obama, our nation's premier law enforcement agencies presented false data to the American public about a "crackdown" on mortgage fraud. Fox News reports: The Justice Department and FBI have quietly acknowledged they grossly overstated the scope of a mortgage fraud crackdown, which the administration heralded with much fanfare a few weeks before last year's presidential election. According to a memo circulated by the FBI and a correction posted online by the Justice Department, the number of defendants, the number of victims and the size of the losses are, in reality, a...