How The Record 2.8 Million Foreclosures In 2009 Could Have Been A Lot Worse – Joe Weisenthal – The forelosure specialists at RealtyTrac are out with their end-of-year tally for 2009. Their conclusion: It was an ugly year that would have been a lot worse without massive government intervention. … we saw four straight monthly decreases driven primarily by short-term factors: trial loan modifications, state legislation extending the foreclosure process and an overwhelming volume of inventory clogging the foreclosure pipeline. … – Money Game at Business Insider
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Fed must let mortgage market stand on own, Plosser says – By Rex Nutting – Higher interest rates are needed before unemployment rate drops – The Federal Reserve must cede control of the mortgage market back to the private sector or risk delaying the return of normal markets, a policy maker of the central bank said Tuesday. – MarketWatch
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More on Option ARMs – by CalculatedRisk – … On negative equity, this graph from Amherst shows the CLTV for various mortgage products. Note that subprime and Alt-A had a somewhat higher percent of borrowers with negative equity than prime – but Option ARMs (red) borrowers are mostly in negative equity! … – Calculated Risk Blog
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has exerpts: Annaly Capital Releases RMBS/CMBS Research – By: AFP Staff
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Jumbo RMBS Defaults Triple: California, Florida, And New York Lead the Way – Joe Weisenthal – Money Game at Business Insider
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In One Short Month, MBA Now Sees 2010 Morgtage Originations Plummeting By Even More – Submitted by Tyler Durden – … While in December, the Mortgage Brokers Association anticipated an already staggering 24% drop in mortgage originations, a mere month later they now see the drop to be 40%. And all this occurring with Q.E.’s MBS purchases set to expire in less than 3 months. … – Zero Hedge
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Senator Corners Geithner On GSEs – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has been asked by a member of the Senate Banking Committee to explain the Christmas Eve decision to uncap federal support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a letter to Geithner Monday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., expressed concern about the “lack of understanding and transparency around this arrangement” and asked Geithner to respond to a series of questions about the action. … – MortgageOrb
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Freddie Mac plans multifamily bonds every other month – Freddie Mac said on Wednesday it plans to sell about $1.1 billion of multifamily mortgage-backed securities known as “K Certificates” later this month. – Reuters
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Delinquencies of US Prime Jumbo Mortgages Triple in Latest Year to Exceed 9% – More U.S. prime jumbo borrowers are falling and staying behind on their monthly mortgage payments, according to Fitch Ratings. Overall, prime RMBS 60+ days delinquencies rose to 9.2% for December 2009, up almost three times compared to the same period last year (3.2% in December 2008). The 2006/2007 vintages combined rose to 12.7% from 4.3%. – Research Recap
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HousingWire section:
More than 13% of Mortgages Delinquent or Foreclosed in November: LPS – by JON PRIOR – HousingWire
GSEs Could Lose $448bn on MBS Guarantees, Says Amherst – by DIANA GOLOBAY – Losses on the combined credit-guarantee books of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could reach 9.6% – or $448bn – … The projections are the first round of analysis Amherst has conducted that include the LoanPerformance Prime Servicing Database compiled by First American CoreLogic – the property and ownership information provider subsidiary of The First American Corp. … – HousingWire
BofA Permanent HAMP Modifications Jump from 98 to 3,200 in December – by JON PRIOR – HousingWire
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Judge Voids Reverse Mortgage, Says Counseling Fails to Prove Competency – Reva Minkoff – Reverse Moertgage Daily
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A message from the FHA Commissioner – Dave Stevens January Letter – good Q&A – HUD.gov