Mortgage Related: TransUnion Report, Short Sales, Option Arm Defaults, Loss Mitigation, Wells Mods, Credit Card Delinquencies, Simple Plan, Fed Buys MBS, Assumable FHA, Essent, Bribes, Shadow Inventory, 3 more

wow – Fed MBS Purchases Matched by Foreign Sales! – Casey’s Charts

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Another $53 billion in MBSes for the Fed – Tim Iacono – According to data released a short time ago, the Federal Reserve took down another big slug of mortgage backed securities over the last week – some $53 billion as indicated below – in what is supposed to be their second-to-last mid-month buying spree that has produced the regular stair-step pattern in the chart.- The Mess That Greenspan Made

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TransUnion: Surprising increase in souring mortgages - E. Scott Reckard – The rate of homeowners falling behind on mortgage payments surged unexpectedly in the fourth quarter, with home loans 60 or more days past due reaching 6.9% of all home loans nationally, 11.0% in California and a whopping 18.5% in Riverside County, according to a study released Tuesday by credit reporting firm TransUnion. – LA Times Business

Short sales grow as a cheaper alternative to foreclosure – By Alejandro Lazo – Banks’ resistance to the tricky transactions is softening as the number of distressed properties increases. – LA Times Business
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report has lots of charts – The Shadow Inventory Of Troubled Mortgages Could Undo U.S. Housing Price Gains – by Standard & Poors
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Default Expectations on US Alt-A Option ARM Loans Double in Latest Quarter to 25% - … have risen dramatically in Standard & Poor’s Fixed Income Risk Management Services’ latest quarterly survey, … with U.S. 2007 Alt-A pay option ARM RMBS collateral default rate predictions rising to 25% from 12% polled in Q3. For the same vintage, U.S. prime fixed-rate collateral default forecasts rose to 5.75% from 4.00%; U.S. prime adjustable-rate collateral default forecasts moved up to 10.50% from 6.25%; and U.S. subprime collateral default forecasts increased to 34.36% from 23.00%. … – Research Recap

Rising Delinquencies Suggest December’s Drop In US Credit Card Losses Was Temporary – US credit card losses dropped to 9.4% in December after sharply increasing 60 basis points (bps) to 9.9% in November, according to Standard & Poor’s Credit Card Quality Index . – Research Recap

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Loss Mitigation: How To Recognize Imperfect Workflow – BY JOE FILOSETA - Suppose for a moment that Henry Ford had to deliver 100 automobiles – all different models and with different features – in one month, yet 90% of his workforce had never picked up a wrench. Sounds ridiculous, right? Yet a similar scenario is taking place in today’s distressed-property market, where a massive amount of loss mitigation tasks, short sales and real estate owned properties (REOs) are being handled by a mostly inexperienced workforce, with no one file being the same. – MortgageOrb
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Administration pushed to expand foreclosure-prevention program – By Renae Merle – Washington Post
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Wells Fargo doubles mortgage modifications – Wells Fargo & Co. says 17,652 of its customers have been able to permanently modify their mortgages through the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program. – Charlotte Business Journal

and
Wells Fargo: 3 Modifications for Every 1 Foreclosure Sale – eCredit Daily

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Here’s a Simple, Market-Based Plan to Fight Foreclosures – By Alain Sherter – thanks Ira Artman – has 5 point plan – Bnet.com

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Assumability: A hidden potential value to FHA loans – By Jack Guttentag – Does the assumability option on Federal Housing Administration loans offset their high mortgage insurance premiums? That is a great and very timely question. The value of assumability is as high as it is ever likely to be because of the broad consensus that interest rates in future years will be higher than they are now – Washington Post

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Is It A Good Time To Start Insuring Mortgages? – by Daniel Indiviglio - Bloomberg reports that start-up mortgage insurer Essent Group is optimistic about its business prospects. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are too — they’re part of a group of investors that put $500 million equity in the new firm. Given the market landscape, I think that’s probably a very smart investment. – The Atlantic
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‘Bribes’ often needed to prevent mortgage defaults or destruction of homes – By James Thorner – … A raft of recent programs, both private and governmental, essentially hand cash to homeowners who (A) make mortgage payments on time and (B) refrain from vandalizing their homes if they fall into foreclosure. It’s like paying a person to brush his teeth or not belch at the banquet table. Where appeals to good manners fail, cash apparently works wonders. … – St. Petersburg Times
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our next big problem: Commercial Real Estate – Nick Gogerty – goes into detail about Elizabeth Warren Report and others – lots of charts – Designing Better Futures
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