Housing: Price-to-Rent Ratio – by CalculatedRisk – … This graph shows the price to rent ratio (January 2000 = 1.0). This suggests that house prices are still a little too high on a national basis. But it does appear that prices are much closer to the bottom than the top. … – Calculated Risk Blog
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Why Is Karen DeCoster Advocating Strategic Defaults? – BY PHIL HALL – … This week, MortgageOrb.com speaks with one of the most vocal proponents of strategic defaults: Karen DeCoster, CPA, a special advisor on economics for the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and a prolific blogger for libertarian-oriented Web sites. … has Q&A – MortgageOrb
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New home sales reach new record lows – Tim Iacono – The Census Bureau reported(.pdf) that new home sales reached a new record low last month, down 11.2 percent from 348,000 units in December to just 309,000 units in January, in what looks to be the beginning of another very difficult year for the homebuilders. – The Mess That Greenspan Made
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Banks May Use Payday-Style Loans to Replace Lost Overdraft Fees – By Jeff Plungis – U.S. banks may expand their short- term lending at interest rates of 120 percent or more as they seek to replace more than $15 billion in lost revenue because of regulations limiting overdraft fees. “The smarter banks are trying to resell overdraft protection to consumers as a different product,” said Elizabeth Rowe, group director of banking advisory services at Mercator Advisory Group in Maynard, Massachusetts. … such loans, usually from $100 to $500, at annual rates of 120 percent if repaid in 30 days. They’re known as “checking advance products.” That puts them in competition with so-called payday loan stores … – Bloomberg BusinessWeek
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great comments – Headline of the Day: “Lending Falls at Epic Pace” – Barry Ritholz – How can you not love that header? It sums up everything in the article in a tidy little package, and delivers it with style and grace. (Plus, its the second time today I have gotten to use the word epic!) Here is the (WS)Journal’s version (pub date FEB 24, 2010): “U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in lending since 1942 at the end of last year, suggesting that the industry’s continued slide is making it harder for the economy to recover. – The Big Picture
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Troubled banking industry sharply reduced lending in 2009 – By Binyamin Appelbaum – Lending by the banking industry fell by $587 billion, or 7.5 percent, in 2009, the largest annual decline since the 1940s, as the number of troubled financial institutions rose sharply, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported Tuesday – Washington Post
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More Than Half of 2005-2007 US Subprime and Alt-A Mortgages Underwater - Moody’s has issued details of its methodology for its recent increase in loss projections for US subprime and Alt-A residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) issued between 2005 and 2007. – Research Recap
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FICO Finds More Borrowers Default on Mortgages Over Credit Cards – by JACOB GAFFNEY – In what it is calling a historic trend reversal … “We’re identifying lending industry situations in FICO Score Trends that to our knowledge have never been seen before,” said Dr. Mark Greene, CEO of FICO, in a statement. “Economic instability is creating unknown risk in lenders’ credit portfolios as well as counter-intuitive trends in consumer behavior.” – HousingWire
Homeowner Estimates as Good as Zillow? Appraisal Academics Think So – by AUSTIN KILGORE – HousingWire
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Mortgage Zombie Freddie Mac Reports Q4 Loss; Another $5 Billion In Taxpayer Money Out The Window To Support Fake Home Prices – Submitted by Tyler Durden – Zero Hedge
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MBS – When Will the Purchases End and What Will Happen to Mortgage Rates? – Bob Eisenbeis – Cumberland Advisors
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CoreLogic: 24% of residential properties upside down – Rolfe Winkler – … The bulk of underwater properties are concentrated in five states: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. Nevada leads the way in terms of most homes with negative equity at a whopping 70 percent. … – Reuters Blogs
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BB&T Mortgage sees record refinancing activity in 2009 – … Last year BB&T originated more than 72,500 retail mortgage loans, a 97 percent increase over 2008. That figure includes 53,500 refinanced mortgages and 19,000 new mortgages.
BB&T also closed 6,600 loans worth nearly $1.3 billion under the Homeowners ffordability and Stability Plan to help keep families in their homes. … - PRNewswire
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Obama May Prohibit Home-Loan Foreclosures Without HAMP Review – By Dawn Kopecki – The proposal, reviewed by lenders last week on a White House conference call, “prohibits referral to foreclosure until borrower is evaluated and found ineligible for HAMP or reasonable contact efforts have failed,” according to a Treasury Department document outlining the plan … – Bloomberg
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FDIC to test principal reduction for underwater borrowers – By Renae Merle – … "We’re thinking about it in terms of earned principal forgiveness. If you stay current on your mortgage, you would earn a principal reduction. It would only be for loans significantly underwater," said FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair. The program would have a small reach and apply only to loans acquired from a failed bank seized by the FDIC. That would be less than 1 percent of mortgages currently outstanding. … – Washington Post