A Radio Shack employee was arrested after punching a customer who was trying to return an item. The employee was charged with assault, but since it is Radio Shack, battery was not included. (bah-da-bum)
Yesterday I mentioned Wisconsin’s SAFE Act. How about Oregon’s SAFE Act verbiage, which start at the end of July? “Financial Responsibility Criteria: For purposes of this rule, an applicant is not financial responsible if the applicant has shown a disregard of his or her own financial circumstances, taking into consideration the totality of the applicant’s financial circumstances. Factors that the director may consider in determining whether an applicant has not demonstrated financial responsibility include, but are not limited to, the following: (a) Current outstanding judgments or material litigation, excluding judgments solely as a result of medical expenses; (b) Current outstanding tax liens or other government liens and filings; (c) A foreclosure within the past three years and the type of property subject to foreclosure, whether residential or commercial; (d) Pending or completed bankruptcy proceedings, and the nature of the proceedings, occurring within the past five years; or (e) A pattern of seriously delinquent accounts within the past three years. In assessing the financial responsibility of the applicant, the director may consider extenuating or mitigating factors, including but not limited to the following: (a) Involuntary loss of job or income; (b) Involuntary medical expenses; (c) Divorce; (d) Attempting workout arrangements with creditors; or (e) Any other factor the director believes reflects circumstances beyond the control of the applicant.”
VA lenders may want to visit http://www.homeloans.va.gov/docs/2009_county_loan_limits.pdf That is the website that shows the VA county-specific loan limits. GMAC, for example, reminds their clients that any county that does not appear on this list is assumed to have a county limit of $417,000, and that the VA county limits are used to determine the calculation of the maximum amount of guaranty the VA will provide on a loan. It does not dictate the maximum amount of the VA loan. The new 2010 county limits must be used to determine the maximum VA guaranty/Veteran’s Available Entitlement for loans closed on or after January 1, 2010.
Sometimes a broker or agent will wonder what happened to investors paying 3-5 points for a loan. After all, older Treasury notes with higher coupons are trading at those levels, and more. But a mortgage investor is not going to pay much above par (100) if the loan is expected to pay off early, for whatever reason. Recently we learned that the “aggregate prepayment speed of the Fannie Mae hybrid ARM sector for December surged 32% from 20.3% CPR to 26.7% CPR.” Prepayments increased most dramatically for credit-impaired borrowers who had IO loans that funded in 2006-2007. The aggregate Freddie Mac hybrid ARM prepayments “increased 12% from 21.4% CPR to 23.8% CPR.” But some analysts believe that the aggregate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hybrid ARM prepayments to drop 15-20% this month due to the combined effects of a lower housing turnover in the middle of winter, along with three fewer business days. (Other analysts with attitudes say that anyone using the old “fewer business days” argument is misled.)
And just what is the current hybrid ARM issuance these days?