On Friday the Senate passed new legislation that would make more Federal Housing Administration Loans available to troubled borrowers facing foreclosure, lowering the down payment required and allowing larger loans. The House passed similar legislation in September, and now House and Senate members will have to “resolve a number of differences between the two pieces of legislation,” says the Wall Street Journal.
housing
The Subprime Meltdown From The Perspective Of A Housing Counselor
By 12.11.07
Coppedge saw it coming in slow motion. Around this time last year, she was mostly dealing with renters who were behind on payments. Rarely did she counsel at-risk homeowners. When she did, they were usually suffering a one-time setback such as job loss.
The Subprime Meltdown Is The Tip Of The Credit Iceberg
By 12.9.07
The ongoing subprime meltdown is merely the first destructive wave of credit catastrophe to wash over Wall Street, according to Slate’s resident explainer. Americans drunkenly bandy credit around in several forms: mortgages are the most prevalent loans turning sour, but credit card debt, student loans, and auto loans are silently conspiring to threaten our macroeconomic well-being.
Bush To Announce 5 Year Rate Freeze For Mortgages
By 12.5.07
Tomorrow, President Bush will outline a plan to freeze rates for 5 years for subprime mortgage loans that “originated between January 1, 2005, and July 31, 2007, with rates that are due to reset between January 1 of next year and June or July of 2010,” reports Reuters.
Who Has A Subprime Mortgage? People With Good Credit
By 12.4.07
The Wall Street Journal analyzed more than $2.5 trillion in subprime loans made since 2000 and found that as the number of subprime loans grew, the loans were being issued to borrowers with better and better credit scores—borrowers who could have qualified for traditional loans with more reasonable terms.
Report Says Property Values Could Decline By $1.2 Trillion
By 11.27.07
An especially gloomy report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that property values across the U.S. could decline by $1.2 trillion next year, slashing tax revenue by $6.6 billion.
Deal Will Let Some Borrowers Keep Current Interest Rates
By 11.21.07
Countrywide, G.M.A.C., Litton and HomeEq have agreed to let many potentially distressed borrowers in California keep the initial low rates of their ARM home loans, says the New York Times. California is the epicenter of the subprime meltdown, with foreclosure rates that are always near the top of the list (along with Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and Florida).
Freddie Mac Loses $2 Billion, Needs Cash
By 11.20.07
Government-sponsored mortgage lender Freddie Mac, the second largest U.S. mortgage company, posted a $2 billion loss for the third quarter and warned that it may not have enough cash to cover its mortgage commitments.
House Tackles Subprime Meltdown, Amends Truth In Lending Act
By 11.17.07
The House this week voted 291-127 to pass the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, Congress’ first major attempt to prevent a recurrence of the ongoing subprime meltdown. The bill, supported by every Democrat and 64 Republicans, stabs at the heart of the meltdown by:
- Establishing a national licensing and registration system for mortgage lenders;
- Establishing the Office of Housing Counseling within HUD to help borrowers avoid foreclosure;
- Banning loans that a borrower cannot reasonably repay;
- Banning lenders from steering borrowers towards loans with predatory characteristics;
- Making banks that securitize mortgages liable for violating lending laws.
By 11.14.07
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The subprime meltdown isn’t slowing down, says CNNMoney. The usual suspects Florida, California and Ohio continue to supply us with a tsunami of foreclosure filings in this month’s report. [CNNMoney]
By 11.14.07
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La-Z-Boy Inc posted a loss this quarter and said it wouldn’t meet its fiscal 2008 outlook, citing a depressed housing market and the fact that nobody is buying their chairs. [Reuters]
Debt Counselors Feeling The Strain Of Subprime Meltdown
By 11.1.07
As foreclosures continue to skyrocket, debt counselors have become a last resort—sometimes the only resort—for thousands of panicked homeowners who don’t know how they’re going to keep their homes. “I don’t think people fully appreciate the pressure that’s being put on those counselor organizations today,” says a Housing and Urban Development official. In addition to offering financial advice, the counselors try to help negotiate payment plans with lenders, stave off foreclosure notices, and even offer mental health support for people so distraught that they become depressed or suicidal. The average pay: $30-50,000 a year.
255,129 Foreclosed Homes Went Unsold In 2007, And Are Now Owned By Lenders
By 10.30.07
Foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac has been delivering lots of bad news this year, not least of which is some sobering numbers on Real Estate Owned properties or REOs. An REO is what happens when a home cannot be sold at auction and becomes the property of the lender.
Baltimore Feeling The Pain Of The Housing Slump
By 10.4.07
In the spring quarter, 25 percent of the foreclosures were in the city itself. The numbers are up even in Belair Edison, a stable working-class neighborhood of neat, two-story row houses adjacent to a picturesque wooded public park.
Investigate Neighborhoods Online With Real Estate Gossip Sites
By 10.4.07
You find a home you love, and the asking price makes it practically a steal. But you wonder: how do you know it wasn’t built on top of a “relocated” cemetery? Or what if it’s only a few blocks away from the city’s longest-running crackfest? Thanks to several websites and blogs, new home shoppers can now collect “real world” data about prospective neighborhoods and real estate from actual residents, other buyers, and anonymous brokers out to sabotage the competition.
Most Affordable Real Estate Markets By State
By 9.27.07
Where are the affordable real estate markets in your state? Oh, we don’t know. It’s a good thing BusinessWeek does. They’ve made a list of the most and least affordable markets in each of these United States.
5 Furniture Shopping Tips
By 9.17.07
Despite the crummy real estate market and generally listing economy, now is a good time to go furniture shopping, apparently. That’s partly because consolidation and increased competition has squeezed out everyone except for discount-happy big box retailers in some cities, and partly because business is down overall this year so everyone is trying to attract more customers with markdowns.
Southern California Home Sales Sink To 15-Year Low Forcing "Blow-Out" Sales Of New Homes
By 9.13.07
Bad news for Southern California; home sales in August dropped to a 15-year low according to the LA Times. Sales plunged 36% from last year and 71% of Southern California zip codes are reporting declines in housing prices.
