Posts about Mortgage Market Report as of October 29, 2009

My mother-in-law is divorced, newly retired and wants to enjoy her Golden Years. Because she just turned 62 and owns her house, she considered a reverse mortgage to turn her home equity into a steady income stream every month. But after I gave her the highlights of a new report from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) that said, in short, reverse mortgages have the potential to start another subprime-style financial crisis, she decided to look elsewhere.

I have been saying since July 22 that the recession is over.Bloomberg News reported: “The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in more than a year, propelled by stimulus-driven gains in consumer spending and home building.”Fox News attributed it to “government-supported spending on cars and homes.”The news organization also reported: “Many analysts expect the pace of the budding recovery to be plodding due to rising unemployment and continuing difficulties by both consumers and businesses to secure loans.

WASHINGTON — The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes. The Commerce Department’s report Thursday delivered the strongest signal yet that the economy entered a new, though fragile, phase of recovery and that the worst recession since the 1930s has ended. The much-awaited turnaround ended the streak of four straight quarters of contracting economic activity, the first time that’s happened on records dating to 1947.

Marc Faber on US Dollar The dollar will become worthless when people eventually realize the fiscal situation in the U.S. is a “disaster,”said Marc Faber , publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report. “It will go to a value of zero eventually, but not right now,” Faber said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Looking at Mr. Obama’s administration, it should already be there. I think it will take about 10 years until people realize that the fiscal situation of the U.S.

In 1950, the first credit card that could be used at more than one, specific merchant emerged on the market. The Diner’s Card, started by Frank McNamara, was an invention that got its start when Frank was having a business meeting over dinner, and realized he had forgotten his wallet at home. Of course, the man was extremely embarrassed, and had to call his wife and ask her to bring him his wallet so he could pay for the bill.

Stock markets fell broadly in Asia on Thursday after weak new U.S. home sales data revived fears that the global economic recovery is faltering.Sales of newly built single-family homes unexpectedly fell 3.6 percent last month, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report. Separately, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed demand for mortgages has fallen for the past three weeks.The data rattled U.S. markets, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 119.48 points, or 1.2 percent, to close at 9,762.69.

Fritz calls U.S. government imposed pay cuts ‘fair’ and ‘thoughtful’ – egmcartech.com 10/28/2009 Late last week, the Obama Administration ordered seven companies who received a significant amount of federal loan to cut the salaries of their top-level executives by an average of 90 percent and cut total compensation (including cash, stock and perks) by half. General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson was amongst the many executives who saw government-imposed cuts in his own salary.

By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mervyn King think that banks that are considered “too big to fail” should be broken up. The House Financial Services Committee is drafting a bill that will make banks pay for other banks’ bankruptcies. Others have suggested reviving the Glass-Steagall Act – the 1933 legislation that forced financial institutions to separate their commercial and investment banking businesses.

California is on path for a record 2009.  By the end of the year over 475,000 notice of defaults will be sent to California homeowners.  This of course is simply from lenders that actually even bother to send a notice of default.  The shadow inventory is growing and we have some concrete data showing the […] California is on path for a record 2009.  By the end of the year over 475,000 notice of defaults will be sent to California homeowners.  This of course is simply from lenders that actually

Page last updated Thursday, 29 October 2009 Latest report published by Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests that the UKbuy to let property market is on the rise as more cash-rich landlords tend to purchase properties. In this quarter, the number of RICS surveyors reporting an increase of buy to let investors buying new properties grew by 2%. Interestingly, the situation is quite different from what was seen in the three months to September 2009, when UK landlords preferred apartments located in major cities of Great Britain.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that he has co-sponsored a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), asking it to amend a federal rule that would require debt relief service companies to provide services before collecting any fees. The letter was also sponsored by the Attorneys General of Illinois, Maryland, and Washington. Debt relief is an umbrella term that applies to any service offering to negotiate, settle or in any way adjust a consumer’s debt, including interest rate reduction services, debt management and debt settlement services.

Research and Markets ( www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3b8936/uk_mortgages_2009 : ) has announced the addition of the ” UK Mortgages 2009: Competitive Dynamics in the UK Mortgage Market : ” report to their offering. 2008 proved to be the most … View original story…

by Max Buchanan Are you looking for short sale information or advice for your home? Are you having trouble meeting your mortgage payments and worried about foreclosure? If you want to get out of your current situation an quickly as possible with minimal damage to your credit you will need to find out more about short sale homes and see if it is the right option for you. There are a number of Americans across the country that are struggling to make their mortgage payments.

GMAC LLC 7.25% Notes (NYSE: GKM) GMAC LLC (GMAC) is a globally diversified financial services firm, offering financing to General Motors (GM) and Chrysler dealerships and their customers. The Company operates in three lines of business: Global Automotive Finance, which offers a range of financial services and products (directly and indirectly) to retail automotive consumers, automotive dealerships, and other commercial businesses, Mortgage (ResCap), which engages in the origination, purchase,

Over the last year, there’s been a flurry of product launches, as lenders pile into this nascent market. Some of the new entrants in 2005 included the Bristol & West, Victoria Mortgages and Beacon Homeloans, while investment banks Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are in the process of setting out their stalls. And the trend looks set to continue during 2006; with personal debt now topping the £1 trillion mark, it would seem that there’s room for the adverse market to grow and for more lenders to take advantage of the increased profit margins of this sector.

As a Certified Foreclosure Specialist, I’ve been talking about the “next foreclosure wave” for quite some time now. As the subprime crisis winds down, the next crisis emerges – Option ARMs and Alt-A loans (3/1 ARM, 5/1 ARM, and 7/1 ARMs) are all resetting over the next 18 months.  See this chart for a visual of what I am talking about.

Enterprise Acquisition Corp. Announces November 5, 2009 Special Meeting of Stockholders and Warrantholders to Approve Merger with ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Enterprise Acquisition Corp. (NYSE Amex, Units: “EST.U”, Common Stock: “EST,” Warrants: “EST.WS”) (”Enterprise”) announced today that it has rescheduled the special meetings of its stockholders and warrantholders, which had been scheduled for Thursday, October 29, 2009, at 9:00 a.m.

In distinct contrast to the existing home sales report last week, new home sales were ugly in September, falling 3.6% for the month and down 7.8% year over year. The seasonally adjusted annual rate in September was 402.000 down from 417,000 in August, which was revised down from the originally reported 429,000. This came in well below consensus expectations of 440,000. The good news in the report was that inventories also continued to decline, to 251,000 from 261,000 in August (down 3.8%) and from 395,000 a year ago (down 36.5%).

Why hasn’t Washington offered any aid to help the beleaguered mortgage insurance (MI) industry? Lawmakers have thrown a bone to nearly every other sector of the housing and mortgage-related industries, but not to mortgage insurers. Especially at a time when credit requirements are so stringent and when most lenders are requiring a maximum downpayment, has not one lawmaker on Capitol Hill even considered propping up this industry that’s on the brink? Note: MI policies help make low-downpayment mortgages possible since they help offset a lender’s cost of recovering the property if a borrower defaults.

Boston Properties ( BXP ) reported strong third quarter results with FFO (funds from operations) of $158.5 million or $1.13 per share compared to $132.5 million or $1.09 per share in the year-earlier quarter. Funds from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income. During the quarter, Boston Properties placed in service a 235,000 net rentable square feet Class A office property in Reston, Virginia.

The August 2009 S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indice s report showed continued month over month improvement while the decline from the prior year same period continues to ease. Reporting on this report has been decidedly positive over the past 6 months, cited by many as evidence that housing has bottomed. The report shows that prices are at 2003 levels, which is consistent with my personal experiences with the systemic breakdown of the mortgage process.

I am posting the Press Release and committee meeting information for the 253 page discussion draft of the Financial Stability Improvement bill to regulate the financial industry that we have been waiting for.  I am also currently reading the actual draft, found here , and will post on it when I have something to report. Upcoming HFS Committee meeting on the following draft legislation: Thursday, October 29, 2009, 9:30 a.m., in room 2128 Rayburn House Office Building.

10am ToryDiary : Tories force another Brown u-turn… on the TA John Howard on Platform : We must not let recent economic woes be used to discredit the capitalist system Seats and candidates : Final six for Devizes Jonathan Isaby’s open letter to Conservative MPs: Will you undertake to decide whether to stand again before Christmas?