Home buyers get a bonus in the stimulus bill
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/29/real_estate/tax_credit_near/index.htm?postversion=2009012907
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
U.S. Banks Offer Mortgages Below 5% After Fed Action
Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The largest U.S. banks are starting to offer fixed home loans below 5 percent after the government began buying mortgage securities to bolster the housing market.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advertising 30-year mortgages as low as 4.75 percent on its Web site, Wells Fargo & Co. has an offer for 4.875 percent and Bank of America Corp. has rates at 5 percent. The offers are for borrowers with excellent credit who put 20 percent down.
The Federal Reserve earlier this week began purchasing $500 billion of mortgage securities backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to help lower mortgage costs. While the lower rates may lead more borrowers to refinance, it may not spur home buying in the second year of the recession after more than 2 million jobs were lost in 2008.
“I don’t know if there is a magic number now that everyone is freaking out about the economy,” said Paul Miller, a mortgage industry analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. in Arlington, Virginia. “The home buyer is scared out of the market.”
Freddie Mac today reported that the U.S. average rate on a 30-year mortgage dropped for the 10th straight week to the lowest on record. The fixed rate dropped to 5.01 percent from 5.10 percent a week earlier, Freddie Mac said. That’s the lowest in data that goes back to 1971, according to the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer.
Lower Yields
The Fed’s purchase program, which also includes buying $100 billion in direct debt, is intended to lower consumer rates by reducing the supply of agency mortgage bonds issued by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie. That would boost their prices and lower yields, in turn reducing the interest rates banks charge on new mortgages to ensure sales of the securities are profitable. Agency bonds now facilitate almost all new home lending.
Jill Pfeiffer, a mortgage broker in San Diego, this week obtained a 4.875 percent rate on a 30-year fixed loan for a homebuyer with a credit score above 750, she said in an interview.
“It’s the lowest I’ve ever locked in on a 30-year fixed” since she began her business in 1996, she said.
The loan, with Sun Trust Mortgage Inc., had no origination fee or points, a percentage of the loan amount that lenders charge, Pfeiffer said. At least two other lenders could have matched the rate, she said. She also had four inquiries from homeowners looking to refinance mortgages.
Prices Declining
Rates are dropping as home prices in 20 major U.S. cities declined 18 percent in the year through October, the fastest rate on record, as tighter lending standards curbed sales and foreclosure sales pushed down values.
Sales of single-family homes declined 7.6 percent in November from the prior month, the most in two decades, according to the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors. Resale prices fell 13 percent, the most since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan dropped to 1,143.8 for the week ending Jan. 2, from a five-year high of 1,245.7 the prior week, as consumers held out for lower rates. The group’s purchase gauge rose 7.3 percent and the refinancing measure decreased 12 percent.
Applications for home-loan refinancing and new purchases may increase as rates drop below 5 percent and exceed the five- year high of two weeks ago, Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers group, said in an interview.
Lower Rents
“We would expect that activity to continue,” Brinkmann said of increased mortgage applications.
Lower rates may not encourage some buyers because U.S. apartment rents are falling and landlords are offering concessions such as free rent to avoid higher vacancies.
Apartment rents fell in the fourth quarter from the third as the national vacancy rate climbed to a four-year high of 6.6 percent, Reis Inc. said yesterday in a report.
Asking rents fell 0.1 percent from the previous quarter, to $1,052 on average, their first quarter-to-quarter decline in almost six years. Effective rents, what tenants actually paid, fell to an average $996 last quarter, down 0.4 percent from the prior quarter.
“Even if rates go low enough, if you got married, you’re 28 years old with no kids -- the typical first time buyer -- you’ll wait a year and continue to rent because there are good deals out there,” said Miller, the mortgage analyst.
At HomeStreet Bank in Seattle, consumers were being offered a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 4.75 percent this week, according to Rich Bennion, vice president of residential lending. Flagstar Bank in Troy, Michigan, had rates below 5 percent that may include some costs to customers, spokeswoman Susan Cherry said.
“This is the lowest that I’ve seen,” Bennion said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advertising 30-year mortgages as low as 4.75 percent on its Web site, Wells Fargo & Co. has an offer for 4.875 percent and Bank of America Corp. has rates at 5 percent. The offers are for borrowers with excellent credit who put 20 percent down.
The Federal Reserve earlier this week began purchasing $500 billion of mortgage securities backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae to help lower mortgage costs. While the lower rates may lead more borrowers to refinance, it may not spur home buying in the second year of the recession after more than 2 million jobs were lost in 2008.
“I don’t know if there is a magic number now that everyone is freaking out about the economy,” said Paul Miller, a mortgage industry analyst with Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. in Arlington, Virginia. “The home buyer is scared out of the market.”
Freddie Mac today reported that the U.S. average rate on a 30-year mortgage dropped for the 10th straight week to the lowest on record. The fixed rate dropped to 5.01 percent from 5.10 percent a week earlier, Freddie Mac said. That’s the lowest in data that goes back to 1971, according to the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer.
Lower Yields
The Fed’s purchase program, which also includes buying $100 billion in direct debt, is intended to lower consumer rates by reducing the supply of agency mortgage bonds issued by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie. That would boost their prices and lower yields, in turn reducing the interest rates banks charge on new mortgages to ensure sales of the securities are profitable. Agency bonds now facilitate almost all new home lending.
Jill Pfeiffer, a mortgage broker in San Diego, this week obtained a 4.875 percent rate on a 30-year fixed loan for a homebuyer with a credit score above 750, she said in an interview.
“It’s the lowest I’ve ever locked in on a 30-year fixed” since she began her business in 1996, she said.
The loan, with Sun Trust Mortgage Inc., had no origination fee or points, a percentage of the loan amount that lenders charge, Pfeiffer said. At least two other lenders could have matched the rate, she said. She also had four inquiries from homeowners looking to refinance mortgages.
Prices Declining
Rates are dropping as home prices in 20 major U.S. cities declined 18 percent in the year through October, the fastest rate on record, as tighter lending standards curbed sales and foreclosure sales pushed down values.
Sales of single-family homes declined 7.6 percent in November from the prior month, the most in two decades, according to the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors. Resale prices fell 13 percent, the most since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan dropped to 1,143.8 for the week ending Jan. 2, from a five-year high of 1,245.7 the prior week, as consumers held out for lower rates. The group’s purchase gauge rose 7.3 percent and the refinancing measure decreased 12 percent.
Applications for home-loan refinancing and new purchases may increase as rates drop below 5 percent and exceed the five- year high of two weeks ago, Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers group, said in an interview.
Lower Rents
“We would expect that activity to continue,” Brinkmann said of increased mortgage applications.
Lower rates may not encourage some buyers because U.S. apartment rents are falling and landlords are offering concessions such as free rent to avoid higher vacancies.
Apartment rents fell in the fourth quarter from the third as the national vacancy rate climbed to a four-year high of 6.6 percent, Reis Inc. said yesterday in a report.
Asking rents fell 0.1 percent from the previous quarter, to $1,052 on average, their first quarter-to-quarter decline in almost six years. Effective rents, what tenants actually paid, fell to an average $996 last quarter, down 0.4 percent from the prior quarter.
“Even if rates go low enough, if you got married, you’re 28 years old with no kids -- the typical first time buyer -- you’ll wait a year and continue to rent because there are good deals out there,” said Miller, the mortgage analyst.
At HomeStreet Bank in Seattle, consumers were being offered a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 4.75 percent this week, according to Rich Bennion, vice president of residential lending. Flagstar Bank in Troy, Michigan, had rates below 5 percent that may include some costs to customers, spokeswoman Susan Cherry said.
“This is the lowest that I’ve seen,” Bennion said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Interest Rates crazy low, good!
Interest rates have continued to drop and are now hovering between 5.00% and 5.375% for conforming loans with no points.
MLS# 09-337867 - 501 PALISADES DR # 216, PACIFIC PALISADES 90272
MLS# 09-337867 - 501 PALISADES DR # 216, PACIFIC PALISADES 90272
$232,618.
Actual Price.
Buyer must be 62 years or older.
$232,618.
Actual Price.
Buyer must be 62 years or older.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
More lenders allow 'early workout' loan alterations
Homeowners in financial trouble no longer need to miss two to three months of payments before their mortgage companies can modify their unaffordable loan terms.
By Kenneth R. Harney December 21, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- Here's some good news for homeowners facing tough financial times: You no longer have to miss two to three months of payments before your mortgage firm can modify your unaffordable loan terms. Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant with an estimated 18 million home loans in its portfolio or in mortgage bond pools it guarantees, now will allow borrowers who face financial difficulties to request "early workout" loan alterations, even if they've never been late.
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Fannie's policy change has the potential to help thousands of people who are losing jobs or facing layoffs as the recession crunches onward. Most lenders and loan servicers traditionally have declined to intervene in mortgage problems until borrowers are 60 to 90 days late. So-called loss mitigation staffs may then try to work out solutions through techniques such as rescheduling back payments or extending the loan term.Under Fannie Mae's revised approach, servicers of the company's loans will be required to inform borrowers that if they are "reasonably" certain that changes in their income will cause them to miss mortgage payments, they might qualify for an advance loan modification -- before they fall behind.Borrowers who qualify will enter into a trial period of reduced payments, usually for four months. If they make payments on time during the trial, the modified mortgage terms could be made permanent.
For example, say your spouse loses a part-time source of income, and suddenly you're short $400 a month needed to make your $2,000 mortgage payment. In the past, if you called your loan servicer, you probably would be told that rules prohibit any help to you until you have become delinquent by several months. But by that time you might be thousands of dollars in the hole, racking up big late payment penalties and in the process of wrecking your credit scores.Under the early workout concept, Fannie's servicers can now tell you upfront: We'll try lowering your monthly payments to accommodate the $400 in missing income. If you're current on the lowered payments after a four-month trial, and your income situation has not rebounded, we'll make the change permanent.Officials said servicers would examine the facts in each case individually, checking income, credit reports and other documentation to ensure that borrowers weren't faking income shortages just to get a lower payment.Fannie's new loan modification program puts the company in sync with other large mortgage institutions that are reaching out to borrowers facing economic strains before they end up in serious delinquency or foreclosure.For instance, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's chairman and chief executive, says he expects his company to identify and work with as many as 400,000 customers who may be in danger of missing future payments. Bank of America has announced a similar effort.Freddie Mac, which has 12 million loan customers either in its portfolio or in mortgage bond pools it guarantees, has "for years" permitted its servicers to negotiate early modifications in some circumstances, spokesman Brad German said, although Freddie has not aggressively publicized the program to borrowers.With the addition of Fannie Mae, the vast majority of major players in the mortgage market now say they offer some form of early intervention for consumers heading for defaults. But there's a big unknown here: If your servicer modifies the terms of your loan, will you stay out of trouble? Or might you fall behind again?The jury is still out. On the one hand, some recent federal data suggest that more than half -- 53% -- of modified loans end up in re-defaults within six months. Modification advocates such as Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., contend that changes to loan terms that go deep enough to meaningfully deal with borrowers' ongoing financial problems succeed at far higher rates.What should you do if you see financial trouble on the horizon that could push you into serious delinquency? Immediately contact your servicer, and if you find out your loan is owned by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or another major lender, request an early workout.Before foreclosures started going off the charts, substantive help in advance would have been almost inconceivable. Now it's part of servicers' marching orders.Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated columnist distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.
By Kenneth R. Harney December 21, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- Here's some good news for homeowners facing tough financial times: You no longer have to miss two to three months of payments before your mortgage firm can modify your unaffordable loan terms. Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant with an estimated 18 million home loans in its portfolio or in mortgage bond pools it guarantees, now will allow borrowers who face financial difficulties to request "early workout" loan alterations, even if they've never been late.
Ads by Google
Loan Mods My BUTT
Here is the proven way to mod other people's loans and make money at it
GetLoanModSecrets.org
Fast Foreclosure Loans
We Have The HOPE For Homeowners Program. Free Qualifications Today!
HelpForHomeowners.org
Fannie's policy change has the potential to help thousands of people who are losing jobs or facing layoffs as the recession crunches onward. Most lenders and loan servicers traditionally have declined to intervene in mortgage problems until borrowers are 60 to 90 days late. So-called loss mitigation staffs may then try to work out solutions through techniques such as rescheduling back payments or extending the loan term.Under Fannie Mae's revised approach, servicers of the company's loans will be required to inform borrowers that if they are "reasonably" certain that changes in their income will cause them to miss mortgage payments, they might qualify for an advance loan modification -- before they fall behind.Borrowers who qualify will enter into a trial period of reduced payments, usually for four months. If they make payments on time during the trial, the modified mortgage terms could be made permanent.
For example, say your spouse loses a part-time source of income, and suddenly you're short $400 a month needed to make your $2,000 mortgage payment. In the past, if you called your loan servicer, you probably would be told that rules prohibit any help to you until you have become delinquent by several months. But by that time you might be thousands of dollars in the hole, racking up big late payment penalties and in the process of wrecking your credit scores.Under the early workout concept, Fannie's servicers can now tell you upfront: We'll try lowering your monthly payments to accommodate the $400 in missing income. If you're current on the lowered payments after a four-month trial, and your income situation has not rebounded, we'll make the change permanent.Officials said servicers would examine the facts in each case individually, checking income, credit reports and other documentation to ensure that borrowers weren't faking income shortages just to get a lower payment.Fannie's new loan modification program puts the company in sync with other large mortgage institutions that are reaching out to borrowers facing economic strains before they end up in serious delinquency or foreclosure.For instance, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's chairman and chief executive, says he expects his company to identify and work with as many as 400,000 customers who may be in danger of missing future payments. Bank of America has announced a similar effort.Freddie Mac, which has 12 million loan customers either in its portfolio or in mortgage bond pools it guarantees, has "for years" permitted its servicers to negotiate early modifications in some circumstances, spokesman Brad German said, although Freddie has not aggressively publicized the program to borrowers.With the addition of Fannie Mae, the vast majority of major players in the mortgage market now say they offer some form of early intervention for consumers heading for defaults. But there's a big unknown here: If your servicer modifies the terms of your loan, will you stay out of trouble? Or might you fall behind again?The jury is still out. On the one hand, some recent federal data suggest that more than half -- 53% -- of modified loans end up in re-defaults within six months. Modification advocates such as Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., contend that changes to loan terms that go deep enough to meaningfully deal with borrowers' ongoing financial problems succeed at far higher rates.What should you do if you see financial trouble on the horizon that could push you into serious delinquency? Immediately contact your servicer, and if you find out your loan is owned by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or another major lender, request an early workout.Before foreclosures started going off the charts, substantive help in advance would have been almost inconceivable. Now it's part of servicers' marching orders.Kenneth R. Harney is a syndicated columnist distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills East - Open House
Today's Open Houses - SATURDAY JANUARY 03, 2009 (1:00 - 4:00P)
1937 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068
*pictures shown below
I look forward to seeing you there, and Happy New Year!
Greg
1937 Canyon Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068
*pictures shown below
I look forward to seeing you there, and Happy New Year!
Greg
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