Mortgage

Mortgage Fraud Costs Lenders 1 Billion Dollars Over Last Decade

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The other part of this that interested me is that Florida accounted for nearly 25 percent of the mortgage fraud instances reported.

Mortgage fraud has represented about $1 billion in losses over the [...]

26Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Will Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Need Federal Intervention?

Odds are the answer is yes. As share prices plummeted after a Barron’s article yesterday for both Fannie Mae (down 22%) and Freddie Mac (25%) the companies are in a very precarious spot. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial discussing this today that is spot on.
The main call to action in the editorial is for [...]

19Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Oil Rich Sovereign Funds Buying Up Foreclosures?

As huge quantity of foreclosures pile up, the bundling of multiple properties to large investment funds will be the smart play for both sides. But in these tight times, who has the money to buy billions of risky properties bundled for a deep discount?
Well, let me ask another question, who has been profiting like crazy the past couple of years as oil [...]

10Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Morgan Stanley Puts Freeze on Thousands of HELOCs

The credit market continues to get tighter and tighter. Morgan Stanley has put a freeze on thousands of their clients home equity lines of credit. The company says that the customers had declining home prices and they needed to protect their interests.
But for homeowners, buyers, and sellers, this is an ominous sign. The credit markets [...]

6Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Indiana Says 360 Mortgage Brokers Face Sanctions Over New Regulations

If you are a mortgage broker or work for one in Indiana, take heed of the new regulations. The state has instituted tougher standards that you have to follow and if you do not have everything completed, you could face fines or be shut down.
It is reported that 360 brokerages in Indiana out of [...]

6Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Freddie Mac Chief Ignored Warnings Of Bad Underwriting

Is there any surprise that Freddie Mac chief Richard Syron ignored warnings that the mortgage underwriting standards were poor and that they under capitalized the loans on the books?
Didn’t think so, especially when he was taking huge bonuses placing bets with taxpayer’s and shareholder’s money.
Ugh…

In an interview with the paper, Freddie Mac’s former chief risk [...]

5Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Reverse Mortgage Benefit Tucked Away In Housing Bill

The Federal Housing Bill of 2008 has an additional perk for senior citizens borrowing money via a reverse mortgage. The cap on reverse mortgages has been lifted to $625,000 and fees that can be charged by lenders have been restricted.
I wonder if the costs and the risks in these loans will make lenders less [...]

4Aug2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Cadwalader to Cut 96 Real Estate Attorneys

Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft, one of the larger law firms in the country, is cutting 96 lawyers from it’s payroll.
Why is that important for a real estate blog? Glad you asked.
The attorneys are coming out of their real estate finance and securitization departments. The firm will still retain 150 attorneys in that division in [...]

31Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Governments Look To Suck Money Out of Foreclosured Properties

The lust for more money is the bane of both state and local governments. During the boom times they added every perk they could to make themselves re-electable. Now that tax revenue is down, they are looking under every rock and crevice to find new revenue to pay for all the pork and excess they [...]

29Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Federal Bill Will Provide Incentive To 2nd Lienholders To Allow Refinance

While I am still not thrilled with the 300 billion dollar housing bill working it’s way through Congress, they did insert some logic into the process. The bill is designed to help out the lenders and homeowners that are underwater on their loans.
But the reality is that most of these loans were financed 80–20, [...]

25Jul2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued