The Archives
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08.13.09Foreclosures reach new highsFrom the Wall Street Journal: The number of U.S. properties for which a foreclosure filing was received hit its third record in five months as they jumped 32% in July from a year earlier and rose 7% from June, according to online foreclosure concern RealtyTrac. Chief Executive James Saccacio said that despite continued federal- and state-government efforts to put together a safety net for distressed homeowners, "we're seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank reposessions." As the wave of option-ARM mortgage resets begins to crest, once can expect that the pace of foreclosures will not abate ...
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12.08.08Mortgage delinquencies on the riseFrom CNN: Mortgage loan delinquency rates rose for the seventh quarter in a row to hit 3.96%. That's a 12% increase from the second quarter's 3.53% average. "As expected, the mortgage sector continued to experience increases in the delinquency rate due to worsening economic conditions in both the labor and financial markets," said Keith Carson, a senior consultant in TransUnion's financial services group, in a release on Monday. TransUnion classifies borrowers as delinquent when they are 60 days or more past due on their home loans. As unemployment numbers continue to worsen, and more and more homeowners find themselves out of work, it only ...
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11.21.08Stay in your home for the holidays!From CNN: Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have directed their network of servicers to halt all foreclosure and eviction proceedings between Nov. 26 2008 and Jan. 9, 2009, meant to give a recently announced rescue plan time to work. The Streamlined Modification Program, set to launch Dec. 15, enables delinquent borrowers to get a modified mortgage that lowers payments to no more than 38% of their gross incomes. "By delaying these foreclosure sales, the nation's servicers will have the opportunity to work with more borrowers who could qualify for a modification under the new [program]," said Freddie Mac CEO David M. ...
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09.08.08Washington Mutual ousts CEOFrom Bloomberg: Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest U.S. savings and loan, removed Kerry Killinger as chief executive officer after he failed to halt losses tied to home mortgages that caused an 88 percent slide in the lender's stock. Alan Fishman, 62, of Meridian Capital Group will replace Killinger, Seattle-based WaMu said in a statement today. The company said it reached an accord with regulators about improving the bank's operations without having to raise new capital. Killinger joins a growing list of casualties from the mortgage meltdown, and WaMu remains high in most bank-watcher's dead pools. Fishman has quite a task ahead of him ...
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09.07.08Mortgage defaults hit 29-year highFrom the Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage delinquencies for U.S. homes in the second quarter of 2008 moved up six basis points from the previous quarter to 6.41% of all loans outstanding, marking a 29-year high, according to the MBA's National Delinquency Survey released Friday. From one year ago, delinquency rates have risen 129 basis points. This is the highest rate ever recorded in the index, which began in 1979. Last month's index was a previous high as well; before that, the all-time high recorded was 6.07% in 1985. New foreclosure starts rose to 1.19%, up from 0.99% in the previous quarter and 0.65% a ...
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09.02.08Option-ARMs dafults in death spiralFrom Housing Wire: Fitch Ratings on Tuesday released a wide-ranging look at option ARMs that paints a decidedly negative picture for the mortgage markets over the next 36 months. In fact, the picture is a downright scary one: the bottom line is that most outstanding neg-am mortgages won’t get out of 2011 alive, thanks to forced recasts. Fitch analysts said they now expect roughly $29 billion in option ARMs to recast to higher monthly payments by the end of 2009, and an additional $67 billion to recast in 2010; of this, approximately $53 billion is attributed to early recasts. “Though recent declines in ...
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08.18.08Prime mortgages get hit, dashing recovery prospectsFrom CNN: Prime mortgages are starting to record disturbingly high default rates, which could slow any potential housing recovery. The delinquency rate for prime mortgages worth less than $417,000 was 2.44% in May, compared with 1.38% during May of 2007, according to LoanPerformance, a unit of First American (FAF, Fortune 500) CoreLogic which compiles and analyzes residential mortgage statistics. Delinquencies jumped even more for prime loans of more than $417,000, so called jumbo loans. They rose to 4.03% of outstanding loans in May, compared with 1.11% a year earlier. And prime loans issued in early 2007 are performing the worst of all, failing at ...