March 4, 2011 (Chris Moore) The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to end two new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs that would provide assistance to troubled homeowners citing the need to stop funding government programs that spend more to save a single borrower than it costs to buy a home. Read [...]
March 3, 2011 (Chris Moore) Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), which shows a drop in long-term fixed rates for the third consecutive week. Despite the lower rates, housing demand continues to remain weak with new home sales and existing home sales declining. Read more...
March 3, 2011 (Shirley Allen) The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury has released the February edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard. The latest housing figures show increased existing home sales as home affordability remains high, but officials caution that the market remains fragile, as [...]
March 3, 2011 (Shirley Allen) Lender Processing Services (LPS) released its January Mortgage Monitor Report which shows that while foreclosure starts decreased in the first month of 2011, they still outnumber foreclosure sales by almost three to one. At the end of January, foreclosure inventories stood at more than eight times historical averages. Read more...
March 3, 2011 (Shirley Allen) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner David Stevens testified before a House Financial Services panel, that is slated to vote on terminating the FHA Short-Refi and HAMP programs, twenty-three lenders had signed up to participate in the Short-Refi program designed to help underwater borrowers avoid foreclosure as of February 11. Read [...]
March 3, 2011 (Jeff Alan) Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated overall economic activity continued to expand at a modest to moderate pace in January and early February according to the latest Beige Book released by the Federal Reserve. Read more...
March 2, 2011 (Shirley Allen) According to the data collected on March 1, 2010, for LendingTree’s Weekly Mortgage Rate Pulse, average home loan rates offered by network lenders was 5.06 percent (5.28% APR) for 30-year fixed mortgages, which is down from 5.16 percent the week before, 4.29 percent (4.60% APR) for 15-year fixed mortgages, which [...]
March 2, 2011 (Shirley Allen) The Center for Housing Policy reports that the three county region of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties has the nation’s biggest burden when it comes to monthly housing costs. Out of 752,041 working households, 42 percent of the residents of the region spent more than half of their income [...]
March 2, 2011 (Jeff Alan) The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) reports that the nation’s thrift industry posted its first profitable year since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2006. The industry showed profits in all four quarters of 2010 totaling $6.6 billion including a $1.75 profit in the fourth quarter which is 0.76 [...]
