March 11, 2011 (Chris Moore) Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, calls the proposed $20 billion mortgage settlement by the Obama administration, the state attorneys general, and other federal agencies a “shakedown.” Read more...
March 9, 2011 (Chris Moore) Freddie Mac has posted a chart on its website in response to information that it feels was erroneous in an article by the New York Times. In the article, the author Binyamin Appelbaum, claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had slashed the requirements for down payments in recent years [...]
March 9, 2011 (Chris Moore) Bank of America representatives said on Tuesday that the Obama Administration’s $20 billion proposal to try to force banks to write down mortgage principals was unworkable and unfair to borrowers who had managed to stay current on their loans, a point made previously here on LoanRateUpdate. “There’s a core problem [...]
February 28, 2011 (Chris Moore) Although in the early stages, the battle lines are already being drawn in the sand over the Presidents reported proposal to force mortgage lenders and servicers to either pay fines of over $20 billion or to modify an equal amount of mortgage loans by writing down the principal balances. On [...]
February 2, 2011 (Jeff Alan) As promised, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday regarding possible legislation granting bankruptcy judges the power to require foreclosure mediation between banks and homeowners. Whitehouse, who recently commented on a story featured here concerning Judge Votolato’s recent bankruptcy court decision, is [...]
December 15 2010 (Chris Moore) Two years ago, a North Carolina credit union launched a mortgage assistance program that has had unprecedented success and should be a model for the mortgage industry. At a time when mortgage holders have been overwhelmed with foreclosures, the State Employees Credit Union (SECU) has used a little old fashioned [...]
November 30 2010 (Chris Moore) In October 2005, just prior to the peak of the housing boom, there were a record high 535,400 mortgage brokers, loan officers, mortgage underwriters, loan processors, and others working in the mortgage financial industry. Total mortgage industry employment today is estimated at 246,400, less than half reported at the industry’s [...]
