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Feature Article #1

2009 Mortgage Loan Limits (Updated)

There are several types of mortgage loan limits. Generally, most borrowers need to look at conventional, FHA and VA loan limits to see how much can be financed with the most-widely originated loans.
If you borrow at or below the conventional loan limit for non-government mortgages, you would have what is generally known as a [...]

Peter G. Miller | February 26th, 2009 | Continued

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Feature Article #2

Judge To Lenders: Show Me The Note

With mortgage practices under fire on Capitol Hill and across the country, a federal court decision in Cleveland is now proving more important each day: Homeowners can’t be foreclosed unless mortgage owners actually go to court and prove they have the right to call the loan.
At first this may seem unimportant. After all, when a [...]

Peter G. Miller | February 18th, 2009 | Continued

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Feature Article #3

Who Should We Blame For The Mortgage Meltdown?

According to Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and now a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton, there are six factors which caused the current foreclosure mess — a list which curiously excludes, ahem, the Federal Reserve.
Let me explain.
Writing in the New York Times, Mr. Blinder says the fault [...]

Peter G. Miller | February 2nd, 2009 | Continued

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Feature Article #4

How To Get A Successful Loan Modification (With Obama Update)

Is it possible to get a mortgage modification without being foreclosed or behind on your payments? For an increasing number of borrowers the answer is “yes” because recent changes in the mortgage industry now make loan modifications more likely than at any point since the financial meltdown began.
For much of human history mortgage lenders have [...]

Peter G. Miller | January 22nd, 2009 | Continued

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Feature Article #5

Mortgage Surprise? What Mortgage Surprise?

The most used word in the world of mortgage financing during the past few weeks has been “surprise,” as in, “oh my, cover your eyes and turn away from those poor wretched loans.”

“The U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac said it would no longer buy those high-risk home mortgages that it deems to be [...]

Peter G. Miller | September 9th, 2008 | Continued

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News & Commentary

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Administration Increases Help For Distressed Borrowers

Some 200,000 people have applied for help under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), but to date the program has been extremely restricted.
The problem? HARP has both a refinancing plan for those facing foreclosure and a separate modification plan for those who want to refinance but lack equity. Under HARP, you can refinance [...]

2Jul2009 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
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Should We Cheer An 18-Percent Drop in Home Prices?

According to Business Week there’s good news on the home front.
“Case-Shiller Home Prices Decline Only 18%” reads the headline. And then we discover that “the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller housing index numbers out today show the market falling less dramatically than it had been earlier in the year. The 10 and 20 city indices were [...]

1Jul2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Since When Are Appraisal Conflicts Okay?

On RealTalk, a listserve with some 30,000+ agents and brokers, several relate that they have had bad experiences under the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) concept, something which only began May 1st.
Why is anyone amazed? Combine a new and different program with a huge number of interactions and there are certain to be [...]

30Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Can 11,000 Appraisers Be Wrong?

Gee, golly, mention the idea of pressuring appraisers to come up with the “right” valuation numbers and you’re hardly alone. There seem to be a large number of appraisers who have encountered efforts to distort their valuations. Say 11,000 of them.
That’s how many signed on at AppraisersPetition.com. And what, exactly, is their beef? As the [...]

29Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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How To Pick On Appraisers

Many in the real estate community are upset with the newly implemented Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) and want it suspended or revoked so we can go back to the good-old-says when it was okay to threaten and pressure appraisers.
The HVCC was an agreement worked out between New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Fannie [...]

26Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 9 comments | Continued
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The Mortgage Offer Is In The Mail

The nation’s lenders are churning out 38 million mortgage solicitations a month, ads sent to your home through the postal system according to Mintel Comperemedia.
While 38 million is a big number, the volume of direct mail solicitations has actually been going down for the past two years. In the first quarter of 2009, says Mintel, [...]

25Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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The Untold Story Behind Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

The government is out with new foreclosure prevention numbers from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the headline is that “FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC LOAN MODIFICATIONS UP BY MORE THAN 50 PERCENT IN FIRST QUARTER, MONTHLY PAYMENTS REDUCED FOR HOMEOWNERS.”
We then learn that “Fannie Mae and Freddie [...]

24Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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The “Consumer” Protection Panel That Isn’t

It was with some fanfare that the Federal Reserve announced that it would create a Consumer Advisory Council to provide advice regarding issues from a public perspective.
Now you might think, aha, a Consumer Advisory Council…wouldn’t that be a panel which consists largely or entirely of, er, well, consumers?
You might think so, but the Federal Reserve [...]

22Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Can You Trust Your Lender?

There is something new in the marketplace, what is being called the Fair Market Collaborative. As someone who has been looking for fairness in the mortgage marketplace since the 1970s you can bet that I welcome any effort to create a level playing field for borrowers.
But will the new collaborative really change marketplace [...]

21Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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Making The First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Better — Or Worse?

There is now a new effort on Capitol Hill to increase the first-time buyer credit from $8,000 to $15,000. Under S1230, first-time buyers would be able to get a credit equal to as much as 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $15,000.
Not only that, but the time the home would have to be [...]

19Jun2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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