Mortgages
Regulators Offer “Reputation Risk” Advice To Reverse Mortgage Lenders
A gaggle of federal regulators are advising reverse mortgage lenders to avoid “reputation risk” by focusing “on the need to provide adequate information to consumers about reverse mortgage products; to provide qualified independent counseling to consumers considering these products; and to avoid potential conflicts of interest.”
Big deal. After all, reverse mortgage borrowers are already required [...]
Should The FHA Insure Luxury Condo Loans?
Last week Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced an effort to increase the size of FHA builder loan guarantees for new housing units in major cities. Now Bloomberg News is reporting that FHA loans are being used to finance the acquisition of luxury apartments in New York.
“The Federal Housing Administration agreed in March to insure mortgages [...]
FHA Insurance Premiums Set For Fall Revamp
Borrowers who get FHA financing after October 4th will be subject to a new insurance fee schedule — with some costs rising and some falling.
The FHA has two insurance premiums. There’s an up-front mortgage insurance premium (MIP) paid at closing (or added to the loan amount) which is now equal to 2.25 percent of the [...]
Military Borrowers Squeezed Out of Distressed Markets
Purchasing a home in a distressed real estate market can present some unique challenges for military buyers, not just in hard-hit states like Nevada and California but across the country.
Active duty service members and veterans in some parts of the country are getting pushed out of the foreclosure market, hampered by a combination of cash [...]
Credit & Underwriting Standards Tighten for VA Borrowers
VA loans have weathered the foreclosure crisis better than their major lending counterparts. But they certainly haven’t been immune to the overall tightening that’s taken hold of the industry.
The result is that these highly flexible and forgiving loans aren’t quite as forgiving as they once were.
Tighter Underwriting
More restrictive credit and underwriting standards have no doubt [...]
Responsibility: But Didn’t The Borrower Sign The Mortgage?
It hardly seems unfair. Aren’t borrowers responsible for the loans they take out? It’s not like someone is held at gunpoint and forced to accept the worst loan lenders can concoct.
That’s the thinking of a considerable segment of the population, a segment represented in some of the email I receive as well as in the [...]
What Is A Mortgage Loan Worksheet?
Starting in 2010 the government introduced a new Good Faith Estimate form which required lenders to spell out loan costs in very precise and standardized language — information which lenders must honor at closing.
The new form from HUD has raised a question among some lenders as to whether a pre-approval letter or a pre-qualification letter [...]
How The VA Funding Fee Really Works
VA loans are built to minimize the financial impact on military members who qualify for the program. Credit and income requirements are generally more lenient than conventional loans and sellers are allowed to pay a sizable portion of closing costs and concessions. On top of that, the Veterans Administrations caps what veterans can pay in [...]
29Jun2010 | Chris Birk | 0 comments | Continued
New Mortgage Loan Protections Outlined in Wall Street Reform
The House Financial Services Committee has released a summary of the major changes included in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These are items which have been accepted by a conference committee of the House and Senate. If the conference report is passed by both houses, the measure will then go to the [...]
27Jun2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Morgan Stanley To Pay $102 Million For Mortgage Role In Massachusetts
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has announced that Wall Street titan Morgan Stanley will pay $102 million to settle for its role in creating a market for subprime mortgages in the state. The settlement includes $58 million to roughly 1,000 homeowners.
Should Have Known
“This has become an all-too-familiar pattern in which the deceptive practices of Wall [...]
© Copyright 