All Posts Tagged With: "Freddie Mac"
Feds Start New Short Sale & Deed-in-lieu of Foreclosure Options
Large numbers of people facing foreclosure have been helped by the government’s Making Home Affordable program, but what about those who can’t succeed under the plan? Truth is, a lot of people who enroll in the foreclosure prevention program don’t make it. The government reports that through April 299,092 borrowers received permanent loan modifications under [...]
2Jun2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Mortgage Modifications Threatened by Higher Interest Rates
Mortgage interest rates have spiked during the past two weeks, so is there a need to worry? The news is unsettling because last August the Federal Reserve announced that it would stop purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the open market on March 31, 2010. The thought of one less buyer in the marketplace — one [...]
12Apr2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Mortgages: Interest Rates Retreat
During the past week mortgage interest rates moved visibly lower. Freddie Mac says the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.12 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending August 20, 2009, down from last week when it averaged 5.29 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.47 percent. Today’s interest [...]
22Aug2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Mortgages: Do Away With Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac?
The news is filled with stories regarding efforts to dump Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them with, er, well, no one knows what. Good luck, folks. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now being blamed for following the instructions they received from the federal government. For example, in 2000 the minority loan purchase [...]
6Aug2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Why Not More Mortgage Modifications?
Writing in the New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson notes that “Alan M. White, an assistant professor at the Valparaiso University law school in Indiana, analyzed data on 3.5 million subprime and alt-A mortgages in securitization pools overseen by Wells Fargo. The loans were written in 2005 through 2007; data on their performance is provided to [...]
6Jul2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Mortage Rates Turn Upside Down
Every week Freddie Mac issues a general survey of mortgage rates and last week’s results were a shocker: Rates for fixed-rate loans were lower than the rates for ARMs. If you’re a borrower the conclusion is obvious: Stay away from ARMs. Here’s why: No Cash Refinancing If you have a fixed-rate loan you have a [...]
27Apr2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Facing Foreclosure? How The Obama Plan Can Help
It was in February that the Obama Administration first announced it would create a mortgage relief program for millions of distressed borrowers. The details of the plan are now out, so it’s possible to see who can be helped — and who can’t. To start, we’re talking about help from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [...]
8Mar2009 | Peter G. Miller | 1 comment | Continued
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 [...]
26Feb2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: Promised Interest Savings Disappear
It was just a few weeks ago when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were seized by the Federal government. To this day it is not clear why such a seizure was necessary given that the two companies had lost roughly $5 billion in the first half of the year — but had $95 billion in [...]
20Oct2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
What Some Folks Really Know About Bubbles
The idea of a real estate “bubble” is scary. Just the thought of a sudden, wholesale decline in housing prices nationwide is nearly enough to get your mind off the stock market plunge. Almost, but not quite enough. You remember the stock market — that’s the financial setting where there’s been a, er, correction. Let’s [...]
16Sep2008 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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