All Posts Tagged With: "Mortgages"
FHA “Short Refinance” — Is This The Way To Reduce Foreclosures?
Imagine that you have a mortgage and want to refinance to get a lower rate but the debt is greater than the value of the home. Imagine also that if you can refinance you can avoid foreclosure.
The government is now trying to address this scenario, something which is common across the country, especially for those [...]
9Aug2010 | Peter G. Miller | 2 comments | Continued
Mortgage Reform Now — 6 Ways To Fix What’s Broke
For all the talk of reform on Wall Street, a quicker and easier way to assure that big banks don’t fail and small borrowers don’t get screwed is to simply fix the mortgage origination system.
Fixing the mortgage system is crucial if we’re to prevent another financial meltdown. If the mortgages are done right than mortgage-backed [...]
Mortgage Modifications: Bush Versus Obama
It’s beginning to look like the government’s efforts to modify troubled home loans is beginning to pay off. As of the end of February more than 170,000 borrowers had obtained permanent mortgage modifications while more than 1 million more under the Making Home Affordable program are involved in trial modifications that could result in better [...]
15Mar2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
What Are Private Mortgages?
We usually think of real estate financing in terms of loans from banks, mortgage brokers, mortgage banks, credit unions and insurance companies. In fact there’s another source of real estate financing, private mortgages.
Private mortgages can be alluring and in some cases financially dangerous. In the best case a private mortgage will provide a low rate [...]
Why Can’t We Treat Foreclosures Like Fires & Floods?
Loan modifications are just about impossible, say lenders — except when there’s a fire, flood or tornado. Then home mortgages are suddenly as flexible as taffy. Lenders in such situations magically discover an immediate ability to revise loan terms, defer payments, postpone foreclosures, forgive late fees and end negative reports to credit bureaus.
For its part, [...]
4Jan2010 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
How Many Mortgages Can I Have?
It’s long been a tradition in real estate that borrowers were limited to four financed properties in addition to their prime residence, a tradition which has now changed.
It used to be that you could have a prime residence, a financed second home as well as three financed investment property loans and still be within the [...]
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 [...]
9Nov2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
Real Estate: Banks Excluded From Robo Call Ban
Robo calls are now largely banned, unless the caller has written permission to phone you.
“American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year,” says Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. “Starting September 1, this bombardment of prerecorded [...]
Mortgages: Less Hope For Delinquent Borrowers
For all the talk regarding mortgage modifications, the open secret has been fairly clear: Most modifications are failing. Once behind most people do not catch up.
According to Fitch Ratings, so-called cure rates for delinquent prime loans — the highest quality loans — have declined from an average of 45% during 2000-2006 to the currently level [...]
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. [...]
22Aug2009 | Peter G. Miller | 0 comments | Continued
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