AG Economy Beat
Taxpayers pay $47 million in legal fees for Fannie, Freddie
Losses to legal costs The Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is reporting today that legal fees for former leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are roughly $110 million, with taxpayer dollars funding at least $47 million of the bills. According to the report, the total amounts may actually be higher as this only ...
Loan default rates drop slightly in January
Dropping default rates According to the Standard & Poor’s (S&P)/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices for January, most loan types saw a drop in default rates after four consecutive months of rising defaults in America, primarily improving in consumers’ first mortgage default rates. Second mortgage and bank card default rates fell slightly in January while auto loan default rates remained stagnant. ...
FHFA pushes for privatization of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
The way forward for Fannie, Freddie The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today sent a strategic plan to Congress regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over whom they are the conservators, in an effort to guide mortgage lending toward the private sector and away from government control. The plan is in response to a lack of action by Congress and ...
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CoreLogic to improve transparency for mortgage servicers
Much needed transparency Debuting at MBA’s National Mortgage Servicing Conference & Expo, CoreLogic announced today a new default servicing platform that the company says will “streamline the way mortgage servicers manage loans through all stages of the default lifecycle.” In light of the continued robosigning debacle and the damaged chain of title across the nation, the new platform “Default View” ...
Builders reveal hidden costs of buying foreclosed homes
The builders’ challenge Despite builder sentiment rising for the last five months, new home construction remains one of the hardest hit sectors in the housing industry as lending remains tight and a glut of foreclosure is dragging down prices nationally and reducing the chance of healthy margins. The large inventory of distressed sales has been problematic for builders since the ...
Study reveals foreclosure fraud in almost all cases
Rampant foreclosure fraud The City of San Francisco has released a report revealing the widespread nature of foreclosure abuse, with 84 percent of the 400 local foreclosure cases studied showing illegal activity, a drastic rate that has the housing industry on alert, yet less than surprised as a study last year declared that the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) had ...
Builder confidence levels continue to improve nationally
Builder confidence levels According to the National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Market Index (HMI), builders of new single-family homes are experiencing improved confidence levels, up for the fifth consecutive month in February, reaching its highest level in over four years. “Builder confidence has doubled since September as measured by the HMI,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder ...
New mortgage application volume drops
Applications slide According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today, the volume of applications for mortgages fell last week, primarily due to the decline in demand for home purchases. The MBA said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, dipped 1.0 percent last week. Requests for mortgages for home purchases dropped ...
Obama budget to cut waste, including mortgage interest deductions
2013 White House Budget President Obama has now presented his fiscal year budget and while many believe Congress will not support the proposed cuts and added spending, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is focusing on the mortgage interest deduction (MID). NAR notes that “As in previous years, the budget would reduce the value of itemized deductions to 28 percent ...
Stalled $26 billion civil mortgage settlement now finalized
Mortgage foreclosure settlement In a historic deal after repeated delays and over a year of negotiations, the Justice Department, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and 49 state attorneys general has finalized a $26 billion civil settlement with five of the largest mortgage lenders for wrongful foreclosures through robo-signing wherein homes were foreclosed upon without human review or proper ...
Completed foreclosures drop 24% over the year
A shift in foreclosures CoreLogic released its first national Foreclosure Report which provides monthly data on completed foreclosures, foreclosure inventory and 90+ delinquency rates, reporting that completed foreclosures for all of 2011 totaled 830,000 compared with 1.1 million in 2010. CoreLogic notes that since September 2008, there have been approximately 3.2 million completed foreclosures. Completed foreclosures fell from November (57,000) ...
Several states hold out, one leaves $25B mortgage settlement talks
Settlement talks in limbo AGBeat has had a close eye on multi-state talks with the largest banks as over a year ago, all 50 states’ Attorneys Generals committed to negotiate terms on behalf of homeowners abused by banks leading up to and during the housing crash. Monday was the final deadline for all 50 states to declare whether they were ...
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