Today’s News Synopsis:
Research shows the national election years tend to be bad for housing. Wells Fargo said that up to 55,000 of their foreclosures had mistakes. The 30-year mortgage rate increased to 4.23%, according to Freddie Mac.
In The News:
Wall Street Journal - “Mortgage Rate Edges Up Again, to 4.23%” (10-28-10)
“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.23% for the week ended Thursday, up slightly from the prior week’s 4.21% average but down from 5.03% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed were at 3.66%, up from 3.64% in the previous week but down from 4.46% a year earlier.”
Inman - “New credit score tailored for lenders” (10-28-10)
“The FICO 8 Mortgage Score does a better job identifying accounts that are overdue by 90 days or more, pushing more high-risk borrowers into lower score ranges, the company says in promotional materials. The FICO 8 Mortgage Score uses the same 300-850 scoring range as the all-industry FICO score most widely used, but is better at predicting whether a borrower will default on a mortgage”
Los Angeles Times – “Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas” (10-28-10)
“California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona remain the country’s foreclosure hotbeds, accounting for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates between July and September, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.”
Bloomberg - “Wells Fargo Will File More Foreclosure Affidavits After Lapses” (10-28-10)
“Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, said it will file supplemental foreclosure affidavits to courts in about 55,000 proceedings after finding some statements ‘did not strictly adhere to the required procedures.’”
Housing Wire – “Federal Reserve closer to TILA final rule on appraiser coercion” (10-28-10)
“Regulation Z or TILA was enacted on July 21 as part of the Dodd-Frank bill. It forces lenders to disclose costs and terms of mortgage loans and better inform consumers. This final rule, one of the many the Fed must draft after the passage of Dodd-Frank, seeks to ensure appraiser independence much like the replacement to the final rule replacing the Home Valuation Code of Conduct for appraisers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.”
Housing Wire – “Moody’s economist sees ample optimism in housing market” (10-28-10)
“Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody’s Analytics said that he expects home prices to be depressed into 2012. He adds that the knock-on effect from the robo-signing debacle will be minimal.”
Housing Wire – “Mortgage delinquencies are in ‘serious trouble,’ says LPS analyst” (10-28-10)
“Kyle Lundstedt, managing director of the applied analytics division at LPS said the housing market remains in “serious trouble” as current mortgage delinquencies are above 7 million distressed homeowners.”
Orange County Register - “National election years bad for housing” (10-28-10)
“Election years (both presidential and mid-terms) seem bad for housing. When national power is at stake, U.S. home prices averaged 5.2% gains per year. Compare that to the 5.8% average gain found in non-election years since 1969. That modest performance gap is decent proof that election years aren’t so hot for housing. Just to be sure, though, I checked with the median price change for these periods, too. Again, non-election years outperformed: 6.3% annual gains vs. 5.1% for election years.”
Bloomberg - “Banks `Want to Sit Down’ With States to Discuss Foreclosures” (10-27-10)
“A 50-state task force investigating U.S. foreclosure practices may meet with lenders as early as this week, less than a month after JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. suspended some home seizures.”
Naked Capitalism – “NYC Judge Foreclosure Smackdown Shows Problems With Bank ‘Technicalities’ Defense” (10-28-10)
“A story at the New York Daily News on a foreclosure case dismissed by Judge Arthur Schack illustrates that the problems that banks are having with foreclosures, which they are characterizing as ‘technical’ or ‘paperwork’ run deeper than that. And that is before you get to the issue that we have discussed at length on this blog, namely, the failure to convey promissory notes and related liens as stipulated by the contract governing mortgage securitizations, the pooling and servicing agreement.”
Looking Back:
One year ago, according to the MBA, mortgage application volume decreased by 12.3 percent within a week. Sources confirmed that the Senate did intend to extend the home buyer tax credit with some modifications. The Commerce Department reported that the pace of new home sales decreased by 3.6 percent in September 09.
For more information about The Norris Group’s California hard money loans or our California Trust Deed investments, visit the website or call our office at 951-780-5856 for more information. For upcoming California real estate investor training and events, visit The Norris Group website and our California investor event calendar. You’ll also find our award-winning real estate radio show on KTIE 590am at 6pm on Saturdays or you can listen to over 170 podcasts in our free investor radio archive.
About Bruce Norris
Bruce Norris is an active investor, hard money lender, and real estate educator with over 30 years experience. Bruce has been involved in over 2,000 real estate transactions as a buyer, seller, builder and money partner.
Tags: affidavit, borrower, bruce norris, distressed, Dodd-Frank, economist, fannie mae, FICO, foreclosure, freddie mac, Kyle Lundstedt, lender, LPS, Mark Zandi, Moody's, mortgage, RealtyTrac, Regulation Z, TILA, Wells Fargo