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July 21, 2010

Mortgage Broker Reform

Category: Home Finance Reform,Loan Relief Articles,Mortgage Industry News,Published Articles – admin – 5:06 pm

The U.S. government has been working frantically to pass mortgage reform that would require loan modification licensing.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees compliance with the SAFE Act, has proposed that employees handling loan modifications for struggling homeowners also meet the licensing requirements, a policy opposed by banks.  John Courson, CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association said that mandating licenses for mortgage loan-modification specialists could slow hiring and hinder efforts to cut home foreclosures.” Courson continued, “We say this is not originating a new home loan, because the loan terms are being reduced on their home mortgage to increase the affordability and reduce the likelihood of a foreclosure.”

The housing department hasn’t set a deadline for a decision, said Lemar Wooley, a spokesman.  According to Anthony Hsieh, CEO of Loan Depot, a home loan lender based in Irvine, California, the process costs $3,000 to $6,000 to train and pay the fees for each new employee to comply with the mortgage licensing system. “The mortgage reform law is supposed to make sure we kick the bad ones out,” said Hsieh. “It could be the opposite, keeping the good loan officers out.”  Read the original article online > Loan Modification Licensing and Mortgage Reform

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July 16, 2010

Home Purchase Loan Applications Fall

Category: Home Loan Market,Home Loan News,Mortgage Industry News,Mortgage Rate News,Published Articles – admin – 6:21 pm

The number of home loan applications in the U.S. for home purchases fell to a 13 1/2-year low last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday, in a further sign of the slump in home buying since a federal tax credit concluded at the end of April.  There have been fears for months that the incentive was stealing future sales and would result in a new leg down for the housing market once the support ended. New-home sales sunk to a record in May while pending total sales tumbled 30% from April.

Home loan applications for new homes were down 43% from the Independence Day week last year, said the MBA. The bad news comes even as home mortgage rates sink to new record lows.  Those rate declines have been giving some lift to applications for home refinancing, which hit a 14-month high two weeks ago. But even the MBA refinance mortgage report fell 2.9% last week from a week earlier as its gauge for purchases dropped 3.1%. The share of applications for refinancing was flat at 78.7%.  Read the original Mortgage News

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July 8, 2010

Wells Fargo Announces Significant Job Cuts in Consumer Finance

Category: Foreclosure Crisis News,Home Loan Market,Home Loan News,Mortgage Industry News,Published Articles,Subprime Home Loans,Wells Fargo Home Mortgage – admin – 8:02 am

According to Mortgage News Source, Wells Fargo is laying off nearly 4,000 employees from its’ Consumer Finance Division that was responsible for non-prime mortgage lending.  The company announced that they were ceasing to originate subprime mortgages in an effort to mitigate loan portfolio risks.  Mortgage News indicated that Wells Fargo “had been struggling with delinquencies and loan defaults from their own bad credit home mortgages.”  Acquiring the loan portfolios from the Wachovia merger may have pushed their subprime risks too far. 

Wells Fargo announced they were closing 638 Wells Fargo Financial offices, which increased its number of retail branches to 6,600 after the Wachovia merger. The bank also has 2,200 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage offices and will eliminate about 2,800 employees from its Wells Fargo Financial unit and will most likely slash another 1,000 jobs in the next year. Read the original news article, > Almost 4,000 Wells Fargo Mortgage Layoffs

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June 20, 2010

Thrifty Tips for Buying Internet Mortgage Leads

Category: Broker Tips,Lenders Corner,Mortgage Advertising,Mortgage Brokers,Mortgage Industry News,mortgage leads,Mortgage Lenders,Mortgage Technology,Published Articles – admin – 3:37 am

Today, most mortgage brokers that have less to spend so it is imperative that they buy leads cautiously.  Internet mortgage leads can be a very cost effective form of marketing if you know how to purchase leads from lead generation companies.  Be careful of how and where you purchase leads. Ask the account executive at the lead company what their minimums are and be cautious when buying leads in bulk.  If a lead company is generating 50 leads a day and 15 leads a day that meet your filters, you have to wonder how a lead company could send you 250 leads in a 3-day span.  Clearly these are either old or brokered leads. In a recent article, Bryan Dornan the founder of mortgage lead generation company, the Lead Planet reminded mortgage companies to “Consider more than just the cost per lead.”  Dornan suggests that “the cost per funding is the bottom line.”  See the original mortgage lead buying post at the Mortgage Lead Vault > Cost to Funding Ratio Matters with Mortgage Leads

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May 28, 2010

FHA Refinance vs Conventional Home Refinancing

Category: Conventional,FHA,Mortgage Industry News,Published Articles – admin – 12:38 am

In a recent article, Mortgage Refinancing Buzz compares conventional and FHA refinancing in a side by side analysis.  The mortgage advisor notes that both types of refinance loans have their pros and cons so it all comes down to selecting a refinance program that best meets you individual needs.  In 2010 there were many revisions to underwriting criteria for conventional and FHA loan requirements.  MRB recommends finding out what your loan qualifications are with a mortgage lender you trust.  

A conventional refinance loan is a traditional mortgage used to refinance an existing mortgage that stays within the conforming loan limits of $417,000.  FHA streamline refinance allows FHA customers to refinance anytime the market rate drops into a position that would save them money.  During turbulent the FHA refinance loan provides some assurances that if the rates drop, the FHA borrower can reap the benefits. 

Read the original Mortgage Refinancing Buzz article > Comparing Conventional Refinance Loans to FHA Refinancing

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May 20, 2010

Mortgage Refinance Rates Still Fall to Lowest Level in Years

Category: Current Mortgage Rates,Home Loan News,Home Mortgage Rates,Mortgage Rate News,Published Articles – admin – 12:54 am

Mortgage rates fell to 2010 lows  but did come under a small amount of upward pressure late in the day as the stock market rallied into the close.   As the prices of mortgage backed securities fell, many mortgage lenders saw pricing get worse, but the higher lending costs that were passed on to borrowers were not big.  Mortgage refinance rates continued to hold at the best levels of 2010. 

Reports from competitive mortgage professionals indicate mortgage lender rate sheets to be about the same as yesterday.  The 30 year conventional rate mortgage remains in the 4.75% to 5.00% range for well qualified consumers.  There are still FHA lenders offering 4.625% as par.  To secure a par interest rate on a conventional mortgage you must have a FICO credit score of 740 or higher, a loan to value at 80% or less and pay all closing costs including an estimated one point home mortgage. 

If you are not planning on keeping your house for more than 5 years, you should consider a no cost mortgage.  In many cases, in a no cost refinance, you will be forced to accept a higher mortgage rate which pays the lender enough money that they can afford to pay the closing costs for you.  On a no cost mortgage, you are still paying the costs, just paying them in the form of higher interest charges.   We recommend anticipating that a no cost loan to offer a rate of around 5.375% for a 30 year fixed.

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May 14, 2010

Declining Interest Rates Spur Mortgage Refinancing

Category: Current Mortgage Rates,Fannie Mae News,First Time Home Buyer,Home Loan Market,Home Loan News,Home Mortgage Rates,Mortgage Industry News,Published Articles – admin – 4:34 pm

Freddie Mac announced today that the current mortgage interest rates are the lowest they have been in 2010. The Wall Street Journal reported that home builder stocks rallied in early trading follow a reported spike in mortgage loan applications last week as homeowners take advantage of some of the lowest home mortgage rates since March. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index of home loan applications, which includes both purchase mortgage and refinance loans, rose 3.9% for the week ended May 7th. The four-week moving average of mortgage applications, which removes some of the volatility of weekly changes, was up 4.4%. Mortgage refinancing led the way; the MBA’s seasonally adjusted index of home refinance applications rose 14.8%. A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, including lending fees, averaged 4.96%, the lowest level since week ended March 12th. Refinance rates were still higher the 4.76% last year and the all-time low of 4.6%.  The demand for mortgage loans for buying new homes dropped following the expiration of the heavily publicized federal home buyer tax credits.

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February 3, 2010

Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended

Category: FHA,First Time Home Buyer,Government Loans,Home Loan News,Loan Programs,Mortgage Industry News,Mortgage Lenders,Published Articles – admin – 10:18 am

According to data released by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the expansion to the homebuyer tax credit, an exceptional government stimulus measure was passed to boost housing activity, new home sales took a 7.6% decline in December. The results come on the heels of National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports of similar December declines in existing home sales.  First time home buyer loans have seen a recent spike in loan application volumes since the tax credit news hit the street.

The homebuyer tax credit extended for first time homebuyers and expanded to include existing homeowners requires buyers have a contract in place by April 30 athnd close by June 30th. The problem, homebuilder insiders and real estate agents tell HousingWire, is that consumers who tried to take advantage of the tax credit too late in the fall before realizing there wasn’t enough time to close a deal by the original November 30th expiration date have yet to reengage themselves in the home loan process.  FHA mortgage lending continues to support a majority of the first time homebuyer loans.  “With new homes, the homebuilders ran out of everything they could close by the end of November,” Burns said. “There were people that wanted to buy in these communities that didn’t because they couldn’t close in time.” 

As HousingWire previously reported, the JBREC December monthly builder survey showed optimism among 264 home building industry executives from public and private companies. The belief that builders will have increased community count, better orders and slightly higher prices has 57% of respondents planning for more revenue in 2010 than in 2009.

Another confidence booster is the tax credit many builders are receiving from the temporary extension of the terms of net operating carry-back laws, which let builder recoup losses from taxes paid in profitable years.  “It’s given them more confidence in their cash balances and they want to start more speculative homes because of the extra cash that they now have,” Burns said.

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January 8, 2010

Home Loan Industry Sees First Job Increase in 6 Months

Category: Home Loan Market,Mortgage Industry Jobs,Mortgage Industry News,Mortgage Lenders,Published Articles – admin – 6:16 pm

The home mortgage industry added 200 full-time employees to their payrolls in November, the first jump in industry employment since July. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment in the mortgage broker/ bankersector rose to 255,700, compared to 255,500 in October. The BLS data shows the increase is entirely due to more mortgage brokers having jobs. Employment at mortgage broker and banking firms was flat in November. Overall, the home loan industry experienced a 10% drop in its workforce over the past 12 months. Major mortgage lenders have relied on outsourcing and temporary workers to deal with fluctuating demand. Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 10% in December, but 85,000 workers were laid off, according to the new jobs report. This disappointed analysts who were looking for a sign that the job market had finally turned the corner.

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December 11, 2009

California Mortgage Rates Rise

Category: California Mortgage Rates,Mortgage Industry News,Published Articles – admin – 5:12 pm

California homeowners have taken quite a hit in home values over the last few years.  Many local residents are hoping the record low interest rates will help soften their losses.Just a few weeks ago California mortgage rates hit a new all time record low of 4.375% on a 30 year fixed mortgage. The current California mortgage rates have crept up slightly for conventional, FHA, VA and jumbo home loans. As a result the 10 year treasury yield, used to forecast mortgage rates, has also steadily risen over the past 2 weeks and sits at 3.482% as of close on Thursday afternoon. California home prices have stabilized as pending home sales are at a 2 year high.

 

Current California Mortgage Rates

FreeRateUpdate.com reported the latest rates for wholesale mortgage lenders in California mortgage rates shows California interest rates are up from record lows but holding at present levels. The buy rate for California thirty-year fixed rate is currently at 4.75%.  The current rate for California fifteen-year fixed rate is 4.25%, up from 4.125% last week.

 

FHA Mortgage Rates

Check the California FHA Loan Limits for restrictions by county.  Today’s California jumbo 30 year fixed mortgage rate is 5.875%, up from 5.75% last week. California FHA mortgage rates are near record lows. Today’s California FHA mortgage rates start at 4.75% 30 years fixed, up from 4.375% 2 weeks ago.

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November 11, 2009

Mortgage Refinance Guidelines Improving

Category: Government Loans,Home Loan News,Loan Programs,Published Articles – admin – 5:26 pm

Mortgage rates are at record levels and refinance guidelines are beginning to lighten up for homeowners with no equity.  The government announced the HARP program that promotes affordable home refinancing with flexible requirements.  People can refinance from 105 to 125%, but no cash out is allowed with these special government relief loans. These government 125 mortgage loans are not for debt consolidation, rather for loan refinances of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backed loans.

According to the Nationwide website, mortgage refinancing is a fundamental way for homeowners to increase cash flow.” The options for home mortgage refinancing vary by borrower, but there are many options out there. Of course, refinancing options are dependent on a borrower’s credit history, home value, home equity and other factors. However, do not let a poor credit history or a home whose value has fallen deter you. There are many refinance programs available through the VA or FHA for some people. Others can take advantage of opportunities provided in the conventional loan market. Even with tightened credit requirements, there are loan options available for people with poor credit. All of these options can be discussed with a mortgage professional.

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August 17, 2009

Encompass Increases Marketshare with Home Loan Companies

Category: Home Loan News,Mortgage Brokers,Mortgage Lenders,Mortgage Technology,Published Articles – admin – 9:18 am

Steve Park of Mortgage Brokers Network was asked about Encompass and this is what he had to say. “Encompass certainly has made a dent in the loan origination software market that Calyx’s Point has dominated for so long.”  Lead Planet, a mortgage lead generation company have confirmed a surge in Encompass users with their lead buying clients.  “We’ve been using Encompass very successfully for quite some time, and this integration has made it exponentially easier for us to access what we feel is the most accurate product and pricing information available on the market,” says Craig Willis, chief technology officer for Amerifirst Financial, an Encompass and Mortgage Pricing Systems user. Read the complete article > Mortgage Lead Companies See Rise Encompass Use for Mortgage Management Solutions

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