News

Recent increases in the rates Washington, D.C.-based Fannie Mae requires lenders to charge for some mortgages has caught the ire of the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors (NAR), who claims the new rates unfairly increase the cost of buying a mortgage, even for qualified buyers seeking mortgages they can afford.

Indiana lawmakers are considering a variety of options to help homeowners and lenders in the Hoosier state overcome the mortgage crisis, according to a report in The Indianapolis Star. According to the report, Indiana is one of nine states with a higher rate of loans in foreclosure than the national average of 3 percent, and lawmakers are looking for ways to stem that tide, including extending the foreclosure process, financial assistance, and a state-wide moratorium on foreclosures.

Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) Chairman Ronald Rosenfeld resigned from his post on December 31. The Federal Housing Finance Board was responsible for the supervision of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks until the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 merged it with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mission team, to create the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in July, 2008.

With loss mitigation becoming an increasingly more important tool for the mortgage industry, Philadelphia-based Radian Guaranty, the mortgage insurance subsidiary of Radian Group Inc., will begin offering to its customers loss mitigation training techniques and services from CampusMBA, the education division of the Washington, D.

The lack of mandatory earthquake insurance in California would result in high levels of mortgage defaults that would further cripple the United States housing market if a major earthquake occurred, according to an analysis released by the Chicago-based Impact Forecasting LLC, a division of international reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Aon Benfield.

Broad-based declines in the prices of existing single family homes continued across the United States through the month of October, according to data released today by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices show that 14 of the 20 metro areas studied experienced record rates of annual decline, with 14 now reporting declines in excess of 10 percent compared to October 2007.

J.C. Flowers & Co., Dune Capital Management, and the hedge fund Paulson & Co. are set to buy the assets of the failed mortgage lender IndyMac, according to unnamed sources in multiple news reports.

Broad-based declines in the prices of existing single family homes continued across the United States through the month of October, according to data released today by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices show that 14 of the 20 metro areas studied experienced record rates of annual decline, with 14 now reporting declines in excess of 10 percent compared to October 2007.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a notice late last week, advising lenders of the termination of the Federal Housing Administration’s FHASecure program, under which FHA was able to insure refinance transactions for borrowers delinquent on their mortgages.

Sales of existing-homes in November weakened against a backdrop of an eroding economy, according to a report released last week by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops – fell 8.