The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University has issued its annual report on the State of the Nation’s Housing . The 2010 version focuses on housing up to the end of the first quarter of 2010 which, in today’s volatile market makes much of what it says not only old news, but largely irrelevant. The report charts the on-off, up-down nature of the recovery as it relates to home sales, home prices, and delinquencies and foreclosures as well as public efforts to assist the markets. What has not received as much attention from other sources is the report’s conclusions on household formation (headship rates,) and income. The report notes that, ” after at least three decades of progress, real median household incomes will almost certainly end the 2000s lower than they started. ” The…(read more)
Another alliance between the military and housing forces was announced yesterday as Fannie Mae and the U.S. Army introduced a Military Forbearance Initiative to assist service members keep their homes. Like other forbearance programs offered to Fannie Mae borrowers, the military version is an agreement between borrower and mortgage company to suspend or reduce mortgage payments for a period that allows the borrower to deal with short term financial problems. Under the new program it will be possible to obtain forbearance for a longer period – up to six months, and adverse reports to credit bureaus are suspended during the forbearance period. The program is designed to assist an injured service member or spouse who is facing financial hardship because of a service related injury or losing a…(read more)
Saying that “mortgage features that are restricted in the Dodd-Frank Bill such as longer terms, interest-only periods and flexible payment designs are quite common in other countries and are not associated with higher rates of default”, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released a study comparing mortgage products in the United States with those in much of the rest of the world. Not surprisingly the study found that restrictions in the new financial reform act could limit the availability and flexibility of mortgages in the future. International Comparison of Mortgage Product Offerings is the result of a study conducted by Dr. Michel Lea, Director of the Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate at San Diego State University and sponsored by MBA’s Research Institute for Housing America…(read more)
The Obama Administration’s September Housing Scorecard produced by the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Treasury continues to paint a picture of a slowly stabilizing housing market, with slight marginal improvements in many areas.Even the bad news such as housing sales was mitigated by a reference to more recently released information. This illustrates a problem with the Scorecard’s format. While it is helpful to have a lot of information about the housing and housing finance markets in one place, the data points are so scattered (information in the current report was collected in July, August, and September or for the second quarter that ended in June) that it is difficult to get a true picture of any solid trends. Sources for the report include the National Association…(read more)
The National Association of Realtors today released Existing Home Sales data for August 2010. HERE is the methodology for data collection Excerpts from the release…. SALES Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million in August from an upwardly revised 3.84 million in July, but remain 19.0 percent below the 5.10 million-unit pace in August 2009. Existing condominium and co-op sales increased 8.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 510,000 in August from 470,000 in July, but are 17.1 percent below the 615,000-unit pace in August 2009. Single-family home sales rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.62 million in August…(read more)
A bipartisan pair of Congressmen introduced legislation last week that would require lenders and servicers to speed up the process of approving or disapproving a short title or short sale. U.S. Representatives Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) submitted H.R. 6133, the Prompt Decision for Qualification of Short Sale Act of 2010 . The legislation is designed to assist homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages, i.e. owe more on the loan than the current value of the house, and have a buyer reader to purchase the house at a price which will net less than the current payoff of that mortgage. The legislation addresses only the timing of the decision, not the lenders criteria for approving or disapproving the request. The bill, introduced as an amendment to the Truth in Lending…(read more)
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has issued a blueprint for keeping Ginnie Mae and FHA “available and relevant into the future.” Citing the dangerously low levels of FHA’s capital reserves as revealed last fall and the increased reliance of the housing finance system on FHA guarantees, MBA convened a Council on the Future of FHA and Ginnie Mae in November 2009 “to begin an extensive retrospective on the housing boom and subsequent bust, including discussing recommendations on how to sustain FHA and Ginnie Mae.” MBA’s recommendations for each agency are divided into three categories: Capacity and Resources, Program Eligibility; and Operations and Delivery of Services. We will summarize them in the same format. FHA Capacity and Resources Even before the recent explosion in loan volume,…(read more)
Fannie Mae has issued the following Notice…. Fannie Mae is working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to develop and adopt appraiser independence requirements that will replace the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC). Until the revised requirements are released, the existing HVCC provisions in the Fannie Mae Selling Guide continue to apply. Updated requirements are expected to be substantially similar to the current provisions. Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 , HVCC will sunset when interim final regulations are released to implement the appraisal independence-related provisions of the Act, which is expected to occur on or about October 21, 2010. Fannie Mae is committed to supporting strong appraiser independence requirements…(read more)
Federal Housing Finance Agency acting director Edward DeMarco testified before a House subcommittee yesterday about the current status of government sponsored enterprises . While his prepared remarks primarily concerned the future condition and possible future of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, he touched briefly on another group regulated by FHFA, the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks). DeMarco said that the Banks’ assets have been in a decline since September 2008 and now stand at $937 billion. This was matched by a decrease in advance activity which now stands at $540 billion, 46 percent below the record levels of October 2008. The pace of the decline appears to be slowing but is still in stark contrast to the 2007 liquidity crisis when the FHLBanks increased advances to its members by 58…(read more)
The Obama Administration has announced the latest in a series of attempts to improve the financial literacy of the nation with a National Financial Capability Challenge to run concurrent with the 2010-11 school year. The Challenge is a voluntary classroom program to help educators teach high school students about saving, budgeting, credit and other skills critical to financial capability. This is the second year for the Challenge which last year attracted 76,000 students and 2,500 educators from all 50 states. The Administration is hoping to improve those numbers by 15 percent this year and has asked previous participants to become “ambassadors for financial education” and recruit additional teachers to participate. Teachers enrolled in the Challenge will be able to download a Teacher Toolkit…(read more)
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