In order to help consumers make wise home buying decisions and save the housing market from collapse, the Federal Reserve Board released its “5 Tips for Shopping for a Mortgage.”
On Wednesday.
It’s kind of like installing the fire extinguisher when your house is a smoldering pile of rubble. And, yes, the pun is intended. So without further ado, the Five Tips for Shopping for a Mortgage We All Should Have Paid Attention To A Few Years Ago.
One: Know what you can afford. What? You mean I can’t afford a $500,000 town home on a waiter’s salary?
Two: Shop Around – Compare Loans from Lenders and Brokers. The tip reads, “Neither lenders nor brokers have to find the best loan for you.”
Three: Understand Loan Prices and Fees. Or, you can just sign your name. No one can make out all the... more»
It is a match made in bailout heaven: The struggling housing market and the dying automotive industry. The long-lost lovers found each other in…Winter Park, Florida?
The developer of The Sage at Winter Park, a community in the suburbs of Orlando, plays matchmaker to the two industries by offering a free 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt to anyone who purchases a town home. A typical two-bedroom, two-bath model at The Sage — called the “Basil” (throw some oregano in there and you’ve got an herb garden, too) — goes for about $199,900, according to a corporate release.
“So we’re giving away a new car free. Now our buyers will have a brand new, energy efficient car to put in their brand new garage at their new green certified town home condominium,” says Ian McCook,... more»
HousingWire attended the SourceMedia Best Practices in Loss Mitigation Conference, in Dallas this week and actually didn’t make it to a single panel. This was due mainly to being pulled aside for a series of discussions with market players who are either completely new to the space, or veterans to loss mitigation. In between these meetings, readers of HousingWire used the opportunity to get inside the editor’s head.
Needless to say many of the surreal comments they made got into mine.
Here is a sample, all off the record of course, of some of the more interesting quotables:
“When we finally made it out to view the property, it wasn’t there. It was an empty lot worth maybe $200,000 set among $4.5m homes. Of course that didn’t stop the owner from selling the “house”... more»
The Watergate Hotel, a Washington, DC landmark brought to international prominence by the 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters — which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon — is on the auction block.
Owner Monument Realty defaulted on its loan for the building, and a 30-day city notice of foreclosure that expired Thursday lists a $40m outstanding balance.
The Watergate Hotel has seen better days. It’s been closed since 2004, and while Monument fought with neighbors over its original plans to convert the building into luxury co-ops — a fight Monument ultimately lost, leaving the firm resigned to redevelop the site as a hotel —partner and equity investor Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and the recession hit, putting the project... more»
Imagine the pilot episode:
Ty Pennington surprises a tearful family in their recently renovated home while a voice-over fills in the audience: The Smith family was in dire straights when the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team re-did their run-down 1970s home, unintentionally jacking up property taxes and pushing utility bills through the roof. Now the “Extreme Makeover: Mortgage Edition” team is going to step in to relieve them of some of the financial burden.
The show could even team up with national servicers and government-sponsored entities to promote the use of Home Affordable modifications and refinancings.
That is, of course, if there’s a mortgage still attached. Some of the families featured on the shows enjoy the charity of local communities that band... more»
It would make for an interesting episode of “Judge Judy.”
Wells Fargo (WFC: 27.87 -1.59%), the holder of both first and second mortgages on a Florida condominium, finds itself in an unusual position in a lawsuit over a foreclosure dispute: as both the plaintiff and defendant.
It’s a bit of news sweeping the financial blogs that sheds some light on the absurdity of some legal proceedings in the financial market.
Procedure requires that Wells Fargo, acting as first lien holder, sue all second lien holders in the case — which, of course, includes itself. And you’d better believe Wells Fargo intends to defend itself vigorously against all of its own claims.
The banking giant hired an attorney to represent its interests as first lien holder,... more»
Well, we did push for simpler explanations.
The Bank of England is creating more money in an effort to increase spending. And Great Britain’s Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy, Charlie Bean, wants to make sure the public understands this process by undertaking a seven-day tour ending on Monday across different parts of England, Scotland and Wales.
He is also distributing perhaps the most powerful tool of information dissemination known to man: the pamphlet.
The Bank’s pamphlet explains (excuse the bait-and-switch) that no new money will actually be printed. Ouch!
“Instead, the bank buys assets from private sector institutions (didn’t Ministers of Parliament sound out on the BBC that such programs aren’t working?) and credits the seller’s bank account,”... more»
Seven minutes. A keyboard, a bowl of cereal and $100. That’s all a buyer needs to have a shot at a discounted condo on iBidcondo.com.
On July 27th, an online auction will open for a sleek condominium in the Beat condos on the south side of Dallas, TX. A seat at the eBay-like auction room costs $100, but the last property went for $86,840. The winner probably fell out of his or her computer chair, because the Austin condo was valued at $690,000.
So, who’s crazy enough to let a property go for a fraction of the valued price?
Developers approached iBid founder Eugene Marchese, a developer himself until the banks cut off his funding. He put his remaining property online, charged seat fees, sold the condos at a fraction of the price and kept the seat sales.
The actual money from the sale goes... more»
Freddie Mac, in its role as administrator of the federal government’s Making Home Affordable program, created a YouTube video advising home owners on the documents needed to effectively negotiate a mortgage modification.
In the two-minute video, Freddie Mac suggests borrowers prepare a variety of documents to make calls with mortgage modification agents more efficient, including:
- Most recent mortgage statement
- Pay stubs or other documents showing household’s monthly pre-tax income
- Most recent tax return
- Second loan or home equity line of credit statements
- Account balances and minimum monthly payments on credit cards, car loans, student loans or other debt
- A short, concise description of the financial hardship that is causing - or leading to - a mortgage delinquency
While... more»
From all the coverage of distressed properties, distressed sales and real estate-owned auctioneers, the consensus has emerged that distressed servicing is hot business.
Nowhere will that idea be clearer than down in scenic Austin, Texas this November at the launch of Distressed Servicing 2009 — HousingWire’s first-ever hosted event. But just like our news coverage, the discussion is exclusive (at least, it’s by invitation only, so act quickly and request an invitation).
HousingWire hosts the discussion on the globalization of mortgage markets along with EuroCatalyst and EuropeServicing, whose events for the last seven years have rocked the European market (now we can officially say our managing editor Jacob Gaffney isn’t the only good thing we’ve brought out of... more»
