You know, here at HW, we remember the housing boom well.
In particular, we remember local community groups targeting lenders for 'redlining' because lower-income (read: less credit worthy) borrowers weren't getting a shot at participating in the "historic housing boom." We also remember how everyone looked to the Homeownership Preservation Foundation as a beacon for how foreclosure prevention should work, because GMAC went out of its way to partner with and help fund the nonprofit's...
Fannie Mae said today that it will file its annual report for 2007 this Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forecast? More losses.
HW will cover it as soon as it's out.
Are we the only ones that have noticed that the NAR's president is named Richard Gaylord? He's even managed to take up some common short-hand for other famous Richards out there -- like Richard Nixon, for example, who was known famously as 'Tricky Dick.'
(We're tempted to call Gaylord the NAR's chief Dick, but that might be crossing some sort of...
The powers that be here at HW have been busy focusing on getting a new Web site launched today (you'll see it starting this weekend). But market rumors keep moving around, with the craziest being that Bank of America is looking to buy UBS. We're not kidding.
Just read the speculation over at FT Alphaville. Sounds as if they're as cynical as we are here in the HW...
Some sources are suggesting -- and National Mortgage News reported on the rumors Thursday -- that HUD is expected to issue new loan limits for 'conforming jumbos' on March 7.
Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, touting its Cyberhomes.com property information Web site, put out a press statement Wednesday discussing an analysis of the home values for lead and supporting actor and actress Oscar nominees. Tommy Lee Jones was the winner, and we'd hope the winning streak stops there; Daniel Day Lewis deserves the trophy in 2008.
Harvard profession Martin Feldstein says the Fed can't use monetary policy to affect the current economic climate, meaning any recession will likely be a protracted event for the U.S. economy.
Accrued Interest, a blog written by a bond trader, notes that Ambac doesn't really have much choice but to break itself up -- as painful as the process will inevitably be.
Subprime is a verb now, according to some lingual studies. So we're using it to describe what's taking place in Vallejo, Calif., which may become the first California city to go BK.
Housing Wire gets a nod from Tim Annett at the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog for an earlier story on credit unions and subprime lending.
