When New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pounced on Wells Fargo and Bank of America for allegedly violating terms of the $25 billion national mortgage servicing settlement, it became clear the mortgage finance system is perennially buried in quicksand – and no one is committed to its long-term rescue.
Every...
A single Bank of America shareholder suggested that it might not be such a bad idea for the bank to put together an independent review system for its mortgage servicing operations.
It's no surprise that Josh Zinner would do so at the company's annual shareholders meeting.
After all, he is with the community advocacy group Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project.
"As a...
Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller housing index jumped 9.3% in February—the most in seven years—but before you get too excited, there are a few key points to be mindful of when it comes to the housing market.
On Friday, May 10th, the FOX Business Network will host a day-long special on the U.S. housing market and its prospects...
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night applied its unique brand of comical genius to a public/private sector takedown of certain elements of the national foreclosure settlement.
In true fashion, Stewart and his team didn't pull any punches. The Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems is "is like a key party, but instead of f**king your wife, they lose track of the deed to your house," Stewart said.
Ouch.
But he saved the real vitriol for the...
James Hagerty of the Wall Street Journal hosted a session on the future of America’s mortgage market this week at the MBA Secondary Conference in New York.
The title of the session and the majority of the discussion assumes in some way that the mortgage market needs to be different than it is today. This leads me to wonder: Does the mortgage market need to be fixed and if so what still needs to be fixed?
We are all well aware of the extent to which GSEs...
The housing market went through a whirlwind of a transformation after it crashed in 2008.
The subprime market went too far and too many borrowers qualified for inflated or risky mortgages. But times have changed and the housing market is getting back into shape.
The only problem is now that housing is under control, America is starting to focus on a new problem that has been gaining traction—student debt.
Education debt is out of control, and young adults are finishing...
In the early 1930s, America was astounded and appalled by renowned criminals Bonne Parker and Clyde Barrow. The two out-laws were infamous for their bank robberies during the Great Depression.
Fast forward almost a century, and banks have to worry a lot less about modern Bonnie and Clydes. Instead, their greatest looming threats have gone underground into the vast depths of the Internet and cyberspace.
What would Bonnie and Clyde have to say about that I wonder?
...
The latest CoreLogic home price index jumped a whopping 10.5% nationally, but analysts say values are still far away from creating a housing bubble.
This change represents the biggest year-over-year increase since March 2006 and the 13th consecutive monthly increase in home prices nationally, CoreLogic ($27.65 0.39%) said in a press...
This week at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary conference there was a panel entitled "The Role of Rating Agencies and the Re-emergence of the Private Label RMBS Market".
As I sat down to listen to the discussion I was reminded of what Albert Einstein has said "insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results".
Will the RMBS investment community do the same thing again and rely on ratings to...
It seems government officials do have a plan to fix homeowners in trouble, but you would never know it since they are piecemealing the initiative together one silent step at a time.
The big news this week was President Obama’s pick of Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., to replace Ed DeMarco as FHFA director.
It’s no secret that Rep. Watt favors principal reductions, an issue that...
