My CA Mortgage

All investors (Citi, Chase, BofA, Flagstar, etc., etc.) are reminding their clients that, as a result of January’s FHA’s Mortgagee Letter 2010-02, the Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium (UFMIP) will increase to 2.25% effective for all case number assigned on or after Monday, April 5, 2010. This applies to FHA purchase transactions and all refinance transactions [...]

We have less than a week until the end of the Federal Reserve’s purchase program of mortgage-related debt. Eyes are on the difference between mortgage and Treasury rates – remember that yesterday ALL rates rose. But there appears to be a continued belief that even without the Fed there will be enough investors in mortgage-backed [...]

As California goes, so goes the nation? Yesterday Realtors (with a capital “R”) released February sales data showing that the median (half above, half below) house price to $279,840, due in part to increased demand from using the tax credit, and that the prices are 14% above where they were a year ago. Overall, however, [...]

…Last week the Fed purchased $10 billion net in agency MBS’s, hitting the $1.236 trillion mark. Fannie Mae released more details of the delinquent loans it will be purchasing out of pools. Almost all 6.5% and higher coupon delinquent loans will be bought out in March. Almost all 6.0% coupon buyouts will happen in April, [...]

…there are many that believe that mortgage rates will indeed increase relative to Treasury rates. One argument, of course, is that the market has become complacent around the artificially low rates and low spread volatility. The bulk of its purchases have been in 4.5% securities, containing current coupon mortgages, roughly matching current production. Obviously traders [...]

Introduced by Joseph Crowley, a six-term Democratic congressman representing parts of New York City’s Queens and Bronx boroughs, the Real Estate Revitalization Act of 2010 would eliminate certain taxes that were part of the Foreign Investment Real Estate Property Tax of 1980, or FIRPTA — which requires foreign investors to pay as much as a [...]

Rob Chrisman Says:
I am going to go out on a limb here, which is rare for me, and suggest that the consultants, market gurus, bloggers, paid services, etc., who firmly believe that mortgage rates are going to go up 50 basis points after March 31st are wrong. If NASA told you that it was certain [...]

If 2008 and 2009 were known as companies going out of business and tightening underwriting guidelines, 2010 runs the risk of being the year of buy backs. Everything points to FNMA & FHLMC putting back loans in mammoth proportions to investors, who in turn will look to the smaller originators for remuneration. Let’s hope that smaller lenders [...]

Obviously the end of the Fed’s purchase program is coming to an end in a matter of weeks – but maybe mortgage rates won’t skyrocket. Once should keep in mind, however, that every estimate out there points to a mortgage origination market that is 40-50% less than 2009’s, so there is some hope that supply [...]

The market has twenty trading sessions before the cessation of the MBS purchase program. Traders believe that mortgage rates should increase, most noticeably in the lower coupon, current production area. At this point, besides the Fed, traders are not seeing much buying outside of some hedge funds and money managers for current coupon product. There [...]