My CA Mortgage

Economy is sluggish and rates are improving off bad press and number.  Government is projecting slower than expected growth.

The “scheduled economic news week” ended yesterday with Jobless Claims (showing a decline, which helped stocks), the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (which declined due to slower growth, which would help bond yields), and Existing Home Sales (decreased 0.8% in April, with a revision downward in March). The worse-than-expected number reminded us that that, overall, the [...]

A hockey coach once said, “Last year we couldn’t win at home and we were losing on the road. My failure as a coach was that I couldn’t think of anyplace else to play.” Where else are people going to bank? Before the financial crisis, the banking industry was too concentrated and clubby. Now, many [...]

There will be no civil fraud trial for Angelo Mozilo. On Friday he agreed to settle fraud charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a fine of $67.5 million. It is the highest fine ever for an executive of a public company, although critics are quick to point out that in 2007 [...]

This news just flashed across my terminal:
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WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – As many as 30 million U.S. homeowners would be able to refinance their mortgage at record low interest rates regardless of their income, credit history or loan-to-value ratio under a plan to be unveiled on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.
The legislation would allow for [...]

Credit unions, who usually don’t make headline news, certainly received some press late last week. The National Credit Union Administration & regulators seized three undercapitalized wholesale credit unions Friday, but the credit union industry, not taxpayers, will bear the cost, estimated at more than $7 billion, of the new conservatorships. (Wholesale CU’s deal with other [...]

In a few weeks the FHA will offer a new reverse mortgage option with much lower up-front fees than its current version but with lower borrowing amounts (10-20%). The annual FHA mortgage insurance premium will be the same for both the standard and saver versions, which allow borrowers 62 years or older to borrow against [...]

Larry Summers quit as economic advisor in the Obama Administration – the third high-level member of Obama’s economic team to leave in recent months (after budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers) This leaves Treasury Secretary Geithner would be the only one of Obama’s top-tier economic advisers to [...]

Who is Talcott Franklin? He’s the world’s next zillionaire, that’s who. Talcott is an attorney in Dallas who apparently is spearheading an effort to group together mortgage bond investors to gain power to challenge loan servicers over losses the investors claim resulted from violations in securities contracts. “A group holding a third of the $1.5 [...]