My CA Mortgage

Talcott Franklin

kennys — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:13:52 +0000

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 trillion mortgage bond market has topped the key 25 percent threshold for voting rights on 2,300 ‘private-label’ mortgage bonds.” Reaching this level supposedly gives holders the means to identify misrepresentations in loans, and possibly force repurchases by banks. Individuals don’t have access to the information, but a large group may – so not only are Fannie & Freddie forcing buy backs, but now this group may be in a position to do the same. Talcott Franklin’s clients, per his press release, represent more than $500 billion in securities (private label) managed for pension funds, 401(k) plans, endowments, and governments.

-Rob Chrisman

www.robchrisman.com

Lowest Rates In 30 years!

kennys — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:08:06 +0000

Rates are currently the lowest they have been in thirty years! Now is the time to act on a loan!

Happy 4th!

kennys — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:37:15 +0000

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!

$75 Million Mansion

kennys — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:55:42 +0000

WINDERMERE, Fla. – The brochure promises a “monument to unparalleled success.”

The 90,000-square-foot home for sale outside Orlando has 23 bathrooms, 13 bedrooms, 10 kitchens and three pools. All that and more for $75 million “as is.”

The catch? It’s not finished.

Nicknamed “Versailles” by owner and timeshare tycoon David Siegel, the mansion hit the market recently as the largest home for sale in the United States. Construction was halted last year to save money in a recession that proved particularly hard on Siegel’s industry.

The home also has a 20-car garage, a bowling alley, an indoor-roller rink, a movie theater, a video arcade, a fitness center, a baseball field and two tennis courts.

But the mansion’s interior has no carpet, tile or interior walls.

-Yahoo News

Citi Adjusts Conventional Loans

kennys — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:05:52 +0000

For conventional loans, Citi’s policy around earnest money deposits has been rewritten to mirror Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy: “when an earnest money deposit is used as part of the borrower down payment it must come from the borrower’s own funds and the source of funds must be verified. Refer to the Manual for a list of acceptable forms of verifications.” Citi clarified its position on Texas first mortgage and non-equity loans, and VA refinance definitions (IRRRL’s, cash-out, and “other”). Its bulletin goes on to tweak/clarify/address Fannie’s LQI, underwriting for individuals employed in a family owned business, business funds, Texas and natural disaster appraisal requirements, income documentation (”All income used to qualify must be documented in the loan file wherever the underwriter’s rationale and reason supporting their loan decision is documented”), its “Appraiser Ineligible List”, and the required scrutiny of any new additional credit requests by borrowers.

-Rob Chrisman

www.robchrisman.com

Economy Slow Rise

kennys — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:09:56 +0000

Although it seems pretty quiet out there, and MBS trading volumes appear a shade below normal, there continues to be news that shows the US economy is still pretty weak. And, usually, a weak economy does not push rates higher (forgetting for a moment the size of our deficit and our reliance on foreign purchases of our debt…). There is no inflation, unemployment continues to plod along, and even the Philly Fed Index yesterday dropped. If we are staring at a double-dip scenario, why is the stock market hanging in there? Profits are better than expected due to cost cutting, temporary worker hiring has increased, and investors have to put their money somewhere, right? Of interest to note is that the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators rose 0.4% in May and last month’s decline was revised to flat from -0.1%. A slow recovery…

-Rob Chrisman

www.robchrisman.com

Changes to IO Loans

kennys — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:37:10 +0000

Bank of America’s correspondent clients should know that due to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changing their IO program and ARM qualification rates, BofA will do so as well. “Interest-only transactions no longer eligible for cash-out refinances, flexible mortgages, MyCommunityMortgage, investment properties, and two- to four-unit properties.”So now IO loans can only be made on 1-unit purchase and rate/term transactions, primary residences or second homes with a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) and CLTV of 70% and minimum credit score of 720, the borrower must have minimum reserves of 24 months.

-Rob Chrisman

www.robchrisman.com

FHA Amendments

kennys — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:08:08 +0000

From Washington DC: the House is taking up HR 5072, the FHA Reform Act. While it seems that mortgage industry organizations are in favor of the Act, which provides the FHA with resources to manage risk, there are a few amendments that are raising some eyebrows. The first is the Garrett Amendment, which raises the minimum FHA down payment to 5%. The second is the Price Amendment that would limit FHA’s market share to 10% of the housing finance market. Third, the Turner Amendment would reduce FHA’s loan limits, which were “temporarily” increased in 2008. Stay tuned… or call your Congressman ASAP.

-Rob Chrisman

www.robchrisman.com

Jobless Numbers Fall

kennys — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:22:16 +0000

A flood of temporary Census workers in May led to the biggest jump in jobs in ten years, the government reported Friday.

Employers added 431,000 jobs in the month, up from 290,000 jobs added in April. It was the biggest gain in jobs since March 2000.

But Census hiring was responsible for 411,000 of May’s increase in employment. Private sector employers also added 41,000 jobs in the period, well below the 218,000 private sector job gains in April. Government payrolls other than Census declined by 21,000 jobs in May, due largely to job cuts by state and local governments.

Despite the spike in hiring, the unemployment rate declined only modestly, to 9.7% from 9.9% in April. Economists had forecast it would

-CNN Money

Existing Home Sales Up

kennys — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:21:29 +0000

Yesterday morning NAR announced that Pending Existing Home Sales increased by 6% in April, its third gain in a row. A sample of 20% of transactions showed that sales were up 30% in the Northeast, up nicely in the West and Midwest, down a shade in the South. And compared to a year ago, sales were up 25%. Remember that these numbers measure housing sales contract activity – a signed contract is not counted as an actual existing home sale until the deal closes. A sale is listed as “pending” when a contract to purchase an existing home (single-family, condos, and co-ops) has been signed but the transaction has not closed. Combine that with the current demand for home loans falling and you have…confusion. But if the supply of mortgages is down, and demand is strong, look for mortgages to do well.

Regardless, rates moved higher, and prices worsened, after this number came out. Fortunately mortgages tightened, meaning that they did not do as poorly, but MBS volumes were still reported as “lower than normal”. Keep in mind that although current rates are in the high 4’s, most trading volume occurs in MBS’s made up of 5.25-6.125% mortgages – those are more liquid and easily tradable. The U.S. 30-year Treasury bond fell to a full point loss and 10-yr Notes were down about .75 in price and up to 3.34% in yield.

-Rob Chrisman