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Will the Financial Rescue Plan Directly Help Distressed Homeowners?

The country is in crisis and a financial rescue plan has been proposed.  It is currently in the process of being scrutinized and negotiated on Capitol Hill. The primary objective of this plan is to serve as a significant springboard to pull us out of the current financial hardship the country is facing. The positive effects, once the plan has been implemented, should trickle down into the housing crisis and consequently help homeowners who are facing or certain to face a housing crisis of their own.  But, will the plan have this desired result and directly address the needs of those homeowners? Most Americans are unclear as to how this plan will help their bottom line. 

At Loan Mitigation Advocates^sm, we believe that the central issue with the current financial crisis is Read more

Have Prices Reached the Bottom in Housing?

Part of our daily life at Loan Mitigation Advocates^sm is to bring you relevant stories about the current real estate market, loan modification news and the mortgage industry. After scanning a number of the national financial news websites, we discovered an interesting article from CNBC on Why Housing Prices Have Hit the Bottom.  The article talks specifically about the well-known Prof. Karl Case of the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of home prices.

Prof. Case has made the claim that his index points to the bottom in terms of prices. The index measures prices in the top ten and top twenty U.S. markets as well as a new national index. In the article, Case makes the point that nine, of the top twenty markets, have been steadily improving over the last few months. Another factor is that affordability, that is the relationship between income and home price, is approaching a level that we’ve seen before at the end of other housing recessions.

Mortgage Rate Update Ending 09/12/08

Bankrate.com conducts a weekly national survey on the interest rates for the five most common consumer banking products.  Here’s this week’s outcome:

• 30 Year Fixed Rate: 6.15 percent with points averaging: 0.43
• 30 Year Fixed Rate Jumbo: 7.41 percent
• 15 Year Fixed Rate: 5.81 percent
• 5/1 ARM (Adjustable): 6.08 percent
• 1 Year ARM (Adjustable): 6.37

Overall, mortgage rates across the board significantly dropped this week. The takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by the federal government, is likely the item responsible for the sharp decline in this week’s rates.

In other news, mortgage applications increased 9.5 percent from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

California Mortgage Lenders Show Greater Willingness to Mitigate Loans

For the month of July, California mortgage lenders completed 12,657 loan modifications according to the state Department of Corporations.

This was a significant increase over the last few months. The July statistics are up about 17 percent from June and more than double the number since the beginning of the year. The statistics are based on 10 lenders that are reporting to the state regarding their transactions.

It has clearly taken some time for lenders to get on board with the option of performing loan modifications.  This latest data supports that a shift is occurring in the industry and it is only a matter of time before the majority of lenders are actively participating in loan mitigation.