Guaranty Mortgage

Radian Guaranty Inc. said it notified clients this week that it will no longer insure stated-income and stated-asset program. The change is effective on April 30. The move was a result of the poor performance of stated loans.

Rates and “all that mess”
House prices in 20 big metro areas fell 10.7 percent in the 12 months ending in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Knowing when to buy can save you big bucks.

FHA Firm Seeks Experienced Employees
Shore Mortgage announced it is seeking 100 new employees for its four locations throughout the Detroit area. Once filled, more than 400 people will work at the firm. Shore said it is “among the largest government guaranteed and insured mortgage originators locally in Michigan as well as nationwide.”

Branch Acquisition Binge Turns Sour
Shearson Financial Network Inc. announced Thursday it has temporarily discontinued all operations. The company said it is considering alternatives to its present business model. The dramatic downturn for Shearson, which has previously referred to itself as “a consolidator of independent mortgage brokerages,” follows two years of acquisitions and expansion.

Rates mixed after Fed cut
Mortgage rates are part of a complex system, in which a small change somewhere can result in a big change far away.

Faith, flat, foreclosures
Philadelphia wants a moratorium on foreclosures.

Mortgage Fraud Losses Could Top $10 Billion
During 2008, mortgage fraud losses are projected to reach $2.5 billion, according to a report announced from TowerGroup. “Comparable losses will continue for several years thereafter,” the research firm stated. TowerGroup cited a 10-year trend of rising fraud.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Using a cash back card to pay your taxes can be money in your pocket.

Philadelphia’s sheriff has decided to suspend sheriff sales for the month of April. The City Council today unanimously passed a resolution calling on the sheriff and the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas to enact a moratorium on sheriff’s sales, a legislative counsel for on of the city’s council members told MortgageDaily.com in a telephone interview. “The President Judge was already on board with all of this,” she said, adding that word came during the council meeting that the sheriff had decided to stop sales during April.

Price for Bear Stearns Likely to Rise
Those investors who insisted on buying or holding on to their Bear Stearns stock, keeping prices at near three times the $2 per share being offered by J.P. Morgan Chase appear to have been on to something. Read More Now

Calculate car’s value prior to trade-in
Before trading in a car, make sure its value exceeds the loan amount, says Bankrate car columnist Terry Jackson.

Paying off loan can limit flexibility
The decision to pay off a loan can limit short-term financial flexibility, says Dr. Don Taylor

Mortgage Fraud Losses Could Top $10 Billion
During 2008, mortgage fraud losses are projected to reach $2.5 billion, according to a report announced from TowerGroup. “Comparable losses will continue for several years thereafter,” the research firm stated. TowerGroup cited a 10-year trend of rising fraud.

Why is Bear Stearns Trading Higher than the JP Morgan Offer Price?
If you have checked the trading price of Bear Stearns Company (BSC) stock in the four days since the company was sold to J.P. Morgan Chase for $2 per share in J.P. Morgan stock, you might well wonder why it is trading at more than twice the price J.P. Morgan is supposedly paying for it. Doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you follow the reasoning of some market players and a lot of Bear Stearns stockholders. A deal isn’t a deal until it is done. Read More Now

Home Prices Continue 5-Month Decline According to New Report
The Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI) for January which were released on Tuesday are reporting further bad news on the home value front. The HPI which tracks, in two different indices, 10 and 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the United States, reported that… Read More Now

Branch Acquisition Binge Turns Sour
Shearson Financial Network Inc. announced Thursday it has temporarily discontinued all operations. The company said it is considering alternatives to its present business model. The dramatic downturn for Shearson, which has previously referred to itself as “a consolidator of independent mortgage brokerages,” follows two years of acquisitions and expansion.

More than 450 jobs are being eliminated at JPMorgan Chase & Co., a spokesman told MortgageDaily.com. The job cuts are the result of falling home equity line-of-credit volume, he said. The layoffs are occurring in three states.

Refis Soar, Rates Ease
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5.9%, falling slightly from a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending March 27. In last week’s survey, the 30-year tumbled 0.26%. Refinance applications, fueled by the big drop in fixed rates last week, jumped 82% in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 21.

Rates do a face plant
The 30-year fixed has fallen about a quarter of a percentage point today.

Sinking Mortgage Company Gets Lifeline from Lenders
Thornburg Mortgage said that five lenders have agreed to a deal where no further margin calls will be made in return for its compliance with a laundry list of requirements. Thornburg will give the five lenders, Bear Stearns Cos., Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and UBS AG, warrants which they can exercise into 47 million shares of the company at… Read More Now

Some Good News Regarding Home Sales Comes in NAR Report
In what may be the first fluttering of a recovery in the housing market, sales of existing homes last month actually increased from January levels according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR.) NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said the increase is encouraging. “We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said. Read More Now

Rates and “all that mess”
House prices in 20 big metro areas fell 10.7 percent in the 12 months ending in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index.

Maine Lender Shutting Down
Downeast Mortgage Corp. is in the process of shutting down its operations. At one point, the business operated more than a dozen offices in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. “The company is unwinding, trying to shut down its operations, and doing it in an orderly fashion to make sure that customers in the pipeline are well taken care of and not left in the lurch,” a person with the company, speaking off-the-record, told MortgageDaily.com.

Volatility makes itself comfy
Another day, another example of this weird volatility we’ve been seeing lately. This morning, rates are falling — the 30-year fixed is down about an eighth of a point.

Mortgage Rates Lower on CPI, Retail Sales Data
Long term mortgage rates fell dramatically during the week ended March 20 according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac. Activity in the applications area was way up. Volume increased 48.1 percent on a… Read More Now

Rates take a dizzying fall
Mortgage rates are in an era of unprecedented volatility.

In what may be the first fluttering of a recovery in the housing market, sales of existing homes last month actually increased from January levels according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR.) NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun said the increase is encouraging. “We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said. Read More Now

Boom to Bust in 1 Month
On Feb. 8 Millennium Mortgage Corp. told MortgageDaily.com that it planned to add 150 sales employees during the first half of 2008. “We see an absolute need in this market for service oriented bankers with the ability to promote the full assortment of product currently available in this marketplace,” Millennium’s president and chief executive officer Brent Platt said in a Feb. 4 announcement. But a message on its Web site still posted as of this week indicated it had halted wholesale business prior to March 12.

5 Steps to Better RMBS Performance
Moody’s Investors Service is looking for feedback to proposed enhancements to the securitization process, according to an announcement. The agency said the enhancements will improve transparency, data integrity and accountability. Among five proposed enhancements is stronger representations and warranties.

Sinking Mortgage Company Gets Lifeline from Lenders
Thornburg Mortgage said that five lenders have agreed to a deal where no further margin calls will be made in return for its compliance with a laundry list of requirements. Thornburg will give the five lenders, Bear Stearns Cos., Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and UBS AG, warrants which they can exercise into 47 million shares of the company at… Read More Now

Foreclosures, Negative Equity to Grow
There were about 1.5 million foreclosures started last year, and that number could possibly rise to as much as two million in 2008, Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson Jr. said today. He made his comments to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today, according to a transcript of his prepared speech. Paulson said we can also expect the number of households with a negative equity to climb from the current estimate of 8.8 million, as it is a more common occurrence in a housing crisis.

Those investors who insisted on buying or holding on to their Bear Stearns stock, keeping prices at near three times the $2 per share being offered by J.P. Morgan Chase appear to have been on to something. Read More Now

Subprime Financing for Jumbo Lender
Thornburg Mortgage Inc. announced it will commence a private placement of up to $1.35 billion in senior subordinated secured notes. The interest rate on the on the notes is 18 percent, though the rate will drop to 12 percent if Thornburg meets certain conditions, the statement said. Those conditions, however, were not disclosed.

BlackRock Inc. and Highfields Capital Management announced they have sponsored the launch of Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company LLC. The two companies will serve as strategic partners and give the new firm access to global financial institutions. BlackRock said it managed $1.4 trillion in assets as of Dec. 31, while Highfields reports it has more than $11 billion invested internationally, including $2 billion in mortgage and real estate securities.

Who owns mineral rights?
Discovery of natural gas in north Texas a boon to landowners looking to do “bidness,” says the Real Estate Adviser.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Packaging snacks for her kids helps our winner save a bundle.

Use DIY method of extra loan payments
The DIY approach is best when making extra mortgage payments, says Dr. Don Taylor.

Deducting student loan interest
Interest you’re paying on a college loan could help cut your tax bill.

Your mortgage won’t go belly up even if the company that holds it fails, says Dr. Don Taylor.

Rates take a dizzying fall
Mortgage rates are in an era of unprecedented volatility.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Knowing when to buy can save you big bucks.

Rates mixed after Fed cut
Mortgage rates are part of a complex system, in which a small change somewhere can result in a big change far away.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
A cash-back credit card might make more sense than a rewards card.

Volatility makes itself comfy
Another day, another example of this weird volatility we’ve been seeing lately. This morning, rates are falling — the 30-year fixed is down about an eighth of a point.

Rates do a face plant
The 30-year fixed has fallen about a quarter of a percentage point today.

New good faith estimate
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, wants to make it easy to comparison-shop mortgage offers and it wants to reduce those nasty, costly surprises at the closing table.

Top 10 deeply discounted 2008 cars
Desperate dealers are offering bargains on the following 10 cars, says Bankrate car columnist Terry Jackson.

Housing starts and the pulling of construction permits continued to decline in February according to a monthly report issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The only region of the country where permitting was up month-over- month was in the west where it increased… Read More Now

Most Mortgage Rates Increase During Wild Week in Financial Markets
“Average mortgage rates were up for all loan products reported,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “However, for the first 11 weeks so far this year, the average 30-year fixed rate is still below 5.9 percent, and the average 30-year rate in January was the lowest since July 2005. “The combination of lower house prices and lower mortgage rates contributed to a more affordable market for homebuyers. Read More Now

Deducting student loan interest
Interest you’re paying on a college loan could help cut your tax bill.

YSP Clarification
Due to some feedback from our article on the new GFE and YSP, we wanted to try and clarify things. Let’s preface “mild correction” by admitting that there are fewer more hotly contested debates among compliance gurus than disclosure of PFC’s and YSP. After working over the years with numerous people who I consider highly educated regarding compliance… Read More Now

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Packaging snacks for her kids helps our winner save a bundle.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, wants to make it easy to comparison-shop mortgage offers and it wants to reduce those nasty, costly surprises at the closing table.

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
A cash-back credit card might make more sense than a rewards card.

Volatility makes itself comfy
Another day, another example of this weird volatility we’ve been seeing lately. This morning, rates are falling — the 30-year fixed is down about an eighth of a point.

Commercial Mortgage Deals Arranged
Babson Capital Management LLC funded a first mortgage of $60.0 million with a fixed rate of 5.53 percent for Parkway Properties Inc. for its new Citicorp Plaza. Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. closed a $70.8 million fixed-rate, ten-year construction loan for its development of Paradise Village, a senior housing project in National City, Calif. Great Wolf Resorts Inc. closed a $55.0 million mortgage loan from Citigroup.

LOS Enhancements
The NetOxygen loan origination system now handles reverse mortgage loans, an announcement said. Guardian Mortgage Documents said it is developing an interphase for the PowerLender LOS. Product search and pricing engine LoanSifter has been integrated into the MortgageDashboard.

OFHEO announced a major initiative in cooperation with the two government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to increase, by perhaps as much as $200 billion, the liquidity of the mortgage- backed securities market. This reduction combined with the increase of the portfolio caps announced last month should allow Freddie and Fannie to purchase or guarantee about $2 trillion in mortgages this year. This capacity should allow them to… Read More Now

Big Losses for PMI Company and HR Block Unloads Option One
PMI Group reported a record loss of $1.01 billion or $12.51 a share for the fourth quarter of 2007. The losses were tied both to the growing rate of foreclosures which cost PMI negative income of $236 million in its U.S. mortgage insurance operations. In other mortgage news, Option One Mortgage Corporation, a division of H&R Block, has been sold to Wilbur Ross for an estimated $1 billion. Ross is known as a distressed asset investor who has, in recent months, agreed to acquire $42 billion in mortgage servicing rights from… Read More Now

Deducting student loan interest
Interest you’re paying on a college loan could help cut your tax bill.

Rates do a face plant
The 30-year fixed has fallen about a quarter of a percentage point today.

YSP Clarification
Due to some feedback from our article on the new GFE and YSP, we wanted to try and clarify things. Let’s preface “mild correction” by admitting that there are fewer more hotly contested debates among compliance gurus than disclosure of PFC’s and YSP. After working over the years with numerous people who I consider highly educated regarding compliance… Read More Now

HUD Introduces New Good Faith Estimate and Proposes Other Changes to RESPA
On Friday HUD released a proposed mortgage reform package designed to help consumers better understand the terms of the loans they are considering and offering guidelines for shopping for different products. The changes, if enacted, will reform the 30-year old Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). One feature of The Good Faith Estimate is not going to make lenders and brokers happy. Changes to YSP disclosure…. Read More Now

Paulson Releases Presidential Working Group Recommendations
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. Thursday released recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG.) To address the current financial situation and to guard against a repeat in future years the PWG made six broad recommendations: Read More Now

New good faith estimate
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, wants to make it easy to comparison-shop mortgage offers and it wants to reduce those nasty, costly surprises at the closing table.

Stockholders Socked as J.P. Morgan Acquires Bear Stearns in Weekend Rescue
The news wasn’t surprising but the price tag was a real stunner. On Sunday J.P. Morgan chase agreed to pay $2 per share to acquire failing Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns, lock, stock, and barrel. And the purchase price, by the way, will be paid entirely in stock and includes purchase of the company’s 45 story New York office tower… Read More Now

A Frugal shopper’s best tip
Using a cash back card to pay your taxes can be money in your pocket.